Ian Poulter angered by a bad day with the putter at RBC Heritage
Monday 17 April 2017 07:51, UK
Ian Poulter admitted he was "hot under the collar" after enduring a tough time with the putter on the final day of the RBC Heritage.
Poulter was just three shots off the lead overnight and had high hopes of earning the $145,000 he needed to secure his PGA Tour card for the remainder of the season, and he got off to the ideal start with a birdie at the opening hole.
But he was continuously frustrated by the Harbour Town greens in a closing 73 in which he three-putted twice and failed to convert a number of birdie chances, particularly on the par-fives.
The Englishman dropped shots at the third, seventh and eighth to turn in 38, and also bogeyed the 14th before a welcome birdie at the next revived his hopes of at least a top-10 finish.
But Poulter had to scramble a par at 16 before shaving the hole with a good birdie opportunity from inside 10 feet at the 17th, and a par at the last left him in a tie for 11th on eight under - five strokes adrift of champion Wesley Bryan.
This week's Valero Texas Open is Poulter's last event of his major medical extension having been sidelined for four months last year with a foot problem, and he will need to earn just over $30,000 to earn his playing privileges for the rest of the 2017 campaign.
"I'm a little hot under the collar right now," he told Nick Dougherty at the Sky Cart. "I'm not disappointed I didn't get the job done today in terms of finishing where I need to finish, but that could have been a victory and I let it slip.
"Three putts from 25 feet is unacceptable, and another three-putt on the seventh. I had chances on the two par-fives from eight feet and didn't convert those. So that's four shots, all of a sudden that's 12 under par. And then there's the putts in the closing stretch.
"I could have got it done today and I should have got it done. Three-putting is unacceptable, especially from the distances I was. I pride myself on being a good putter, but the flat stick didn't do what it needed to do.
"I didn't close out any of the putts that I expected to close out, and I subsequently ended up shooting 73," added Poulter, who saw enough positives in his tee-to-green game to give him encouragement heading to TPC San Antonio.
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"I feel comfortable with my game of golf," he said. "That's just really disappointing that I actually played well enough to win the golf tournament today. I just didn't do it with the flat stick, and I missed putt after putt after putt.
"I need to continue to work harder on the putting, less on the rest of the game of golf. If I do that obviously I'm going to win tournaments, but today was not good enough with the flat stick."
