Poulter upset at par five misses

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  • August 15, 2009

Ian Poulter battled into contention at the US PGA Championship on Friday, but was upset by his lack of par five success.

Ian Poulter battled into contention at the US PGA Championship, but was frustrated by his lack of success on Hazeltine National’s monster par-five holes.
Poulter shot a two-under 70 to finish the day at two under par for the tournament and handily placed in the clubhouse with leader Tiger Woods at five under in increasingly difficult conditions.
It was another rollercoaster ride for the Englishman in Minnesota having undone good work in his first round by bogeying his last two holes for a level-par 72.
Poulter quickly reached three under par but fell back to even in the space of his first 10 holes, before getting his challenge back on track.
“It was a good day,” Poulter said. “Good to battle back from there to get it back under par.
“It’s just a shame I didn’t take advantage of the par fives today; five birdies, none on the par fives.”
Not being one of the longest hitters on tour, Poulter said his strategy was simple for Hazeltine’s four par fives, three of which measure longer than 600 yards.
“(The strategy was) try and hit your tee shot as hard as you physically can to get it as far down there as you possibly can,” he said.
“I just think that there’s a couple of par fives out there which may be in range for probably five players, and you can name exactly who they were.
“They figured yesterday on the leaderboard. (Alvaro) Quiros, longest hitter out there, got up there on probably most of the fives. Tiger can get home.
“A few of the big boys, if they do hit a good drive, they can pitch it at 310 (yards) and that’s an advantage, because on a couple of those fairways, you can actually get an extra kick and get another 20, 30 yards.
“So you have a big gap between an average hitter and a long hitter, which is a shame really, but it is what it is.”

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