Poulter plays down trophy row
After a telling off from captain Colin Montgomerie, Ian Poulter helped Britain and Ireland mount a Seve Trophy fightback at The Wynyard near Middlesbrough today.
But following a blunder from Bradley Dredge it is still Continental Europe who lead going into the weekend.
Jose Maria Olazabal’s side hold a 6-4 advantage thanks to Emanuele Canonica and Maarten Lafeber beating Dredge and Stephen Dodd on the last, the Welsh pair having had to concede the opening hole when it was discovered Dredge had 15 clubs in his bag.
Beaten 4-1 in the opening fourballs, Montgomerie spoke to Poulter about the fact he was not around the 18th green as the first day’s play on Thursday was coming to a vital conclusion.
The colourful Englishman was away practising as Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley lost to French pair Thomas Levet and Jean-Francois Remesy.
“He was the only man who was not with his team,” commented Montgomerie, who walked over to Poulter and told him what he thought.
“That’s fine, but there are times to work on your game and we all felt that was not the appropriate time.”
After combining with Nick Dougherty for a 5&4 win over Remesy and Levet, Poulter had the chance to put his side of the story.
“Nobody is going to be happy, are they?” he commented. “Monty came over and said Harrington wasn’t overly happy that I was hitting balls while they were playing, even though I had stopped in between all of their putts.
“That’s fine. Absolutely fine. No problems whatsoever. I felt I needed to hit a few golf balls. Maybe I should have done it after everyone had finished.
“So on my side it might have been a bit of a mistake. I should have been around the 18th green watching everyone finish. Lesson learned and that is it.
“I spoke to Padraig personally and asked him ’Did I put you off?’ He said ’No, not in any way.’
“He said he was 99% sure I was stopping in plenty of time for them to play their shots, which I did. Obviously while I am hitting shots there is a little thought in there – is he going to stop? – but he said that wouldn’t have put him off anyway.
“I needed the practice and have come out today and played good golf. So all in all things have worked out just fine. That’s it.”
Asked whether there was a row between him and Montgomerie Poulter added: “No. Nothing whatsoever.”
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