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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 3, 2010

Ian Poulter

AKRON, OHIO

RODDY WILLIAMS: Ian, thanks very much for coming and joining us. Welcome to the Bridgestone Invitational.
IAN POULTER: Thank you.
RODDY WILLIAMS: One WGC Championship under your belt this year. You might get two this week.
IAN POULTER: I'd like to for sure. It's been an interesting two weeks after the Open, but it's nice to come back out and in some ways have a rest and play a round of golf. Very much looking forward to it.
It's a good golf course. The greens are always very, very good to putt on because they're very quick, they're very true, huge emphasis on distance control this week, and hopefully we can go out there and play good and putt well.
RODDY WILLIAMS: You haven't played a tournament since the Open. It must have been a pretty hectic couple of weeks for you.
IAN POULTER: Yeah, it's been a very crazy schedule. Obviously moving over to the States 18 months ago full-time, that kind of put a couple of charity days that I was due to play on hold, and obviously those commitments I fulfilled in the two weeks I had off after the Open. You know, I played in the charity days and my golf day, and I had a commitment pretty much every single day for about 12 straight days after the Open. So it was kind of hectic.
But you know, they're all done. They were for a great cause. There was a lot of money raised for charity, and we're here and somewhat refreshed to play golf.

Q. You're almost an American now, I guess, since you've been here for 18 months officially, so congratulations.
IAN POULTER: Thank you.

Q. You kind of started the trend that's continued with international players playing well here, and there have been 17, I guess, wins out of 34 events by players with international backgrounds. I'm wondering why you think that is and whether you think it'll continue.
IAN POULTER: Yeah, I do think it'll continue. When you look at the World Rankings and the number of players that have been playing very well from around the world, they've moved up in the World Ranking. I just think there are a lot of good golfers out there. There's a lot of good European golfers out there which have been winning over here, and I think that will continue.

Q. Do you think there's a root cause for it? Is it because there are more Europeans, top-level players playing here more with more opportunities and therefore that's why the sudden surge in winning? Or is there another reason for it?
IAN POULTER: Well, I think there is more Europeans playing over here. They've played their way onto the PGA TOUR. They've accepted membership, they've played their 15 events. Looking at the World Rankings, there's more Europeans in the top 30 or top 50 in the world than there ever has been, and they're happy to come and travel and play golf, which is great. It's great for the game of golf, so long may that continue.

Q. Can I ask you, these two weeks coming up and also the PGA next week, how important is it for you to be playing well leading into Wales? We just had Graeme McDowell in here saying he wants to get his feet back on the ground after winning the U.S. Open.
IAN POULTER: Yeah, I'd like to be playing well going into the Ryder Cup, but probably -- if I look at last time round, there was a lot of stress around trying to qualify for the side, and I probably wasn't playing my best golf leading up to it. But I went away for two weeks, I worked hard, and I came out and won four out of five points. I'm not looking at my form in any way, shape or form thinking I need to do anything extra special to be going into the Ryder Cup to be playing any differently than what I'm playing right now.
I feel my golf is in shape. I feel that my putting wasn't as good at the Open as what it could be. The greens were very slow. This week they're not going to be slow. No, I'm not putting myself under any pressure to play well going into the Ryder Cup. I just want to play golf, that's it. These two weeks coming up, Akron, U.S. PGA, there's three weeks off, three FedExCup events before a week off before and then obviously TOUR Championship. It's about concentrating on those weeks to play well, and then Ryder Cup will be Ryder Cup. That passion button will be switched on earlier in that week, and it's amazing what happens when that button gets pressed.

Q. Your take on Louis, his game, and are there any Louis stories, and were you surprised he just blitzed the Old Course?
IAN POULTER: I've played with him a couple of times. He hits it very long, and he swings it very, very, very well. I think we all like the way he swings the golf club.
Am I surprised he won? No, not really. As soon as he put himself in that position, somebody who swings it that good, if he can control his emotions can pretty much do anything, and I think he proved that to take the golf course apart the way he did. He was very impressive. He obviously kept himself in the moment, didn't get too carried away, didn't get too far in front of him, so obviously just managed to cruise home.

Q. We had two 59s shot within a three-week span here. There had only been three previously shot on record. What do you attribute that to?
IAN POULTER: I really don't know because honestly I didn't watch any of them to be honest with you, so I can't tell you how the golf course was playing, whether the weather was a factor in any way, for any reason. I don't know. I mean, it is kind of incredible when you do flick on and you just have a look at the scores and you see a couple of 59s in a few weeks.
Why that is, I really don't know, because I never saw them, so I really -- I can't tell you. I mean, I just can't explain it. I mean, the scoring was low last week anyway. Ross Fisher, I guess, had a chance to shoot 59 in Ireland, as well. Did he shoot 60, 61?

Q. 61.
IAN POULTER: 61. I did read that Graeme did actually quite fancy someone shooting 59 that week. I guess it's dependent on the golf course and obviously weather-dependent, as well. But 59 in flat, calm conditions is still very impressive.

Q. Do you think you guys from the UK are kind of spurring each other on at all? Is that kind of a rallying point?
IAN POULTER: Perhaps. We all know each other, we're all good friends and teammates and all that, so I guess the guys are getting inspired by one another, which is good.
RODDY WILLIAMS: Ian, thanks very much. Thanks for joining us.

End of FastScripts

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