Tiger Woods victory 'incredibly special for golf', says Poulter
Tuesday 25 September 2018 09:59, UK
Ian Poulter experienced the Ryder Cup "buzz" after arriving at Le Golf National on Monday morning.
Poulter did not play last week and headed to Paris early as he prepares to represent Europe against the United States for a sixth time.
The 42-year-old Englishman, who has lost just four of the 18 Ryder Cup matches he has played, was one of Thomas Bjorn's captain's picks and he spoke of his pride at playing for Team Europe once again - he missed out in 2016 - as he soaked up the atmosphere with the sun shining down on the course.
Poulter told Sky Sports News: "Mondays are normally boring but Monday of the Ryder Cup isn't very boring. It's great to be here - look at the weather, it's absolutely perfect.
"It's an honour to put the top on, to have the badge and it's going to be an incredible week. I can't wait, obviously. It's been on my mind for a long time since winning in Houston and putting myself in a position to try and make this team.
"It's been a fun journey, so this week is about having fun. It's about doing what we need to do in Team Europe, as we normally do. Create the atmosphere, have fun and hopefully we can hand that trophy to Thomas on Sunday night.
"It's a massive sense of pride [being here]. If you go in the locker room you get a sense of what it means to be part of a European team. There's a number of special golf bags in there and they are there for a reason.
"You get a buzz when you walk in the locker room, you get a buzz when you walk in the team room, you get a buzz when you get to the golf course and you get an even bigger buzz when you walk on that first tee.
"So everything is built around making you fully aware of what it means to be part of this team and you have to embrace it with two hands.
"It's the best week of your life and I've been fortunate to now enjoy quite a few of these weeks and this is going to be another very memorable week."
Poulter is fully aware of the task Europe will face against a very strong American team this week and he paid tribute to Tiger Woods following his victory in the Tour Championship on Sunday.
He said: "I think we are all extremely well aware not only how strong the American team is right now, but, obviously, what Tiger's done in the last six to eight months to put himself in that position.
"As a golf fan you have to love it. To see him win last night was incredibly special for golf, not just for him.
"But if you are going to talk about him from a personal level, from where he's been, what he's come through; to ride that adversity, to be able to get himself in that position to win is amazing.
"And that's even from looking in as a player who's going to be competing against him this week. So for golf it's amazing, the utmost respect, 80 wins. I don't know how you can't doff your cap to that, it's remarkable.
"So Tiger's in great form, the US team as a whole are in great form and we are too. Justin [Rose] has obviously gone ahead and won the FedEx Cup, which is huge. We have got all of our players, I feel, playing great and it's going to be a wild ride this week."
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