Top-20 European players to watch out for in 2012: Part-7
He came back on his home turf to clinch another title, the Barclays Scottish Open, defeating James Kingston by two strokes. After another lacklustre year in 2009, he shot back to fame with Celtic Manor Wales Open title and carded the first major title of
his career, the US Open. His victory triggered a wave of jubilation and festivity in whole of the Northern Ireland. He closed the year with another victory at Andalucía Valderrama Masters to surge to an all time high of number five in the Official World Golf
Rankings (OWGR).
Colin Montgomerie, the Ryder Cup Captain for the European Team in 2010 lauded McDowell’s feat and said,
"He showed great strength of character in getting the job done in such superb fashion. He is a world-class player and obviously I am delighted to have a 2010 Major winner in my team this year. All credit to Graeme to be the first European player in 40 years
to win, Nick (Faldo), Bernhard (Langer) and myself came close, but none of us achieved what he has. This is great for British golf and also the European Tour. Golf salutes him."
McDowell started off the current season, in hopes to extend his winning streak the next year, but failed to bag a single title. In 18 starts this year, he was only able to card five top-ten finishes, with his strongest finishes in WGC-HSBC Champions, Alfred
Dunhill Links Championship, and Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship where he soared to joint third. He earned a total of € 1,230,461 for the year with a scoring average of 71.
Ian Poulter
Official World Golf Rankings: 16
Race to Dubai Rankings: 23
European Tour wins in 2011: 1
One of the prolific Englishman who surged to the top-five on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) and has been a member of PGA Tour as well as the European Tour, Ian Poulter has gone over to win no fewer than 15 professional titles in his decade long
career. Born in Hitchin, Poulter started swinging clubs when his single-handicap father handed him over with a 3-wood. Poulter received all the help he could from his elder brother who was also a professional golfer at that time.
Poulter turned professional in 1996 and carded his first professional victory, 1999 Open de Côte d'Ivoire on the Challenge Tour, a subsidiary of European Tour. He won his European Tour card through the qualifying school next year and won his maiden title
on the tour, The Italian Open and was nominated for the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year for 2000.
Poulter pulled in stellar victories in the proceeding years, winning the Moroccan Open in 2001, reclaimed his Italian Open title in 2002 and carded two victories in 2003, the Celtic Manor Resort Wales Open and Nordic Open.
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