Throwback Thursday: Poulter tries speed golf at Sawgrass
The Background
The third round of the 2011 Players Championship was a slow one thanks to a long rain delay. Ian Poulter, who was playing with Dustin Johnson, had discussed finishing their round following the conclusion of the 16th hole.
With the horn just moments away it meant that a 7.45am restart was on the cards and the Englishman wasn’t having any of it.
Threatened with a 5.30am wake-up call, Poulter took it upon himself to make sure the pair got their round finished and cards signed.
The Scene
Both players found the green with their tee shots on the iconic 17th. Poulter knew that if the pair made it to the 18th tee before the horn they would be allowed to finish.
The Englishman then sprinted around the banks of the 17th and onto the green to two putt for par. Poulter then grabbed his ball and sprinted towards the 18th tee. After grabbing two clubs from his caddie he screamed towards Phil Mickelson and Martin Laird to get out the way so he could hit his tee shot.
Luckily, his ball made it over the water and himself and Dustin Johnson were able to finish in time. But, it came at a cost as he bogeyed the final hole to close out the day with a round of 74.
The Legacy
After a fairly dull day of golf he was the talk of TPC Sawgrass but Poulter believed it was something any other player would’ve done.
“A little 300-yard sprint is well worth four hours in bed, I think quite a few guys in that situation would have done exactly the same thing,” said Poulter.
“We knew when we teed off it was always going to be close. We figured we could get to 17, 18. We were talking about it the whole way around, ‘What is the time, what is the time, how much longer do we have?’ Yeah, it was close.”
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Matthew Beedle
Matthew has been playing golf since he was around 13 and took up the game at a local nine-hole municipal course with his friends before joining Pontefract & District Golf Club just over the hedge.
Still a member of Pontefract with a handicap of 3, he currently sits on the board of directors to help with digital and marketing initiatives in order to improve membership and visitor income.
Matthew graduated university with a First Class in Sports Journalism from Leeds Trinity University and has been working in the golf industry since graduating.
NCG’s social media & marketing manager, Matthew’s main job role is to increase website traffic to the National Club Golfer website via our email and social media channels as well as driving entries to grow our NCG Top 100s Tour events amongst other tasks.
Not one to change his equipment too often, Matthew currently plays the TaylorMade M2 driver which has lasted the test of time in his bag. Elsewhere, you’ll find him using the TaylorMade Stealth 2 three-wood with a Ping G425 Crossover 2-iron to aid his long game.
Through his 4-iron to Gap Wedge, Matthew uses the Ping i500 irons accompanied by Ping’s Glide 3.0 56-degree and 60-degree wedges.
Another club that has stood the test of time in his bag is a Nike Method Core MC-3i putter which has had to have the SuperStroke grip changed at least three times. Ball of choice is the Titleist ProV1.
