GOLF: Baked beans to Ryder Cup

IAN POULTER'S hunger to play for Europe in this autumn's Ryder Cup has been fuelled by a diet of curried baked beans.

English golf's most colourful character still needs a run of good form to cement his place in Bernhard Langer's side to play at Oakland Hills. He currently lies 10th in the money list but knows with six qualifying tournaments to come he could easily miss out.

During the final run-in, however, he will be driven on by happy, if slightly uncomfortable, memories of his first trip to watch a Ryder Cup.

As a young assistant pro of just 17, Poulter and two mates went to The Belfry in 1993. And his lifestyle then was a far cry from the first-class travel and five-star hotel he would enjoy as a 2004 Ryder Cup star.

Poulter recalled: "I stayed in a tent for three days with two mates, who were also assistant pros. We had a few tinnies and had curried baked beans cooked every night on a little camp stove. It was a bit like being at Glastonbury - it was good fun."

Poulter vividly remembers, too, the moment his plans to become a club pro were upgraded to dreams of Ryder Cup glory. "It was Nick Faldo holing a five iron at The Belfry. What a roar there was! I just thought, I've got to have a bit of this. It was a huge buzz."

Having turned pro on leaving school, Poulter lacks the matchplay pedigree of many of his English contemporaries who have played as amateurs in the Walker Cup.

But he claims that will not hold him back if he makes it to Oakland Hills. "Apart from the Assistants' Golf Matchplay and the Seve Trophy, that's about it. But I think it is an excellent format - you don't have to play well some days to really wind your opponents up.

"You can miss a few fairways, miss a few greens, but chip and putt well and all of a sudden from hitting a couple of loose shots the game feels as if it's in your hands rather than theirs. It's good fun.

"Attacking golf is great for matchplay. You have to make birdies all the time to win holes - so that would hopefully stand me in good stead.

"I'd love it - the thought of all those spectators watching. Just like last week at The Open, but magnified 10 times.

"To have been at a couple of Ryder Cups just watching and then to be part of it all, that would be such a buzz."

THETOP TEN

The men who fill the 10 automatic Ryder Cup placings with six events to go. Captain Bernhard Langer has two wild cards.

Sergio Garcia

Padraig Harrington

Darren Clarke

Miguel Angel Jimenez

Lee Westwood

Thomas Levet

Paul Casey

David Howell

Joachim Haeggman

Ian Poulter

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