Volvo Masters: Ian Poulter is not your conventional golfer. He dyes his hair all shades of colours, dresses - more often than not - in an outrageous fashion and, what's more, has a habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Unconventional, to say the least: but he can play a bit too. And, yesterday, the 28-year-old Englishman showed his aptitude in fending off Sergio Garcia in a play-off to win the Volvo Masters at Valderrama.
On a day of sunshine but swirling winds, and when the threatened thunderstorms had the decency to stay away, Poulter's par to Garcia's bogey at the first play-off hole - the 18th - gave him his sixth PGA European Tour career success and maintained a sequence that has witnessed him win at least once every year on tour since 2000, when he was rookie of the year.
Poulter has come a long way since taking those first fledgling steps as a tour player.
In September, he was a member of Europe's winning team at the Ryder Cup in Oakland Hills but, coming into this week, one thing more than anything else irked him and that was his failure to win any title throughout 2004. On Wednesday, he had awarded himself "one out of 10" for his season's efforts, purely because of his inability to win.
Yesterday, he reluctantly increased that assessment to "a maximum of seven" (out of 10) which, in truth, provided an insight into Poulter's own expectations.
"I believe I'm capable of winning two, three, four, five times a year. I haven't finished tournaments off this year. I've felt I should have won at least three times. I'm hard on myself and that's the only way I guess you can keep moving forward. I mean, I'm not satisfied with finishing second and third. I don't like losing. I'm a bad loser and I'm not afraid to admit it," said Poulter.
This was not a time for recriminations, however. At the start of the final day, Poulter started out in joint-second place with Garcia, three shots behind 54-holes leader Alastair Forsyth. When Forsyth bogeyed the first two holes (and failed to claim a birdie all day) and Poulter, playing alongside him, birdied the second, the destination of the title developed into a three-way battle.
Ultimately, Forsyth had a 74 for 278 and that was to prove a shot too many. Both Garcia, in the penultimate pairing, and Poulter - who strung together a hat-trick of birdies from the eighth and only failed to stretch the sequence to four-in-a-row when he three-putted the 11th - shot final round 70s for seven-under-par 277.
It left them facing a play-off, a position Poulter had never been in previously.
Unperturbed, and feeling no nerves on the tee, Poulter actually produced too much adrenalin. "It went 30 yards farther than I envisaged," he remarked of the ball that nestled in the left hand rough. Advantage Garcia? It wasn't to be.
But Garcia pushed his drive, finishing behind one of the cork trees that line these fairways. "I was pretty much dead," observed Garcia, who attempted to hit a three-iron recovery "with a bit of slice" but only managed to send the ball into a horrible lie in the rough on the left.
"It's heartbreaking, but what can you do?" asked Garcia after failing to find the green with his approach and ultimately taking a bogey five.
"You know, it's a shame. I would love to win here at Valderrama . . . this is as close as you get to winning without winning."
Poulter, meanwhile, punched a seven-iron approach just short of the green, and pitched and putted - to 18 inches - for his winning par, which gave him his sixth career win.
While Garcia has juggled playing on two tours - in Europe and the United States - for virtually all of his short career, that temptation is now there for Poulter who intends to play more events in America next year.
"I think the European Tour will always be my home. I love my golf over here and I am very happy and I will always play my quota but, you know, I do think that I do have to play a few more events in America which do hold more world ranking points than maybe a few of the ones in Europe.
"That's the key to me moving higher in the world rankings and that is what it is all about, being able to get yourself into the top 20, the top 10 and, hopefully, higher," said Poulter.
Darren Clarke was frustrated with his week's work as much as his season's travails, that sextuple 11 in Friday's third round effectively ruining any title aspirations in a year where he failed to win a tournament in Europe. Still, Clarke finished as leading Irish player at Valderrama after shooting a finishing 72 for one-over-par 285, leaving him tied-11th.
For Graeme McDowell, the tournament got better as it progressed and he finished with a closing 70 for two-over-par 286. "I learnt a lot about Valderrama this week," said McDowell.
"I think it is a golf course I will be able to play well on in the future. It's a course that takes a lot of mental strength and my goal at the start of the week was to come here and play four rounds of consistent golf. It's been a good 'hanging in' sort of week."
Padraig Harrington moves on to the Tour Championship in Atlanta this week, after finishing with a 74 for 287. "I kind of ran out of steam," he observed, "but I'm happy with my game. I never really got on top of it today, and things went away from me rather than the other way."
Things never threatened to get away from Poulter, even when he pushed his three-iron approach to the 17th that left him with a horrible lie on the steep bank. He averted disaster by playing a wonderful pitch - with the ball two feet above his feet - to the back of the green and salvaged his par. All that was left was for him to par the 18th in regulation play and again in the play-off to claim the biggest win of his career.
Which is exactly what he did.
(Irish and Brit unless stated, par 71):
277 - Ian Poulter 71 67 69 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 67 69 71 70.
(Poulter won at first play-off hole. Poulter wins £432,202, Garcia £288,130).
278 - Alastair Forsyth 68 69 67 74 (£162,335).
280 - Peter Hanson (Swe) 70 70 70 70 (£129,660).
281 - David Howell 73 69 73 66, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 69 70 70 72 (£100,357 each).
283 - Lee Westwood 72 71 72 68, Scott Drummond 74 71 68 70.
284 - Paul Casey 72 70 74 68, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 70 73 68 73.
285 - Thomas Bjorn (Den) 75 70 71 69, Paul Broadhurst 73 74 69 69, Jonathan Lomas 69 72 74 70, Darren Clarke 73 72 68 72.
286 - Richard Green (Aus) 73 73 73 67, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 73 70 73 70, Graeme McDowell 73 72 71 70, Stephen Dodd 71 72 69 74.
287 - Luke Donald 69 76 74 68, Colin Montgomerie 75 74 69 69, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 73 66 75 73, Terry Price (Aus) 71 71 72 73, Padraig Harrington 72 70 71 74 .
288 - Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 75 71 72.
289 - Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 71 73 77 68, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 74 77 70 68, Phillip Price 76 71 72 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 76 74 68 71, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 73 71 71 74.
290 - Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 73 76 69 72, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 69 72 75 74, Brian Davis 68 73 75 74.
291 - Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 71 73 75.
292 - Eduardo Romero (Arg) 75 79 69 69, Bradley Dredge 70 73 77 72, Barry Lane 73 73 74 72, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 67 79 72 74.
293 - Anders Hansen (Den) 78 69 73 73, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 76 71 73 73, David Lynn 74 71 74 74.
294 - Paul McGinley 76 72 71 75.
295 - Brett Rumford (Aus) 74 75 76 70, David Park 73 71 74 77.
296 - Stephen Gallacher 77 74 71 74, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 76 73 71 76, James Kingston (Rsa) 71 72 75 78, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 71 72 74 79.
299 - Thomas Levet (Fra) 75 77 78 69, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 78 77 74 70.
300 - Simon Khan 76 75 75 74 303 Miles Tunnicliff 75 76 81 71, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 74 73 73 83.
304 - Henrik Stenson (Swe) 75 75 76 78.
306 - Michael Campbell (Nzl) 74 76 74 82.
Order Of MeritLeading places
(2003 positions in brackets):
1 (1) Ernie Els €4,061,904; 2 (12) Retief Goosen €2,325,202; 3 (3) Padraig Harrington €1,910,393; 4 (23) Miguel Angel Jimenez €1,886,236; 5 (78) Thomas Levet €1,727,944; 6 (96) Graeme McDowell €1,648,862; 7 (7) Lee Westwood €1,592,765; 8 (2) Darren Clarke €1,563,802; 9 (5) Ian Poulter €1,533,158; 10 (16) David Howell €1,501,501; 11 (53) Angel Cabrera €1,445,184; 12 (37) Nick O'Hern €1,406,824; 13 (49) Sergio Garcia €1,336,253; 14 (6) Paul Casey €1,222,564; 15 (50) Stephen Gallacher €1,144,157; 16 (14) Trevor Immelman €1,138,978; 17 (83) Richard Green €1,124,239; 18 (-) Joakim Haeggman €1,116,756; 19 (74) Jean-Francois Remesy €1,083,359; 20 (115) Luke Donald €1,037,278.
