19th Hole
Ian Poulter opens up on “tough times” that followed LIV Golf announcement
Ian Poulter, frequent European Ryder hero, has admitted that he feels the opposition to LIV is hard to understand but “fair,” although he doesn’t understand why “they take it so far.”
The 47-year-old winner of three PGA Tour events and 12 European titles was the star of episode three of the Netflix documentary titled ‘Money or Legacy’
During the episode Poulter discusses his no-loss record at the Ryder Cup singles, family life, getting older, and, of course, the decision surrounding an offer to join the Saudi-led money-rich tour.
After opening 2022 with a tied-sixth in Abu Dhabi, Poulter had a best of 30th over his next 10 outings, including missing the cut in Texas and at the PGA Championship.
Having missed the weekend at Southern Hills, and therefore again missing out on prize-money, Poults says: “Working for free doesn’t float my boat.”
Asked if he would join LIV, he replies, “It’s a business decision. It’s an opportunity, so we’ll see.”
He expanded on that once returning to his UK home, saying, “The fact of there being guaranteed money at play is obviously an attraction. People ask all the time, don’t you have enough already? But that’s all relative. I treat my golf as a job, and I want to obviously maximize every bit of my potential over the coming years.”
Last week, though, Poulter said he simply couldn’t understand the vitriol that has been directed at the players.
The Florida-based player told The Telegraph’s James Corrigan that he took to comfort eating to overcome the abuse and negative comments surrounding his decision to join LIV.
“Those sarnies, covered in HP sauce, on a daily basis, were great, delicious, as was all the chocolate and everything, but I was feeling awful, slovenly, and it was plainly not a pleasant situation.
“I would never admit that I was stress-eating, but who knows the way the mind works? I was getting ridiculous abuse and, in that sense, they were tough times.”
He continued by saying he felt appearing on the series had proved very positive, and that viewers had changed their opinion of him.
“After the first seven or eight months of having the same opinion shouted at me, I was worried how it would be received, but I have been taken aback by the response.
“I mean, scrolling through the messages, since it was released 10 days ago, it’s been one positive thing after another. The opposite of what I’ve become used to.”
Not only was the money a tempter, but that oft-quoted view on the choice to play less clearly weighed heavily on the decision.
“People ask all the time ‘don’t you have enough already?’ but that’s all relative. I treat my golf as a job and I obviously want to maximise every bit of my potential over the coming years. “
Poulter revealed in the episode that, “Over the 20-plus years, I’ve been away for over 50% of their [four children’s] growth, missing birthdays, walking, talking, first steps. It’s hard sometimes when you sit back and you’ve missed all of that, but yet you’ve hopefully secured them a nice path moving forward.”
Poults, who finished an ironic runner-up behind Henrik Stenson – European Ryder Cup captain until his own jump to LIV – at the 2009 Players at Sawgrass, is also more positive about his chances of making this year’s Ryder Cup team, but only if he does it via his own results.
“Look, I just want to be accepted as a normal member of a members’ organisation and as an independent contractor who wants to play golf globally–simple as that. We’ll find out if that’s possible soon enough, although I’ll have to play my way into the team anyway because there’s no chance I’ll get one of the six wildcards, whatever I do.”
The appearance on Netflix has clearly done him the world of good, and Poults appears ready to give it all he has over the next few months.
Now back to what he calls his “fighting weight”, the owner of IJP Design says he is “doing it more seriously than ever, with my training and my diet.”
More from the 19th Hole
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish
An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.
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