Poulter confident of securing Ryder Cup spot

IAN POULTER is confident of strengthening his Ryder Cup bid with a third Italian Open win in five years in Milan.

Poulter is playing his first regular European Tour event since early March after five tournaments in America recently, where he made the cut four times, including on his US Masters debut.

He currently lies in the seventh automatic qualifying place for Bernhard Langer's European team which will defend the Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills in September.

And the 28-year-old is hopeful of securing his spot in the next few weeks before the expected birth of his second child.

"This season is all about the Ryder Cup," said Poulter, who finished 31st at Augusta and previously reached the quarter-finals of the World Matchplay Championship.

"I have to keep playing the way I am, putt a bit better, play the par-fives a bit better and I don't see it as too much of a problem.

"My schedule is set. Nothing will change unless it is the last three weeks and I have fallen out but I would like to get it done in the next four weeks so I can have a couple of weeks off with my newborn. This week, the British Masters and the Deutsche Bank; a nice treble there would sort it out nicely."

That is a typically confident statement from Poulter, who treated the crowds at Augusta to a number of pink outfits during the first major of the year. And he feels a target of three wins, making the Ryder Cup team and contending in a major in 2004 is well within reach.

Putting was the key at Augusta, where Poulter acquitted himself well on his debut despite being last on the putting statistics.

"I have got all the shots but it is a tricky place to play for your first time," added Poulter, whose previous Italian Open wins also came in even numbered years 2002 and 2004.

"But had I putted well I would have been right up there. I didn't walk away thinking it was impossible to putt on these greens. It may just take a year or so to get used to the greens.

"Give it a year or so for it to bed in and I think I can win that tournament. "I know I have all the shots for that course or I wouldn't be seventh in greens in regulation.

"It was amazing, I was proud to be there. I thought 'Wow' all this hard work has paid off. I went there the previous week and it was empty, not like you have ever seen it. Then you turn up on Monday and there are 30,000 spectators and it is a different course, the holes are all outlined.

"It is the most manicured course I have ever seen."

Poulter is the top-ranked player in the world competing in Milan, but he has slipped from 42nd to 50th, just four places above fellow Englishman Brian Davis.

Davis is already celebrating this week regardless of his performance, the Londoner's wife Julie giving birth to their first child, Oliver, on April 16.