I’m back with another unapologetic Ian Poulter super-fan post. One thing that drives me crazy is how often Poulter is labeled as a jerk and a showoff while people choose to completely ignore his positive contributions to the game as well as society as a whole. Just Google “Ian Poulter Dream Flight.” That’s a soapbox I’ll get on some other day, but Poulter is a great guy who has worked his ass off to get where he is and has a good soul. I happen to know a few people who know him directly and they echo these sentiments.
Anyway, during my morning social media browsing on my train ride into work a few days ago, I stumbled across a post from the GOAT of golf media, the European Tour. This article discusses Ian’s early days in the golf business and how far he’s really come.
Ryder Cup star. Ferrari owner. Multi-millionaire. The Ian Poulter of today lives a very different life to the Ian Poulter of yester-year, who sold sausage rolls, manned a cash register, and coached juniors for just £1.
One of Poulter’s key roles at Leighton Buzzard involved leading the club’s junior section. Every Sunday he would run group sessions for children aged between five and ten, which would only cost each youngster £1 – not bad for a lesson from a man who has since gone on to win 17 European Tour titles.
“We used to call it ‘PeeWee Club’,” said Scarbrow. “Any child who turned up on a Sunday morning, we would charge them one pound a go, and we used to have at least 60 coming along for those sessions. It was Ian’s love of the game and his enthusiasm that helped drive this forward.
“He was a good little coach – anything he put his mind to he was good at, which made him such a pain in the neck at times!”
Say what you will, but that’s a great contribution to the game. Imagine those kids all grown up now and remembering this Ryder Cup legend used to give them lessons for a quid. That’s just flat out great stuff.
While Scarbrow admits that Poulter would blame ‘cats, dogs, deers, moose and flat tyres’ when he was running late – ‘he was always late’, Scarbrow says – he more often remembers times when a hard-working Poulter went the extra mile.
“When the club built a new club house we had to run the Pro Shop from a shed,” he said. “To help make money in the winter Ian came up with the idea that we should sell hot soup and sausage rolls from the shed.
“He would go and visit the baker’s each day to pick up the sausage rolls. Every little helped the club, and it showed he had an entrepreneurial side to him – he now deals in Ferraris which is a bit of a step up!”
“What an animal! Such a lazy disgrace to professional golf and humanity!” Oh wait…that’s not right. Clearly that brain was ticking and Poulter has always been willing to work hard and make positive contributions to his community. If you like Poulter, it’s a good read. If you don’t like Poulter, give the article a read and see if it possibly gives you some better insight. Or better yet, helps enlighten you.
