Masters 2019 - Ian Poulter interview: ‘If I put my clubs away and never played again, I’d be a happy man’

Exclusive interview: Fanning every ember of talent from his 43-year-old frame, Europe's Ryder Cup talisman is far from done

Ian Poulter has never won a major. He’s triumphed on either side of the Atlantic, played talisman to iconic Team Europe victories, and been bundled through a rain of beer and champagne by a rabid mob on the outskirts of Paris. He’s won 20 tournaments, displayed astonishing self-belief and revealed a rare tribal spite at the heart of the sport’s most embattling moments.

Still, though, despite a dozen near misses and unthinkable success for a player whose career began by coaching kids for £1-a-pop in Buckinghamshire, the truest form of individual glory continues to elude him. That, he snaps with typical conviction, has never snaked away a slither of satisfaction.

“If I had to put my clubs away tomorrow and never play golf again, I’d be a happy man,” Poulter tells The Independent. “I feel pretty proud of what I’ve achieved. I never had an amateur career; I didn’t go to college in America; when I came out on tour nobody knew who I was. I did it my way and I’ve enjoyed everything about it. I wouldn’t change anything about my career. I don’t need my legacy to be anything.”

Basking in a rare speck of downtime ahead of his 14th visit to Augusta, very little has changed about golf’s self-described “elder-statesman”. He is still that same ever so slightly off-kilter character, armed with a one-eyed zeal that’s beamed across television screens for the past two decades. The light of September summoned another stage for his Ryder Cup heroics, before a swift return to the rigours of the tour and the six miles of walking that have occupied every day for as long as he can remember. And without so much as a flicker of fading enthusiasm, he continues to fan every ember of talent from a body toiling into the mid-forties.

“If I didn’t enjoy playing golf as much as I did back then, I wouldn’t play at all… The only sad thing, when you break it down is that obviously I am on limited time. But I feel good, I feel fresh and plenty good enough to compete.”

A brash maverick in his youth, Poulter’s cocksure nature has always rendered him a divisive character. Jesting claims that at his peak it would just be “Tiger and me” brought ridicule, the flash cars and clothes an envious cloud of derision. Now an old hand, matured into the oft-dreaded “fun-dad” stage, he admits that he used to stare and seethe at such comments on social media. “It definitely affected me. How damaging could they be? It’s hard to say.

“A while ago, I’d take it to heart, I’d get frustrated and I’d retaliate, but I don’t need that in my life. I don’t care if someone wants to say something derogatory or spiteful anymore. As I’ve grown older I’ve become wiser to the fact that vindictive people take pride in trying to make other people feel bad. I enjoy my life. If someone doesn’t like what I do, that’s up to them, I really don’t care.”

Poulter’s savouring of the present has been heightened by trial. It was less than three years ago that one of golf’s most resilient characters had tumbled to No 220 in the world rankings and was confined to a vice-captaincy role at the 2016 Ryder Cup due to an arthritic joint in his right foot. A future of fleeting chances and backroom stints crept in off the horizon with a sinister sense of inevitability. “Of course, you question yourself then,” he interjects. “When you’re sitting on the sidelines for that long it’s never enjoyable. You doubt yourself. It’s easy to forget what you’ve achieved very quickly.” An admission surprising perhaps only because Poulter has always radiated such lionising confidence.

Ian Poulter’s talismanic Ryder Cup performances have long written his legacy (Getty) (Getty Images)

But from that pain, Poulter forged a resurrection that marked its beginning in December 2016, when he declared he would return for the Ryder Cup team in Paris. And after an exhibition of courage and grit to see off Beau Hossler – 19 years his junior – in a playoff, and claim victory at the Houston Open 15 months later, he vindicated that promise and ensured himself of Thomas Bjorn’s captain’s pick. Success, he says, is the most youthful elixir in itself.

After finishing in the top-six in four consecutive events and rising to No 33 in the world since the turn of the year, the possibility of victory at Augusta seems a little less preposterous now. In fact, despite being his 24th season as a professional, it is not unreasonable to suggest that Poulter is playing some of the best golf of his entire career. “At 43, do I feel that I’ve done a reasonable job moving up the rankings? Yes.” Can I move up further?" He asks himself flippantly. Yeah, I think I can. I know I can still compete. My golf is extremely consistent at the moment. When you look at the No 1 and No 2 guys, Justin [Rose] and Dustin [Johnson], there’s still a huge gap. Every good finish I have I’m moving up and I want to close that as much as I possibly can."

Poulter celebrates the end of his trophy drought at the Houston Open in 2018 (Getty)

At the Masters, Poulter will be treated with revile and respect in equal measure for his Ryder Cup antics. The rabble-rousing provocateur whose career has long been written into the tournament’s storybook, and will be treated with greater romanticism once it’s gone. A legacy you get the sense Poulter loves - even if he claims to be nonplussed by it – and is keen to extend into captaincy once the candle does eventually wane.

“Yeah, I’d like to one day,” he says, before winging in the impending caveat. “I don’t think I have to. It’s not something I have to do. It wouldn’t make or break me…But it’s something I’d like to do. If I was ever asked, I’d love to take that opportunity one day, for sure.”

This visit to Augusta though is not a sojourn of folly or pleasure and far from an old sage’s excursion. Poulter’s team exploits are already immortalised, but those individual successes can still take on new chapters. If Poulter didn’t believe he was still capable of competing, and winning, he wouldn’t accept the invitation. And we wouldn’t be speaking at all.