Top 40 players in the Official World Golf Rankings - Ian Poulter
16 – Ian Poulter
Ian Poulter, apart from being a golf icon, is known for his vivid and eccentric dress sense. He was born in England in a city called Hitching on 10 January 1976. Poulter is married with three kids and his family currently resides in Orlando Florida.
Ever since a young boy, Poulter wanted to play golf owing to his father Terry’s interest in teaching him the sport. Poulter grew his aspirations of playing golf while working as a golf shop manager at the Chesfield Downs golf club.
Poulter got promoted to European Tour through a qualifying school after he won the Italian open in his very first season. After turning professional in the year 1996 at the age of 19, in the year 1999 he got his first win and more wins followed his strong
first season. He was the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the year for the year 2000.
His most notable achievement however, came in the year 2004 when Poulter won the Tour Championship. His highest ranking in the Order of Merit was 4th
in 2010, although in the years 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009 he remained in the Top 10 rankings.
In 2004, Poulter was a member of the victorious side in the Ryder Cup. This victory gave entitlement to Poulter to get membership in to the PGA Tour in the year 2005.
In the Players Championship 2009, Poulter came in second behind Henrik Stenson with his score of 8-under-par, four shots behind the winner. But later in the same year, he won the Barclays Singapore Open at the Sentosa Club.
Poulter broke into the Top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) in January 2010. His first win in the US came in the year 2010 as well, when he beat Paul Casey 4 & 2 in the final of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship. As a result of this
victory, Poulter shot to 5th in rankings. In the same year, he finished in second place at the Abu Dhabi Gold Championship. Later that year, he won his second title of the year with a one-stroke victory in the UBS Honk Kong Open.
The start to the year 2011 was not a memorable one for the Englishman as he became the first defending champion in 9 years to be eliminated in the first round at the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship. Poulter did however bounce back in the European Tour
later in the year in the Volvo World Match Play Championship. He won the title by beating Ryder Cup teammate Luke Donald, 2 & 1 in the final. He beat Lee Westwood, Nicolas Colsaerts and Francesco Molinari to get to the final.
Poulter has had his share of controversies in the game as well. Once at the 2007 Mercedes-Benz Championship, the player was frustrated with his game and ended up smashing a tee marker. Poulter also got heavily criticized for one of his tweets in which he
posted an anti-semitic slur, although he did apologize later on.
At the moment, Poulter is ranked 16th in OWGR, however, the player wants to see himself at the top of the table. The kind of strong character Poulter is, he will surely bring his A game in the future to move up the rankings and leave a mark in
the history books as one of the finest golfers in the world.
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