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Poulter and Spieth, not-so-courteous courtesy cars

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There’s been more in the news (depending on your definition of news) about courtesy cars recently than any golf fan has ever asked for, but it seems PGA Tour players have been playing fast and loose with their free wheels the past few weeks.

Car aficionado Ian Poulter had his courtesy car towed on Saturday after the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open when he parked too far from a Korean restaurant, where he was dining with his caddy, and he couldn’t get it back.

[quote_box_center]”There were 60 spots in the car park,” Poulter told the Associated Press. “We walked 40 yards to a restaurant, but apparently that restaurant that we ate in wasn’t quite in the vicinity of where I should have parked. The kind security guard who was standing by my car as I parked waited until I left and then called a tow truck to tow it away so he could make some money.”[/quote_box_center]

Poulter thought his car had been stolen after leaving the restaurant.

“I told him my car had been stolen,” Poulter said. “He said, ‘Nope, we towed it away.’ I said, ‘That was awfully nice of you.’ A few similar words.”

I’m sure “a few similar words” weren’t as similar to “awfully nice” as Poulter said.

Oh get over it. Just call the towing service and get the car back, right? Well, it wasn’t that easy.

[quote_box_center]”Obviously, we sign a nice piece of paper in the office that says we drive the car for the week, so I’ve got no documents that says this is my vehicle,” he said. “I had to leave it there and get a taxi. Uber to the rescue.”[/quote_box_center]

According to Poulter, parking in the wrong place wasn’t actually his fault — he was just obeying the orders of his caddie Terry Mundy.

[quote_box_center]”It was brilliant, because my caddie told me to park there,” Poulter said.[/quote_box_center]

Mundy will certainly hope to make better decisions for Poulter on Sunday, since he sits just three shots out of the lead at Torrey Pines

Jordan Spieth also made headlines for getting a courtesy car towed in the parking lot at last week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open — except it wasn’t his.

He was playing a prank on PGA Tour rookie Justin Thomas, who reportedly parked in Spieth’s designated parking spot.

The two have known each other since they were 14 years old when they both represented the U.S. at the Evian Junior Masters in France, but even a long-lasting relationship can’t get in the way of good-natured rookie hazing.

[quote_box_center]”I’m not going to be outdone by a rookie,” Spieth said. “When I arrived, I decided to tip the valet guys and tell them, ‘My buddy is trying to mess with me. Can we tow his car out of here? Can you put my car in there and not mention it and tow his somewhere else?’ There’s always an extra set of keys (for courtesy cars), so they got the keys and took his car three lots over.”[/quote_box_center]

Spieth’s agent, Jay Danzi, told Thomas in the clubhouse that the car had been taken back to the Hilton Hotel, which was an estimated 20 miles from the course in downtown Phoenix — except the rookie was staying only a mile away from TPC Scottsdale in a house.

“He had me going. … I just wanted to leave,” Thomas said. “He eventually told me the guys moved it to one of the other parking lots. I came over and the head valet guy is smiling at me.”

He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. michael

    Feb 13, 2015 at 12:49 pm

    Restaurants and courtesy cars. Gee I wonder how all the hungry children in this country feel going to bed every night after looking for food in restaurant dumpsters. Where do they park??????

  2. Zra

    Feb 10, 2015 at 9:28 am

    Maybe things are different in my country, but could anyone enlighten me how Poulter parked the car in a parking lot near the restaurant and still got it towed ?

    • mike pickens

      Feb 10, 2015 at 7:06 pm

      restaurants own or lease their own parking lots, Ian probably parked in a lot owned/leased by restaurant A, but walked into restaurant B, which the “kind security guard” witnessed and then made the call for the car to be towed

  3. cb

    Feb 9, 2015 at 12:31 am

    I would have loved to be that uber driver

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