Controversial wild card keeps eyes on the prize

THEY used to call Raymond Floyd “The Stare” but after this Ryder Cup the copyright on steely-eyed gazes well and truly belongs to Ian Poulter.

Poulter came into this Ryder Cup as one of the odd men out on this European team, a controversial captain’s pick by Nick Faldo when a continent craved Darren Clarke.

He had further disenfranchised his potential support by not even showing up at Gleneagles in late August for the final tournament in the European qualifying period, choosing instead to stick to his PGA Tour schedule and wait by the phone for a call from the captain, a man he first met as a 15-year-old schoolboy and whom he had idolised.