Changing spikes to spiked hair, Poulter has found his way
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
INNISBROOK, Fla. -- When Ian Poulter began working in the pro shop at Leighton Buzzard when he was a teenager, he was a 4 handicap.
Poulter may not have imagined himself as the No. 5 player in the world that he is today but he had big dreams. He now admits he was naïve. He didn't realize that he was taking a more unconventional path than most.
"I just watched golf on TV, and I was working in a pro shop and I thought that was how most of the guys done it," Pouler said. "... I didn't read too many books or magazines to find out that all of the guys went to college and university in the States, while my school grades weren't good enough to get me over there in the first place.
"...There was a golf club five miles from my house and I wanted to go and earn some money to pay bills and buy myself a couple of new shoes, and I felt that if I worked hard, I could be on TOUR one day."
Poulter spent seven years working in that shop before making the European Tour. He brewed tea for the members in the morning and collected their greens fees before they went out to get their trollies. He picked up a little extra cash re-gripping clubs and switching out really well-worn spikes.
"Nice, sweaty three-year-old stinking shoes you that you put your hands in to take out the spikes that they should have changed 2 1/2 years previous but they hadn't and so you had to drill them out," recalled Poulter, who is playing in the Transitions Championship this week for the first time.
"It was quite nice. Real rusted. You know the ones. Actually, three years is kind of generous. It might have been 23-year-old shoes that I changed."
Poulter has come a long, long way. He earned $1.4 million when he won the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship last month. But the colorful Brit, who now has his own clothing line, vividly remembers his first paycheck as a playing professional.
He was 19, and Poulter shot 66-66 to win the Penzana Classic. His prize was £1,500 and was enough for Poulter to buy a "nice, blue rust bucket" of a Ford Fiesta XR2. He still has a photo of the car on his cell phone.
"(The first prize) was six, seven weeks wages, so I figured two days work, it was kind of nice, compared to doing six or seven weeks in the pro shop," Poulter said. "So I figured I better get out of the shop a bit more."
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Kenny Perry might be expected to have mixed emotions as he heads back to Augusta National this year. The veteran from Kentucky held a two-stroke lead with two holes remaining in last year's Masters only bogey in and lose to Angel Cabrera in a playoff.
"I wouldn't be human if I didn't have any emotion going back there," Perry said Wednesday. "But like I said in the past, I don't have any ill feelings about that deal. I don't have any sadness. My comment is I smile every time I think about Augusta.
"It was truly a remarkable week for me. It was a perfect week. It didn't end the way I wanted it to end, but yet, for 70 holes, I played flawless golf. I had a game plan, stuck to it, and it was perfect."
Just not on those last two holes. With the benefit of perspective, though, Perry can now afford to be philosophical.
"I had my kids there, everybody was there," he said. "It was just truly remarkable. ... Cinderella didn't get the slipper, but it was really a neat week. I'll go back and look back. How can you not reminisce?"
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Perry would be the first to tell you that he doesn't have the same kind of confidence he's had the last few years, though.
More than some players, he's struggled to get comfortable with the grooves change. Perry also broke his beloved PING Craz-E putter at Kapalua earlier this year when the putter head spun around 360 degrees and separated from the shaft after he hit a practice putt 5 minutes before he teed off.
"It's really been a pain," Perry said. "It's really been very frustrating to go from a putter you've loved and had all the success with it and you can't use it."
Perry has been working with the folks at PING to get one that has the same feel. He said they've probably made him 15 different putters, but he thinks they are finally getting closer to finding one that's right.
"Each head feels differently as the ball comes off the face," Perry explained. "Some are a little hotter, some are a little softer. ... And I can feel it and I can hear it. They sound different off the putter.
"We are getting closer, so they are going to re-shaft my old putter and make me two more like it and send it to Bay Hill on Monday. I have one now and I think it's okay. I wouldn't say it's perfect, but it will get me through the week. ...
"My other putter, where I was looking, that's where the ball went. That's what was so neat about my putter. I kind of aim a little right and pull across it, but it would always start on line. Well, now I'm aiming it and the ball is starting left every time, left of where I think I'm aiming. ... My other putter was probably a little more open than what I've gotten."
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