Ian Poulter hits out at BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Unimpressed at the way golf gets treated by the BBC Sports Personality of the Year? Turns out you’re in good company.

Ryder Cup hero Ian Poulter shared his feelings on the event after the European Solheim Cup team was controversially snubbed for the ‘Team of the Year’ gong tonight.

Despite winning on US soil for only the second time and successfully defending the trophy in the face of a massively partisan home crowd, Catriona Matthew’s charges were overlooked in favour of the England men’s football team that lost in the final of the European Championships.

That’s right – a team that lost beat a team that won. Go figure. 

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This, though, is nothing new for golf as far as SPOTY goes. Only twice in the 67-year history of the ceremony has a golfer won the main award: Dai Rees in 1957 and Sir Nick Faldo in 1987. 

There has been more success in the team award, with six Ryder Cup teams winning. However, the most recent of those came in 2010. No Solheim Cup team has ever won that prize, a trend that continued this evening to the disappointment – but not the surprise – of Poulter.

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The 45-year-old Englishman tweeted his disillusionment with the competition and explained how the 2012 show was the final straw for him. 

“[I] gave up on SPOTY years ago,” he wrote. “They asked several times if I’d fly over as Ryder Cup Team Europe were looking strong to win it in 2012. 

“So, I forked out to go for 48 hours only for the committee to overrule and give it to Team GB Olympics when it states in rules they can’t win.”

Plenty of other social media users shared Poulter’s disappointment at the Solheim Cup team’s snub…