Poulter pockets €625,000 after playoff triumph

BEFORE the Volvo Masters began on Thursday, Ian Poulter, the 28-year-old Ryder Cupper from Milton Keynes, said that he could only mark himself one out of 10 for the season.

Even after yesterday's play-off victory over Sergio Garcia, he still wasn't inclined to improve that rating beyond seven.

That's an indication of how demanding a standard Poulter sets for himself. He shot a final round of 70 that included three successive birdies from the 8th only to complete the final eight holes in a shaky one over. He finished up in a tie with Garcia on seven under before claiming the €625,000 winner's cheque at the 18th, the first play-off hole.

"I wasn't playing great coming here but it's funny the way things happen. I felt I should have won three times this year. I am very hard on myself. I'm a bad loser and I don't mind admitting that. I want to play all the big events and the key to that is moving up the world rankings. So I will hope to play a few tournaments in the States next year, although Europe will always be my home tour where I feel I'm capable of winning four or five times a year."

Garcia will be kicking himself for not completing the job on his first visit to the 18th yesterday, because he gave himself every chance of taking the lead when he covered the flag with a glorious eight iron that settled five feet behind the flag. But he made a poor effort at the putt and so had to settle for a round of 70 and a seven under par total.

The play-off was a major anti-climax for the unusually large final day crowd with Garcia struggling from the point he pushed his drive behind trees to the right of the fairway. Poulter found the left rough but at least had line of sight to the green. Garcia pulled his recovery into the left rough and after coming up short with the next, chipped to two feet for an almost certain bogey five. But Poulter wasn't going to let this chance slip away. Short of the green in two, he chipped beautifully a couple of feet and tapped in for the glory. Garcia's consolation was €416,660.

Many will be pleased that Garcia came up short after the way he escaped disqualification on Friday evening and it's a subject that's won't disappear without a lot of debate.

"I would love to won here at Valderrama and this was as close as you can get without winning. The putt on 18, five feet maybe, was inside the left edge, but I didn't trust it and pulled it. These are the things that happen when you put yourself in position. I won two play-offs in the States this year so I can hardly complain."

The same can hardly be said of Darren Clarke "I hope four of them pass me and I don't have to go, I'm glad this season is over" was his response at the prospect of travelling to Atlanta, Georgia, for this week's US Tour Championship. He can only avoid it if at least four players involved in the Chrysler Championship in Florida, leapfrog him in the order of merit and render him ineligible.

He had just closed the Volvo Masters with a round of 72 to finish on one over for the 72 holes and was as down in the dumps as I've ever seen him.

It's a week that will always be remembered by him for the 11 he took at the 17th on Thursday and which has prompted his great pal Lee Westwood to dub him "legs eleven." "The year has been horrendous," he groaned. "I haven't won and that was the aim. I've worked hard all year on all sorts of things, getting fit and practising hard. I just played poorly all year. I couldn't get it all together at any stage and I'm glad it's over.

"My game is not that bad but my scoring is. I don't know what my goal is for the rest of the season. I've just had it up to here (running his index finger across his throat). Nothing has worked."

Clarke finished best of the Irish in a tie for 11th worth €63,347, but there was no consoling him, even if this time he did gain some revenge on the 17th when he holed from twelve feet for birdie. Graeme McDowell made a fair shot of realising his pre-tournament goal of piecing together four consistent rounds. He closed yesterday with a 72 for a respectable two over par total of 286 and a tie for 15th worth €53,000. McDowell stressed that world ranking points and getting into the top 50 in the world was all that really mattered at this critical stage of his career. His last remaining outing of 2004 is the Visa Taiheiyo Masters in Japan in a couple of weeks' time where a decent number of points will be at stake. McDowell was 62nd going into Valderrama. He is already good for next year's British and US Opens and the US PGA Championship and if he doesn't crack the top 50 by the end of the year, he could still make the Masters by doing so by the end of next March. With that in mind, he will be seeking invitations to a few US Tour events early in the year and will also be busy tackling some of the more lucrative European tournaments.

Pádraig Harrington admitted that he "ran out of steam" over the closing holes of yesterday's round and it was a fair description given that he bogeyed four holes coming home.