Poulter to a tee - Ian Poulter Interview

If clothes maketh the man, then Ian Poulter is one heck of a flash geezer. So what do no clothes maketh? Well, Poulter posed naked recently, save for a strategically placed pink golf bag (nice) for a photographic shoot, and the portraits maketh him one uber-confident dude. They also maketh him the butt (sorry) of endless wisecracks from his peers on practice grounds and in locker rooms around the world. And, let's face it, Poulter's sense of haute couture doesn't exactly make it easy for him to keep a low profile. Take that gold lamé shirt he sprayed on at the Johnnie Walker Classic in India. He looked like a Jaffa Cake.

Those infamous nudes made their shocking and hilarious debut at the Dubai Desert Classic at the end of January. Two months on and Lee Westwood is still poking fun at his Ryder Cup teammate. Talking about getting fitter and stronger. Westwood said his waist has shrunk from 40 inches to 34 inches and he is in the best shape of his life – “But not good enough for any naked shots in magazines though,” he laughed. Poor Poulter is going to have to be thick-skinned for an awfully long time and hope that some other fella does something daft, outrageous or controversial to take the heat.

“It's a bit different when you have your clothes off, isn't it?” Poulter said. Well, yes it is. “It would be a boring cover shot if I'm standing there in a pair of trousers and a T-shirt. It wouldn't have the same impact.” Well, no it wouldn't. “Doing stuff different is what I've done for the last eight years, so I actually thought it was quite nice, thank you,” Poulter said.

Fair enough, then, but you can still hear the sniggering at the back of the range.

Clearly it wasn't the photographs that annoyed, or even embarrassed Poulter. He claims he was misquoted when asked to predict tournament winners for the year ahead. He says it was taken out of context when he chose himself saying that he doesn't rate any other players and that when he plays to his potential, “it's just me and Tiger”. That statement also irritated the guys on the range because they thought Poulter was disrespecting them.

The newspapers picked up on this story and their bite-size headlines made Poulter look like “an attention seeking prat”, as he was described in the Guardian. Poulter was not best pleased. He may seem full of himself but he is a smart marketeer, successful at his job, and is certainly no prat. “Why should I turn around and say who else is going to win the golf tournament,” he says. “You're accepting defeat. I don't want to do that. Tiger is going to say himself, and other players, if they are going to answer the question honestly, should say themselves because they have got a chance. So why should I say anyone else apart from myself. It's not being disrespectful.”

The surprise is that Poulter's brashness shocks anyone at all these days. He's been making statements like this for years – bigging himself up, as he would say. When asked who he thinks will win a tournament, why on earth should he not pick himself? Far too many players accept defeat today before they even tee off.

Especially when Woods is playing. But not Poulter. “If I don't believe I can win, I might as well pack up my clubs and go home,” Poulter said about the Masters – four years ago, on his debut (er, he didn't win). “If I play as well as I can in tournaments that Tiger Woods plays in, I can beat him. I know that,” Poulter told me recently. So there he goes again. But Poulter is not so daft that he doesn't know his limits. “I am playing in an era where Tiger Woods is the best player in the world and probably the best ever. So I am not going to say I am going to get to No.1. I am 32 years old now and realistically I probably can't achieve the things he has done.”

Crikey, is that a chink in Poulter's seemingly indestructible confidence? Mind you, he did only say “probably”. “Tiger is a phenomenon. Just look at his win ratio and his world ranking points. And then look at how far he is ahead of No. 2. He is soooo far ahead. He's that good.”

Look deeper than the attention-grabbing flamboyance of Poulter's fashion statements like his Union Jack trousers, pink hats and spiky dyed blond hair. Look behind the golf bag of that naked photo-shoot (well, maybe not) and there stands a straight-talking, shy (no, really) son of a working-class family from Milton Keynes doing his damndest to get noticed and to make his mark in the world. And, so far, it's working.

In the past, Poulter has been accused of having more style than substance on the course and, when he turned up at the 2006 Open Championship wearing trousers festooned with images of the claret jug, Seve Ballesteros joked: “That's the closest he'll ever get to it.”

But Poulter is now showing signs that he not only has the chutzpah to look dapper on the world's fairways and greens, he also has the game to play nattily. He was one of only seven players in 2007 to make all four cuts in the majors (finishing 13th at the Masters), had five top-10s on the PGA Tour, four top-10s in Europe, and won his eighth title at the Dunlop Phoenix Open in Japan. Poulter has fought his way up the hard way – from selling T-shirts in a market stall to fund his golf, to working as an assistant club pro, to turning pro with only a four handicap, to thrusting himself into the world's top-25.

You would think that getting married and making a speech last October would have provided yet another perfect platform for golf's strutting peacock to be the centre of attention and to show off to an audience of admirers. But no, he admits it was the most nervous he has ever felt. More than playing the back nine at Augusta on Sunday, or the Open in a hoody, or the supercharged atmosphere of the Ryder Cup. “I wasn't born to make public speeches,” he says surprisingly. “I might look different on TV but it's nice to have a little barrier there. You know, I am still the same guy I was when I was working in a pro shop, and I have kept all my old friends. There were people at my wedding that I hadn't seen for years and they said that I hadn't changed a bit. That's nice to know.”

Except that Poulter now has career earnings of £9million, flies business class, and his new pal and regular pro-am partner at the Dunhill Links Championship, Dennis Hopper, flew in from Los Angeles to join the wedding celebrations at Woburn Abbey. “I had a normal upbringing,” Poulter says. “Hopefully I can now give back something to my mum and dad. And certainly give my kids little things that I never had. That's nobody's fault but that's just where we came from. It's nice to treat yourself when you succeed.”

You see, it's all just a big act. Behind all those brash ‘look at me' clothes, and his head-spinning statements, Poulter is a just a hard working family man– an ordinary bloke blessed with extraordinary talent. He's a likeable, approachable, polite, down-to-earth (and, yes, a little cocky) British sporting hero. He just likes to dress up (or get naked) and wax his hair rather a lot, that's all.

GI: Just what is it with you and fashion?
IP: I am just trying to express myself on the golf course. If that gets a following, that's great. And if kids can relate to that, even better. When I came out on tour in 2000, then there wasn't much fashion in golf. But if you feel good in what you wear, it will help you win.

GI: You must wish you had played in the 1970s.
IP: Look at all those old pictures of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Doug Sanders and Johnny Miller. They were wearing tartan trousers and bright colours, flat-fronted trousers, slightly bootlegged at the bottom, funky shoes with flaps, and shirts with big collars. It was a cool look. And it was fun. Why can't we get back to how it was back then?

GI: Do you see yourself, then, as the new Payne Stewart?
IP: Payne Stewart and his plus-fours and wearing a different outfit every day was cool. The game misses him. He was a character. And he could play, too. This sport needs characters, like John McEnroe was to tennis. Golf often gets criticised for being bland. Well, if you wear khaki trousers and a boring coloured top, then you don't always look good on the course. But, if you look down the range these days, people are starting to take care and trying to change.

GI: What made you launch your own fashion label?
IP: There is a niche in the market. I'm not doing this just for a fad. I'm hopefully going to make some money out of it. And if I can do that and bring back what people think is cool, then great. I am designing the team uniforms for the 2008 Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cup team. It's nice to have a challenge to start up some ladies clothing as well. I want to move away from the traditional dowdy navy blue trousers and one colour T-shirts and instead make the team members look sporty, sexy and funky.

GI: You are always honest enough to say what you are feeling. But do you think that causes you more trouble than it's worth sometimes?
IP: I always give honest answers and sometimes if I have had a bad round I can get quite angry. But hopefully I can get rid of that anger by the following morning. But occasionally I get caught expressing myself on the golf course. But I am not going to hit a bad shot and laugh about it. I'm pissed off about it. Why should I accept a bad shot? I shouldn't. I should deal with it and hopefully get over it by the time I have to hit the next shot. If I've had a bad day, of course I am going to be angry and I would not expect anybody who tries to succeed in business or sport to accept having a bad day. Too many people accept having bad days and then they get comfortable having them and that makes them either not perform or turn out to be average.

GI: No one could ever accuse you of being short of confidence. But you can't be confident all the time, can you?
IP: Of course you can. I occasionally have confidence trouble but it's not something I would say is a problem.

GI: Not even when you are struggling through a bad patch?
IP: I don't normally have them. OK, I've had a couple. It depends on what you call a bad patch. I have played awesome for two years. I haven't missed many cuts. If I haven't holed that many putts, it might be a little dent in my confidence, but I am always thinking that I am going to hole a putt. My brain doesn't work in the negative. I try to let the positives come out and that has always been one of my strengths.

GI: So are you where you thought you'd be in your career?
IP: From when I was selling Mars bars and tee pegs, yeah! I didn't sit in the pro shop thinking I am going to get to No.1 in the world. But I just knew that if I worked hard and had the passion to play I could win tournaments and perform on tour. And I am performing. And I am winning. And I believe I am underachieving, too. I can do a lot better and that's what keeps me burning and practising. You have to believe you will achieve. You can't lie to yourself. But you really have to want it. It's psychological. This game is so mental.

GI: Do you believe you have that mental X-Factor to win a major?
IP: I know I can win majors. I will get there. I can't say when but I will get there. I have only missed one cut in the last three years. But I have to play well for all four rounds. The majors are so different. They are set up to catch you out. And they catch nearly everybody out. It's just about choosing the right shot at the right time and not getting suckered in. But if you have a spell of two or three average holes, you will get caught out. It happened to me at the US Open in 2007 when I was playing great. I should have scored on the easy par-fours but instead I made two double-bogeys.

GI: Which major suits your game best?
IP: I feel comfortable at Augusta National now. I like the way the course sets up. I like the US Open because it's always a grinding course and it's hard to hit the fairways and that's why I play well at US Opens, because I have hit the ball very straight over the last few years. And I love the Open because it's links golf and I know how to shape the ball.

GI: How are you enjoying life in the States?
IP: We do get spoiled. The social life has no interest to me. I don't go out and booze it up. But the banter is good between the guys. I hang out with Justin Rose, Adam Scott and Tim Clark. We go out to dinner and play practice rounds.

GI: Your five top-10s in 2007 on the PGA Tour and your performances in the majors must give you confidence for the future.
IP: I am comfortable on the PGA Tour. And comfortable with whom I am playing against. I know all the guys and I am not intimidated by anybody. Some guys are. And I like the way their courses are set up. Hopefully I can achieve great things in America.

GI: What do you miss about England?
IP: Just being able to sleep in my own bed. And I used to miss British sport but I have now bought a Sky Sling Box, which enables me to watch all the football wherever I am around the world. So it's perfect. I have a house in Lake Nona, now, in Florida, and I am trying to make it feel like home. You know, I can walk in, kick my shoes off and watch TV. Just like I do in England.

GI: You must be desperate to get back into the Ryder Cup team this year.
IP: The buzz is still in my head from the one I played in (Oakland Hills, 2004). The Ryder Cup was something I always watched as a kid. It was the Big One every two years. Everybody hypes it up. It's like watching one of the biggest boxing fights in the world. It gets hyped up for months. And then when it arrives it is always an amazing spectacle to watch. And then when you get to play in it, you just can't describe how you feel standing on the first tee.

GI: Oh, go on, try.
IP: I tell you, when I stood there and saw Tiger hit it 50 yards right of the fairway and then Mickelson hit it 50 yards left, it didn't matter where I hit. You had the No.1 and No.2 in the world and they couldn't even get it to within 50 yards on the fairway. That settled me down a treat (laughs.) I was there. I saw them. They were shaking. Mind, you, had they striped it down the middle, it might have been a different story. I remember Luke (Donald) was even struggling to get his ball on his tee peg.

GI: Playing for your team, your country and your continent must add to the pressure.
IP: You don't want to let anybody down. It is seriously nerve wracking. Everyone would love to experience that. Which is why you want to play in it again. But it was nothing compared to the pressure I felt on my wedding day (laughs).