Poulter Masters
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England’s Ian Poulter got the 72nd Masters off to a sensational start by shooting a first round 70 – including a hole in one – to take the early lead.
Out in the second group of the day with Mark O’Meara and amateur Trip Kuehne, he birdied the par-5 2nd, getting up and down from the front edge; and if his putter had been remotely hot, he would have made several other birdies on the front nine. Instead he turned in 1-under-par 35 with a terrific two-putt on the impossibly difficult 7th green.
Wearing lime green trousers, shoes and visor, (which he officially describes as “pistachio”, he continued to churn out the pars before he reached the par-3 16th, where he made a hole-in-one to take the lead.
“I hit an 8-iron from 169 yards and it was an unbelievable buzz when it went in. It was massive.”
And even a dropped shot at the penultimate hole couldn’t spoil his morning.
When he came into the press centre, the first question he was asked was: “Wel, Ian, you showed you really do have the talent to be the world number 2?”
The flamboyant man from Milton Keynes, who appeared on the front cover of Golf World naked and has a new advert out for Footjoy shoes on American television, is hugely popular here in America, and the galleries here in the Deep South took him to their hearts.
They find him affable and very approachable and his eccentric dress sense is a refreshing alternative to so many of the rather grey pro golfers.
His comments in Golf World a month ago (“If I play to my full potential it will be just me and Tiger”) earned him criticism from some quarters, but most of his fellow players have by now seen the funny side. Whenever Tiger passes him, the world number one quips “Hello, number two” and Poulter replies “Hello number one”. “Tiger laughs all the time about it,” says Poulter.
On the practise ground on Monday, Poulter and Woods were practising together, and Lee Westwood arrived with a pretend “Oh I’m so nervous practising between the world number one and two,” which caused much mirth all round.
