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ABU DHABI GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

January 17, 2006

Ian Poulter

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

SCOTT CROCKETT: Ian, thanks very much for coming in as always. Appreciate your time. You had a break over the winter from playing. Start us off by telling us since what you've done.

IAN POULTER: Yeah, I've had a nice nine or ten weeks off and getting into the house for four weeks until the 19th of December, which was great. Had some good time off, was in the gym pretty hard. And also went to Disney with the kids. It was good practice, good work in the gym also good relaxation before Christmas. Went back home for ten days through Christmas and then went back out to Orlando to do a bit more work from the 29th of December through till last Friday, about two weeks more working with my new equipment, Cobra, and very happy.

SCOTT CROCKETT: There's been some changes with your clothing. Tell us about that.

IAN POULTER: Equipment changes, Cobra, Cobra irons, which are working fantastic.

And the clothing side of things, I'm wearing my own stuff. So I currently do not have a clothing contract, which is fantastic, and so we'll see what happens. I'll probably come out with my own clothing line at the end of the year, or see what happens.

I think the first few weeks will be tame but a little bit different, but that's only because this one turned around pretty late last year and to get stuff made from Christmas through the first couple of weeks in general is pretty impossible. So we've got people working hard back home and I'm going to have some fun out on the golf course and use my new equipment.

Q. Does it put any more pressure on you when you wear something outlandish and you have a bad day?

IAN POULTER: I don't know about bad days, I've had a few of them no, no, there is no any extra pressure. As long as I feel comfortable in what I'm wearing, then generally I'm happy. If I feel I look good, then that doesn't put any extra pressure on me at all. I actually feel pretty good to go out there and enjoy myself, so, it helps.

If I think I look good, then I feel that will make me feel great on the first tee. If I'm not comfortable in what I'm wearing on the first tee, that's going to put pressure on me because I don't feel great.

Q. Have you discussed haircuts with Kevin Pietersen?

IAN POULTER: No, not yet.

Q. Did you wear your own clothes on holiday?

IAN POULTER: Yeah, baggy shorts and a baggy tee shirt. (Laughing).

Q. Does your wardrobe take much planning?

IAN POULTER: It's been an interesting couple of weeks with a lot of stuff that's been changing. Yeah, it's been difficult to get everything ready literally in the last couple of weeks, but I've been out there, I've been in some high thread (ph) stores and bought some things that look quite nice and I've also got some clothes from other sources in the industry.

So I'm feeling comfortable right now and more importantly, my golf game is in shape over and above everything else. I'm hitting the ball really nicely. And the work I've done over the last sort of eight weeks is looking good, even though I have an injury from yesterday, but will hopefully be fine for that.

Q. Who did you smack?

IAN POULTER: Nobody, unfortunately, I don't know how it happened. Just something that's crept in yesterday, hit a few shots and felt a bit sore.

I'm going to see the physios after I hit balls to take a bit of information down and really hopefully it's not going to flare up too much more. It's a bit sore and I played about seven holes out there just now and it's pretty painful. I'm hoping if I can keep icing it, it's going to go away hopefully. I mean, it's nothing serious but it's just a bit of a niggly puncture impact (ph) which is a little bit of a worry.

SCOTT CROCKETT: The rest of the field should be worried then, when you're not well going into a tournament, that's usually when you win.

IAN POULTER: Well, I have in the past, not well, but yes.

Q. What does it take to set up a clothing company?

IAN POULTER: Don't know yet because it hasn't quite happened. Just means getting a couple of designers for me to feed them information of what I want to wear, let them go in and I guess come up with some nice designs that I approve and I guess get somebody to make them for me.

Q. Will you try to sell them?

IAN POULTER: That's what I'd like to do. I'd like to get a whole range even for kids, because I think that the Juniors are crying out for some junior clothes that look good and they can sort of go out there and express themselves.

Q. How far down that road are you?

IAN POULTER: We're only just down that road. In the last couple of weeks, there's not a lot that you can do in literally two or three weeks.

But certainly, there's been some telephone conversations with a few people and hopefully it's all going to be in the pipeline.

Q. Who were you using?

IAN POULTER: TaylorMade.

Q. What made you switch to Cobra?

IAN POULTER: The whole package, really. The irons are fantastic. They have got all of their resources. It is very good equipment from doing the testing, mainly; I'm comfortable. I'm comfortable with the whole situation. It has helped with freeing up the clothing side, as well. So you know, it was a perfect move, really. One, sort of great equipment; two, because it's a strong brand and they want to get heavily into the tour, again, from not having many players over the last few years playing their equipment on tour and now that they are a strong brand, they want to push that out over the next few years. I'll be happy to help them.

Q. Did you do work in Orlando?

IAN POULTER: I've done quite a bit. I've never really practiced that much over the winter, being in England, everyone knows the weather is not good. The facilities are not fantastic for doing great short game practice, and I've never really crossed the pond to America to work that hard apart from this year.

You know, the house is finished, it's perfect for me at Lake Nona to just go over there and relax, jump on a buggy go down and hit a couple hundred balls, go to the gym and go to Disney in the afternoon. So, it was lovely. I worked really hard, both on my fitness and out on the range and got some relaxation, so I feel refreshed.

Q. Mickey Mouse golf?

IAN POULTER: Mickey Mouse, yeah.

Q. Is it becoming quite apparent that this is becoming a popular area for golf?

IAN POULTER: Yeah, I guess Abu Dhabi has been on the map of golf for a while, it's a great a place to come and play golf. They are looking after us fantastic at the hotel this week, Emirates Palace. It's a beautiful place and it's a great place to come and play golf. The weather is good and the golf course is good. So they are doing a great job and it's nice to actually get three weeks in a row where we can come out here and play three great golf tournaments.

Q. A regular trip for you in the future then?

IAN POULTER: Yeah, I'd like to think so. The weather last year on the West Coast was obviously very, very wet and nobody likes to play in the rain, so it's quite nice to come over and play in a nice climate without any rain.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Thanks, Ian.

End of FastScripts.

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