Angry Poulter struggles again

Ian Poulter, joint course record-holder at the Forest of Arden with Colin Montgomerie, failed to break par for the third day running today.

Yet even at eight over par the Ryder Cup star still believes he has an outside chance of winning the Daily Telegraph Dunlop Masters.

After a 73 Poulter said: “If the wind stays the same I don’t think anybody will be under par at the end.

“And if I can get going tomorrow then you never know. Anything is possible.”

The course record stands at 63. Montgomerie achieved his in 1997 and Poulter two years ago – after surviving the halfway cut with nothing to spare. He went on to finish joint second.

While still holding out hopes of a similar charge through the field the 29-year-old from Milton Keynes sounded disgusted with how he is playing, his round having included a shank off the tee at the short eighth which resulted in a double-bogey five.

“I take no encouragement from this week – except that I am at home,” he commented. "How can you take encouragement from being 70th? That’s not acceptable in anybody’s eyes and there’s nothing positive.”

Poulter, who in February reached the semi-finals of the Accenture world match play in California, added that he had three shanks during last month’s Masters at Augusta and said there was a possibility he could be taking some time off from the game.

He then pulled out of his golf bag a newspaper article which had clearly annoyed him. In it he was described as struggling so badly in his opening 75 that playing partner Montgomerie “must have thought he was back in Wednesday’s pro-am”.