Many questioned whether or not he had the game to match his colourful outfits and fiery attitude, and until his WGC Accenture Matchplay Championship win, they had every right.

But now, having become the first Englishman to win a WGC title, the third Englishman to move inside the world top ten and the leader of the European money list, it seems that Ian Poulter, a player that has so many times seemed to flatter to deceive, has put these criticisms to bed.

However, while he certainly has come in under the radar, Poulter’s rise to the top has not been the overnight success that it may seem. Poulter himself said, “It’s been a long time coming.”

His first season on the European Tour was nothing if not a success. He finished 31st on the Order of Merit and improved steadily in subsequent years, culminating in fifth place in 2003. Read more…

David Duval’s story will go down as one of the most remarkable in the game of golf. 

His momentous fall from grace must have been considered by golf-minded film directors as a harrowing hard-luck account.

But the chapters of this script are not yet completed, and ‘David Duval: A Golfer’s Tale’, seems to be taking yet another twist that we can only hope leads to a satisfactory end, and one that would surely merit a Holywood adaptation.

Almost ten years Duval has waited to get his hands on a piece of silverware, and he will have to wait longer still after coming so close at the AT&T Pebble Beach. Read more…

Lee Westwood has called it “bending the rules”, Scott McCarron says it amounts to “cheating”, while the USGA are insisting it’s permitted. Whatever side of the argument you fall on, it appears that the wedge debate has finally begun. 

The problem for most pros has surely got to be one of moral significance. Proponents of the honourable game have a duty to uphold the laws of the game and follow a strict code of conduct – just ask John Daly who served a six-month PGA Tour ban last year for behaviour unbecoming of golfers. 

The question, however, over the non-conforming but still allowed Ping-Eye 2 wedges made before 1990 is not quite as black and white as big John’s behaviour.   Read more…