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WGC HSBC CHAMPIONSOctober 31, 2012Ian PoulterSHENZHEN, CHINA JUSTIN ROSE: What can I ask Poults? IAN POULTER: Make it really good. JUSTIN ROSE: How can I beat you this week? Because you're looking like you're buoyant at the moment. IAN POULTER: How can you beat me this week? Oohh, let me see. JUSTIN ROSE: You're looking like‑‑ IAN POULTER: Well, you hit it past me. You've got me covered off the tee. You've nearly got me covered in greens in reg, because you're like 99.9998 percent greens in reg. So just warm the plate up, buddy. JUSTIN ROSE: The boy's got the bit between his teeth again, watch out. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Hard to follow that. Welcome to Mission Hills, a place you know well, looking forward to the week. IAN POULTER: Very much. So played here a number of times, I actually I can't remember how many times, it's been quite a few in World Cup format. I think the course is one which opens itself up to quite a few birdies, five par 5s, it's going to be an exciting week to play in a stroke‑play event as opposed to knowing the course as a kind of foursomes and a four‑ball course. I think the scores are going to be pretty low and you're going to have to play well. It's a strong field, a lot of guys in decent form, so expecting to low. Q. What's it like back in the day job last week, and how determined are you to get a W before the end of 2012? IAN POULTER: I'm fairly motivated to put a W on the board before the end of the year. I felt last week I was really frustrated after three days. Felt that my ball‑striking was as good as it's been all year. Put myself in a lot of positions where I felt I should have converted to make birdie. I probably had in two consecutive days, probably 12 putts each day under 15 feet for birdie and barely converted them. As hot as my putter was last time out, it went cold for a few days early in the week. I was getting frustrated but I knew if I could hole a few, there for I could get a result. The result was there on Sunday, seven birdies, no mistakes. A fourth position was acceptable; I wouldn't say it was a great week. I would have said it was acceptable for how I played, and if I do the same this week and putt well, then I'm definitely going to be there again. I would like to add a win to the resumé this year and sign off in a good way. Q. If you don't get that W, will what happened at The Ryder Cup and your performance, will that sustain you over the winter months? IAN POULTER: It's going to sustain me for a long time.  Very happy with my performance there and my record in The Ryder Cup is pretty good, so I'm going to be dining out on that one for quite a while, as I still am right now. (Laughter). But I on a personal level need to go out there and win a golf tournament. I feel that I've certainly played well enough this year; so you know, yes, I'm going to put some pressure on myself over the last five tournaments to make sure I get a victory. But that Ryder Cup is going to be there for a long time. You know, people keep referring to it and we're only three weeks out and I think people are going to refer to it for a long time to come. So I'm going to keep dining out on that one for a while. Q. You touched on you played this course many times in match play, and you're obviously phenomenal in The Ryder Cup in match play; how does it affect or change your game? IAN POULTER: It's not match play. The World Cup's not quite match play. It's foursomes and four‑ball. Q. Well, that's what I mean, but between that and stroke play, how does that effect, or how do you alter your game between those two approaches? IAN POULTER: Well, I mean, you have a partner and then you don't have a partner. So you know, I would look at this golf course that it's a golf course that will give up a lot of birdies. As I said earlier, five par 5s, some other holes which you would look to take advantage of. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone go and shoot 10‑under par this week.  It's that type of golf course. It will lend itself, like last week, to if you're going to play good golf, you're going to see a good score. The 10‑under last week of Jamie Donaldson was a great score. It was four shots better than anyone else on the day. But when you look at the golf course and the way it played, you could visually see that and you can definitely see that out on this golf course. If you get off to a good start and you can take advantage of those 5s; and we've got a field this week which are pretty long off the tee. You're going to see guys being very aggressive and it wouldn't surprise me to see a couple of guys make two eagles on the 5s. When you get that on this type of golf course, guys only need to roll a few more putts in and you have that 10‑under par number. So I would think that scoring is going to be very low this week. Q. You say you've been dining out on The Ryder Cup and I saw a story describing you as a global superstar the other day. Do you find people have been treating you differently since then? IAN POULTER: I wouldn't say been treating me differently. I think there's been a nice welcome wherever I've been. It's been a strong talking point. You know, various dinners that I've done and everywhere where I've been over the last few weeks, it's been a talking point. And whether that's been with the group of Americans or Canadians or Brits or Europeans or whoever it reached, and it reached quite a few homes, people wanted to talk about it, so it's been very nice to be able to tell the stories of how the week unfolded and they are only too happy to listen. It's a week that touched a lot of people. It was a huge comeback, and you know, people want to know kind of the other side of the story that they didn't get to see from inside out. You know, we experienced something there in the team room and as a team which not many people are going to get a chance to do and people love to talk about it. Q. You've been here in China many times to a tournament; do you find it difficult to use the Twitter to communicate with the rest of the world? IAN POULTER: No. I mean, I use my 3G, so I pay for it, as opposed to go on the wireless which means you can't get it, and I Tweet as normal (smiling) (laughter). Q. It seems like you are a catwalk model all the time you appear in public. How much time do you spend on grooming yourself and choosing our outfit? IAN POULTER: Wow. Well, this morning I took about six minutes. Quick shower, ruffled the hair up and out the door. My trousers and shirt were already hanging. I lay everything out in day order so I know which ones to grab. Doesn't take me long at all. (Laughter). I think I've done it once or twice now so I've kind of got it. Might take another eight if I shave. Q. Your European teammates, which one do you think is the most muscular? IAN POULTER: Muscular of my Ryder Cup teammates? Q. And fashionable and handsome. IAN POULTER: Well, muscular is going to have to be Mr.Westwood. He's a big boy. Q. Handsome? IAN POULTER: Hmmm, let me see. Oh, the German, Martin Kaymer. And what was the last one? Muscular, handsome and‑‑ fashionable? No, none of them can dress. MICHAEL GIBBONS: I don't think we are going to get any better than that. Thanks, Ian. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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