Ian James Poulter (born 10 January 1976) is an
English golfer who is a member of the world's top
two professional golf tours, the U.S. based PGA Tour
and the European Tour.
Born in Hitchin, Poulter's first professional win
was the Open de Côte d'Ivoire on the European Tour's
second tier Challenge Tour in 1999, and he won
promotion to the European Tour itself via the
Qualifying School later that year. In his first
season he claimed the Italian Open title and was the
Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year for 2000.
Further wins followed in each of the next four
seasons, most prestigiously the season ending "tour
championship" the Volvo Masters in 2004. He was in
the top ten on the Order of Merit in 2003, 2004 and
2006.
After narrowly missing a place in the 2001 European
Ryder Cup team, Poulter was a member of the
victorious squad in 2004, where he officially scored
the winning points for his team. This entitled him
to take up membership of the PGA Tour in 2005, and
he divided his time between the two tours in since
then. He has featured in the top 20 of the Official
World Golf Rankings. He is well known for his often
radical dress sense, including trousers featuring
the famous Claret Jug, worn at both the 2005 and
2006 Open Championships. Commentating for the BBC,
Seve Ballesteros cruelly jibed that this was "the
closest [Poulter] would ever get to it".
Poulter has been hotly tipped as one of the
brightest up and coming stars of the PGA European
Tour since his first appearance in 2000. However
with several appearances on the more prominent U.S.
PGA Tour he has not fulfilled his potential on the
major stage and despite a string of good finishes in
some of the worlds top events he has yet to break
his duck by claiming any of the worlds top titles.
Nevertheless Poulter is still highly regarded as one
of the best golfers in Europe.
Poulter appeared in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006, a
videogame released by EA Sports, as a fellow
professional along with a host of other leading
players in the world such as Luke Donald, Annika
Sörenstam and Natalie Gulbis.
Outside of the computer industry Poulter is now
sponsored by Cobra after he left TaylorMADE, for the
start of the 2006 season. He also has his own
clothing line due for release in 2007.
Poulter is well known for being an avid fan of the
London-based football club Arsenal FC. He has on
several occasions appeared with the team's crest on
his shoes, and he even controversially wore the
team's hat during an event (immediately after the
event the rule was changed to stop future players
wearing football jerseys). He is an avid car
collector and along with his new purchase of the
Ford GT40, he has owned a Ferrari and a Nissan
skyline along with an Aston Martin DB9.
At the Mercedes-Benz Championship in September of
2007, Poulter smashed a tee marker in a show of
frustration and was fined. Also, in 2006 Poulter
paid a £5,000 fine after verbally abusing a marshal
at the Irish Open.
At the 2008 Masters Tournament, Poulter made a
hole-in-one at the 16th hole at Augusta National in
the first round.
