WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY

March 24, 2021

Ian Poulter

Austin Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. (No Microphone.)

IAN POULTER: It was a 4-iron on 12, yeah. 259. You know, got off to a nice start, birdied 1, kind of the only realtime it was a bit, got a little awkward right there was when I made a silly mistake on 6, par-5. Rory's down the right, he's in a decent position, just don't hit it over the back of the green and just flat pulled it.

So two great shots into 8, took it back to 1. Which is his advantage. His advantage is obviously on 8 and 9 -- 6, 8 and 9, I know he's going to have that big advantage there. I think the key was 12. He's 50, 60 in front of me and I've just hit it, just hit a great shot there, tried to not, tried to put it 25 feet in the middle of the green and obviously hit just a great shot.

Q. What about 9? He only had a wedge in his hand what did you hit?

IAN POULTER: I had, I actually had 166 pin. So again -- and actually it's one of those where Rory was trying to control his spin on a couple of the holes, which you probably saw, he was on 3 he pitched it, I don't know, probably 8 yards past the pin and sucked it 6 yards short of the pin. So when he gets within sand iron he's trying to control that spin, and as soft as they are, it's difficult for him to get it close.

I think at that time it was an opportunity to try and hit a smooth 7-iron, because down there it's actually a more daunting second shot when you look up to that green because there's nothing behind the pin from where he was looking. It was always going to be a tricky shot. So again, key shot to keep him under pressure.

Q. Were you surprised by the east I guess of the win, the fact that you won --

IAN POULTER: I'm not sure it was easy, to be honest. I mean, you're playing Rory and it was apparent when you're 1-down after being 3-up that this is not going to be an easy match and when he's kind of gifted me one on 10, you would expect him to have a half a chance to chip that in, obviously not, you're not expecting him to not get up-and-down.

And then obviously I've hit a great shot into 11 and that's not, again, not an easy pin for him when he's moving the ball right-to-left and hit and hold up shots to a right pin, water right, that's not really an easy shot. So I could play my cut in there nicely and I just kept him under pressure. But I wanted to keep the foot down because I, it's too easy to let him get back in the game like he did and then he takes control of the match.

Q. You have a unique skill of going for the throat in the right moments though and that obviously happened again today. Are you pleased that under those, when the moment arrived you took it?

IAN POULTER: I kind of like the shit or bust attitude, to be honest with you. It gets the adrenaline going, the ticker starts going and quite frankly you've just got to be -- shit or bust. You got to pony up and hit shots, right? So you got to suck it up and shit or bust. I mean, it's an Englishism. Yeah, I mean -- it's just one of those, you have to hit shots. This is that golf course where you're going to make mistakes, hazards everywhere, tricky pin position, it was just try and keep the foot down.

Q. To follow-up on 9 real quick, that is a moment watching it where you see after you hit the shot, okay the momentum had started to swing back and that second shot is so important because it starts to cascade the other way. Are you aware of that while you're standing over that second shot that this momentum could, you could reverse what is looking a little negative over the last couple holes?

IAN POULTER: Yeah, no question. He's got such a big advantage on 8, I was going in from 229 yards off a great tee shot and he's again 60 yards in front. And was able to just flick one in there quite tight. Yeah, like I say, you don't want to be 3-up and then 1-up against Rory and you don't want to let him in when he's got sand iron in hand. So it's times like that where you just kind of have to, you have to hit one. You just got to go straight at the pin and obviously try and again lump the pressure on and I think it was a good case of match play right there.

Q. Do you think that like being able to make that kind of shot distinguishes good match play golfers versus ones --

IAN POULTER: The ebbs and flows that you have in a great match, that, if you get your ball in first, sometimes, it loads the pressure on your opponent and especially when you're in front like that, you can at times force him to make a mistake.