What they said: Ian Poulter

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Q. This has been coming for some time, hasn't it, this good play? When did it begin?

IAN POULTER: I think encouraging signs first started down in Australia. I felt I left an awful lot of golf shots out on the golf course that week, and I've been -- I've played one week on, one week off, one week on, one week off, up until just after the Masters. So it's been kind of hard to get into a routine when you're playing one on and one off. But my game has been in shape since then. I've just felt it's a matter of time.

I've played, this is going to be my third week in a row, and it's nice that I have only played seven tournaments coming into this week, so I feel fresh.

We've changed the putter two weeks ago to something that comes off a bit slower. The greens have been very, very quick the last couple weeks. I just feel good. I'm rolling the ball at the hole, and I'm managing to find the back of the hole.

Q. 27 putts today, I think.

IAN POULTER: 26, 27 putts. The only disappointing thing today was the par-5s.

Q. I watched you on 9. What happened there?

IAN POULTER: You know, these great scoreboards are good at times and they're bad at others. Before I'm even playing my shot, before I've even pulled a club out of the bag, a little statistic flashed up on the screen, and I don't like some of these stats because they're wrong, they're definitely, definitely wrong.

Q. Distance from the hole?

IAN POULTER: It said Ian Poulter from within 90 yards of the hole, I'm 184th on the rankings, and my average is 27.4 feet. So consequently, you know, I get distracted with what I'm reading on a board and I don't commit to the shot I should be committing to, and I hit a bad shot.

Those screens are great, but at times I just wish they weren't there. But that's my fault. I probably shouldn't have read it, and I probably shouldn't have taken much notice of it, really, to be honest. But that's frustrating. Par-5s like that where I'm 82 yards out, easy pin location, want to be making 4 and make 6. I feel like I've given two shots away there.

Q. Especially when you had a very good chip on the previous hole. You were 62 yards and four inches or something.

IAN POULTER: Yeah, I hit a poor shot. That hole has always been a hole that's never really been my friend, to be honest, over the course of playing this golf course. I've always struggled with it, and there's no reason for it. It's a nice 4-iron today, I just hit it heavy, and it obviously went out to the right. So that was a good up-and-down.

Q. Can you talk about the closing three? They must have been very satisfying for you.

IAN POULTER: Great putt on the last. I had an in-between yardage on 18 after a perfect tee shot, 3-wood straight down the middle. It was in-between a 7-iron and an 8-iron, and with the way the grain is on the green and the ridge you've got to carry, I felt like hitting a solid 8 and draw it a good five yards to get a couple extra yards out there and feed it around to the pin. Of course I don't strike it quite how I want to and I hit it dead straight, missed the green right and made a great up-and-down.

16 if you hit a good tee shot, you should really be quite aggressive on that hole. I hit 5-wood. Luckily enough it stayed up. It was on the right edge of the green. It was a fairly easy up-and-down from there.

And then I hit a good wedge on 17 to about seven feet.

Q. What did you hit from the tee at 16?

IAN POULTER: I hit driver. Driver, 5-wood.

Transcript courtesy of ASAP Sports.