Ian Poulter at the LIV Golf Chicago event. (Image: Getty)
Ian Poulter has insisted he won’t be following in the footsteps of fellow star Sergio Garcia in order to compete for a place at the next year. This month, the Spaniard confirmed in order to be eligible for selection for the team event in Bethpage, with Team Europe bidding to succeed on American soil for the first time since 2012.
The lynchpin of that success, famously dubbed ‘The Miracle in Medinah’, was Poulter – winning all four of his matches as the visitors pulled off a sensational comeback from 10-6 down on the final day.
However, having at one point looked certain to one day be appointed team captain, his controversial move to the Saudi-backed tour has soured relations between the Englishman and European golf bosses.
The 48-year-old has cut a belligerent figure ever since appearing in the inaugural rebel event in June 2022, refuting criticism of his decision and accusing the status quo of imposing unfair sanctions. And he’s now said that unlike Garcia, he’s not prepared to take financial punishment just to add to his Ryder Cup legacy.
“He would have had a $1million (£780,000) worth of fines paid already,” he told Sports Illustrated. “He’ll play 14 LIV events next year, five of them are fineable of $100,000 (£80,000) a week so he would have spent $2.4m (£1.9m) to give him that freedom to have a chance. That’s a lot of money spent to try and make a team.”
Despite confirming that his fines would be covered by LIV’s indemnity policy, the former world No.5 argued his decision was based on principle. And it seems his position won’t be chaining anytime soon.
Sergio Garcia has said he intends to pay all his DP World Tour fines, (Image: Getty)
He said: “As it stands today I’m currently not a member of the European Tour so I am not eligible to be able to become captain or vice captain, so until that position changes you can only really play the hypothetical game of how I really feel up until that point.
“I personally wouldn’t pay because I felt it was unjust at the time to be fined $100,000 a week because it makes no sense to me at all,” he added. “My stance has never changed. I’ve played golf all over the world. I was never paying fines when I played outside of Europe on other tours around the world so my stance is exactly the same as I had three years ago.”
Regardless, Poulter’s form since jumping ship means selection as a player next September would have been highly unlikely anyway. He was 37th in the individual LIV standings this season, a place behind fellow veteran Lee Westwood, and is still waiting for his first tour win.
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In contrast, Garcia finished third, only denied overall glory by compatriot Jon Rahm and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann. But Poulter still cast doubt on whether the 44-year-old would be able to earn a Ryder Cup place.
“I haven’t spoken to Luke Donald (European captain) to be honest,” he admitted. “I don’t know if Luke has had any conversations with Sergio at length. I don’t know how many tournaments he is earmarking to play in Europe so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”