Poulter: Death To America...Golf

Lawrence Donegan reports on Ian Poulter's lively pre-Open comments about the state of American golf.

"The American guys who have won all the tournaments over the past few years are getting older," said the world No8. "Phil [Mickelson] is 40 – can he do what Vijay [Singh] did in his 40s? He's strong enough; it's whether he is hungry enough, I guess.

"The talent [in America] to replace them is very young and needs a bit more experience, so we have a 15-year window. The Americans have a gap and that gap is being filled by European guys right now, guys who are in their late 20s, early 30s and who are doing the job right now.

"In five years' time we should have taken a few majors. I don't want to put a number on it but the [English] guys that are in the top 40 in the world are all capable of winning them. It's for us to go out there and prove it but we can certainly win one or two a year, for sure."

Comments

[Longy]

Typical Pom, talking themselves up. Didn't they have a window to win the World Cup too, which has just evaporated.
I like Poulter, but there's a hint of Beckham in there, and he underachieved in the big ones didn't he.
Yes, it seems like the Yanks stocks are a little low at the moment, but history shows they win the vast bulk of the majors.
There is still a bloke called Woods to contend with too. I don't think he's quite done.

[2ndSwingGolf]

Direct shot at Lucas Glover and Dustin Johnson?

[Scott]

Yeah, Sam Hutsby has the Americans quaking in their Lovejoys. Drool Britannia.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Says a guy with one win on the PGA Tour. Yawn...

[Prastagus]

The difference between the Young Brits of Golf and the Young Brits of Football is that the former might just be as good as they think they are. The latter... not so much.

If you include the Ulstermen (which I'm sure he is) I think he's dead on with his comments.

[sir real]

Ian loves to stir it up....yo pal, how about securing one YOURSELF before popping off about how many the rest of the lads can haul in! The talent of the English, Irish and Scottish players is immense, but it's hard to win Majors. Time will tell, but I think the game is always better when plenty are in the mix and some of the big boyz add some spice and duke it out, shot for shot, down the stretch.

[Tommy Naccarato]

Eric, I was thinking the same thing!

Pouleter's comment sort of reminds me of the Davis Love comment about how Tiger was going to have to learn how to play golf with them; pay his dues, when he came out professionally in the summer of 1996. (I think it was 1996)

[Grant]

Good on him. At least he is prepared to say something remotely interesting! A character, and we need more of them, and him.

[Tim in Hoylake]

Although never wise to kick a lion in the head when he's dozing off, Ian adds a little flavour - something some of us like, but many find inappropriate. The North American sports mentality of cliche-driven drivel is a little suffocating, but for major wins it comes down to quantity not quality. With the quicky major courses on offer, one off winners are more frequent, and the number of Americans has secured a numer of wins. As noted on the Open site, the top ten is half British now, so maybe the volume argument will favour them. In this decade we've had 2 of 40 majors played: currently 1-1. Any guesses on final count: I'll go with 20 US; 12 British; 8 other.

[Press Agent]

Grant sums it up nicely.

For me, it's less about whether they have the talent or not, I simply don't want to see most of the American players when I watch golf. They are boring and characterless. How many people are talking about Stewart Cink as returning champion?? how many people care about Ben Curtis - Open Champion? How many people care about Zach Johnson - Masters champion? ALMOST NOBODY!. I don't really care if the Euros win the majors, I'm still going to enjoy watching them play more than the Americans (except Phil of course).

[Scott]

Press agent, I'm sure we're all thankful to know you find most American golfers boring. A most valuable opinion indeed. I have no idea of your nationality, but if it's British as I suspect I would remind you that when Kenny Perry or whoever in America refuses to make the trip over to Britain to play in their sandbox the British kick and scream and throw their toys out of the crib. So clearly the British do like to watch Americans play, even though we're all boring Bible-thumping robots with no imagination and flair.

[The Q]

Scott, you are so wrong about the American players...some have flair!!!

[Scott]

Q:
It was sarcasm you dolt.

[Press Agent]

Scott, I'm what you would call a self hating American, welcome to the site. I don't recall anyone from the UK complaining about Kenny Perry not showing up, I do recall a bunch of American press hounding the crap out of him for choosing to skip a MAJOR in a year when he was playing well, to focus on not getting tired for the future joke team event later in the year.

I completely agree with this part of your post: "even though we're all boring Bible-thumping robots with no imagination and flair." with an over emphasis on length and a lack of fashion sense - i would add.