The Joy of Golf: Ian Poulter causes more Ryder Cup agony for USA

Joy Chakravarty 08:24 30/10/2014
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  • Embarrassing the Americans again: Ian Poulter.

    Ian Poulter seems to have widened his area of influence when it comes to the Ryder Cup. Not happy with making a mockery of the American sides these last few years, he has now taken down the president of the PGA of America – and he did not even have to wield his clubs this time.

    The Ted Bishop saga has been the talk of the golfing world this past week. Following his astonishing reaction to excerpts from Poulter’s new book ‘No Limits’, where the Englishman criticised Nick Faldo for calling Sergio Garcia “useless” on air and the captaincy of Tom Watson during this year’s Ryder Cup, Bishop was thrown out from his position of the president of the PGA of America.

    It wasn’t that he simply waded into Poulter, but the fact that he called him a ‘Lil Girl’ and then a ‘little school girl squealing during recess’. Those were viewed as sexist comments, and that led to the voting where all 21 members of the PGA Board of Directors voted against him.

    Poulter thankfully kept a dignified silence during the whole issue, and I am sure he’d be delighted with the free promotion he received for his book.

    Of all the players reacting to the issue, I thought Padraig Harrington summed it up best when he said: “I’m quite sure Ian Poulter has been called a little girl plenty of times in his life and he has retorted. But clearly Ted Bishop is in an important position and you have to be careful what you tweet when you are in that position.

    “It was a bit of banter, that goes on in the locker room all the time. This is the problem with Twitter. When things are not said face to face, they get blown up.”

    I thought the punishment was too severe, especially after Bishop publicly apologised for his gaffe.

    Poulter knows as much as Bishop about the perils of social media outbursts, and this is just another stark reminder why great caution needs to be exercised with platforms such as Twitter.

    Pace is just right 

    The South African influence on the PGA Tour is pretty well known. Following in the footsteps of the nine-time major champion Gary Player, there have been a slew of golfers from the Rainbow Nation who have not only done well on the European and PGA Tours, but also won several majors.

    So it was a matter of some concern that none of the South African ladies could make any impact beyond a few wins on the Ladies European Tour.

    But finally, after a long wait of 26 years, they now have a champion on the LPGA Tour with 33-year-old Lee-Anne Pace winning the Blue Bay LPGA on Monday.

    Pace has been in fine form lately, having won the South African Women’s Open the week before for her ninth LET victory, but the Blue Bay LPGA triumph is easily her biggest achievement till date. Pace became only the second South African-born champion on the LPGA Tour. It was way back in 1988 that the legendary Sally Little won her 15th LPGA Tour event.

    Garcia’s double standards
    I am generally not the one to comment on a player’s schedule because a lot of things go into choosing which tournaments they want to play – and that includes comfort of travel, playing on courses they like, tying dates with demands of their personal sponsors, and of course, appearance fees on this side of the Atlantic.

    But I was a bit disappointed to see Sergio Garcia playing four continuous weeks from now on. Of course, I love seeing him play, but after all the noise he made about the European Tour’s Final Series regulation last year, and the fact he did not play the DP World Tour Championship, it seems strange that he decided to play all four weeks this year.

    My point is, if he was going to do that, it would have looked much better if he played in the BMW Masters on the European Tour this week rather than the CIMB Classic on the PGA Tour.

    Flavour of the Month
    It’s got to be Asia. We all know how important the continent has become for the future well-being of most sports, but nothing will prepare you for a fortnight like this if you are a golf fan.

    For the next two weeks, the PGA Tour, the European Tour and the LPGA Tour – the three biggest golf tours of the world – are all in Asia.

    The PGA Tour is in Malaysia for the CIMB Classic, followed by the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. The European Tour is in Shanghai for the BMW Masters, and will then remain in the city for the HSBC tournament. And the LPGA Tour is in the midst of a six-event Asian Swing, and will be playing the LPGA Taiwan Championship, followed by the Mizuno Classic in Japan.

    Stat of the Week
    63 – Lowest career round by Robert Streb on the PGA Tour in the fourth round of the McGladrey Classic last week, which helped him make it to a playoff and win his maiden PGA Tour title.

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