Dubai: After last week’s disappointing finish at the Turkish Airlines Open in Antalya, English golfer Ian Poulter has re-jigged his sights on the DP World Tour Championship starting at the Jumeirah Golf Estates from Thursday.
After two solid days of golf, Poulter had a miserable third day only to make a spirited challenge on the final day before Brooks Koepka went on to win the Turkish Airlines Open in Antalya last weekend.
The result had consequences as Rory McIlroy was assured of The Race to Dubai title for the second time in three years.
Going into the tournament last week, Marcel Siem, Jamie Donaldson or Sergio Garcia needed to win in Turkey and deny McIlroy. But all three finished way off the target ensuring the Northern Irishman can go into this week’s finale in a better state of mind. “Obviously last week was a good week. It was slightly disappointing not to finish the job off but that’s happened the last couple of weeks. So I think if I sit back and analyse the last three weeks, overall, I’m very, very happy, but just slightly disappointed that I haven’t managed to get across the line at HSBC and obviously last week; with a six shot lead after two days, should have pressed on and got the job done,” Poulter said.
However, the 38-year-old Englishman has always felt at home in this part of the world with his performances proving it. “Coming into a golf course that I like and I’ve had good success here, being pipped by Robert Karlsson in the playoff and obviously Henrik [Stenson] last year. I like the golf course, the setup, and hopefully we can go one better,” he hoped.
“I’m very disappointed, but I’m over it. So I’m moving on to this week. I feel good about what’s just happened in the last couple of weeks, 44 in the World Rankings coming into this four week spell was nothing to be proud of. But obviously moving forward up to 26 and hopefully with a big win this week, put myself back in a position where I salvage something out of 2014,” Poulter added.
“So there are lots of positives out of the last couple of weeks, and that for me is actually quite exciting. To go sixth, second, and it would be nice to win this week and move nicely up that board. So that’s the goal for this week. Chase Stenson down again.”