WHENEVER a sports star reacts to an interview he has given which has caused distasteful headlines by claiming he was misquoted, journalists all over the land breathe a collective sigh of disgust.England cricket captain Michael Vaughan was a recent offender and made a total fool of himself when it was proved he made scathing, yet justifiable, comments about Andrew Flintoff.
It’s a real pity our PR-led society means he felt it was better to annoy journalists and temporarily appear a shameless idiot than it was to stand by his comments about a team-mate.
Ian Poulter picked up that same baton last week and, to no great surprise, made an even bigger prat of himself. Firstly he posed nude on the front cover of a golf magazine, his dignity preserved only by a pink golf bag (shameless product placement in full flow). Can’t honestly imagine Tiger doing that, but each to their own.
Secondly, he claimed he had little time for the games of his peers, Woods excepted, and that when he really hit his straps it would come down to a dogfight between the former club pro and the greatest player the game has ever seen.
Or maybe he didn’t. Poulter claims he was misquoted and taken out of context after kindly inviting the journalist into his home. I could be totally wrong, but given a choice between the characters of Poulter and the man who wrote the article, I’m backing the journalist.
For what it’s worth I rate Poulter’s game quite highly. He’s just the type to pluck a Major out of nowhere as the more talented likes of Sergio Garcia three-putts his way to distraction.
But to come out with such self-centred, disrespectful and arrogant nonsense is delusional at best.
After winning in Dubai Woods was asked about the mammoth gap between his ranking and that of world No 2 Phil Mickelson. “But I thought Poulter was number two,” responded Woods.
Word has it he and Woods are pretty friendly. But I sensed there was a good slice of disdain in Woods’s words and I welcomed every consonant and vowel.
Woods has a nice line in disdain, after all. Just ask Rory Sabbatini or Stephen Ames. At least those two didn’t compound their foot-in-mouth episodes with a pathetic attempt at an excuse.
Chris Bertram
4 comments:
Would back the author Jock Howard over anything 'Poults' comes out with. Silly, deluded little clown.
The only prat here is the author of this column. Why, oh why, do we do our sports stars down in this country? Come on, Poults, show the idiots that they are wrong and win the Masters in a play-off from Tiger.
Poulter has only got himself to blame. He shouts his mouth off at every opportunity he gets without engaging his brain first. I'd bet my house on him never winning a major never mind being in the same class as Tiger.
For me Poulter is more bothered about how good his hair looks or what car he drives than how good his golf is. I read his interview in which these comments were made and safe to say it made me chuckle. The guy is absolutely deluded. To compare himself to Tiger Woods is ridiculous. To even mention him in the same breath as the legend TW is is laughable. I don't reckon Tiger will lose to much sleep on the back of these stupid comments.
Poulter receives far too much publicity for me so all i would say to these Journalists is stop interviewing him. Lets read an article on an upcoming talent like Oli or Ross Fisher. I'm sure it would be a much more entertaining read.
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