Ian Poulter Has Fan Ejected From WGC Over Comment
Harry How
Ian Poulter tends to be quite the lightning rod when it comes to speaking his mind–or his thin skin. Both were on display yesterday at the WGC FedEX St. Jude in Memphis when he had a confrontation with a fan before demanding his ousting. GolfDigest’s Joel Beall details the lowlights highlights.
The problem began when Poutler, just off the 18th fairway, struck his approach shot. As the ball was in the air, according to Poulter, a fan yelled, “Get in the bunker!” Poulter, 43, immediately shot back, “Really, you deserve to be here do you?” Poulter then motioned to security to remove the fan in question from the course.
“It is disappointing to be honest. I get it, I’m an Englishman, I play on the Ryder Cup team, I’m sure I’ve upset a few of these guys from time-to-time when they’re watching TV,” Poulter told Sky Sports after his round. “But when we’re playing a world-class event like we do week in, week out, and you’ve got guys like that, in a small group and want to feel big in front of their friends and they scream silly things out, it is disappointing.
“I hate to do that [kick someone out], but we shouldn’t be getting abused in this day and age. Unfortunately it happens quite often. Most of the time we just ignore it and let it go. It is a shame, I hope we can control it more going forward and it gets stamped out, because it is not needed in the game of golf,” Poulter said.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Ian has had run-ins given his Ryder Cup Evil Superhero status against the Americans or, even playing across the pond as in the Scottish Open. Here’s a beauty from last year.
A Gullane man named Quintin Jardine, who volunteered at this week’s European Tour event, penned a post on his personal blog panning Poulter’s behavior and sharing a letter he wrote to the tournament director. Titled “Ian Poulter is an arsehole,” Jardine claims the tour pro verbally “abused” and displayed “aggression” at him after he informed Poulter his tee shot on the first hole had disappeared into a bush.
Jardine also says Poulter was upset that Jardine didn’t walk into the bush because if he stepped on the ball as a marshal, Poulter would be entitled to a free drop. Whereas if Poulter stepped on his ball, he’d be penalized. Here’s how Jardine ended his letter:
My first inclination was to do no more that slaughter Mr Poulter on my blog and Facebook page, but now I feel that I have a duty on behalf of all the other volunteers to bring the incident to the Tour’s attention,” Jardine wrote. “I’m not asking for him to be fined, because I don’t see the point of that. However I would like him to be reminded that even though most of the world knows you’re an arsehole, there’s no need to go proving it to the rest. I will take his apology as read, but if he wants to make it in person, I’m not hard to find in Gullane.
I believe he’s still awaiting to receive said apology. Publicly calling someone an arsehole tends to delay that gratification.
