Ian Poulter

You had to cut it up over the tree?

It wasn’t over the tree; I was too close to the tree to get it over and to the green into the wind. I had to hit a snap slice around the trees, which the TV cameras didn’t pick up. I couldn’t get an eight-iron up and over so I ended up hitting a 25 yard sliding cut, – whatever you want to call it. I went ahead and executed it just perfectly.

Have you had a chance to watch the coverage back to see what the boys did behind you?

I’ve watched some of it back and it was great. I've seen the NBC feed but I'd like to the Sky coverage and have a look at that.

Sam Torrance was fanatical in the commentary (which we saw in Hong Kong).

(Laughing) I’ll bet he was! I’d like to see that.

There was the shot of you in coverage when Justin Rose was lining up his birdie putt on the 18th to win his match against Phil Mickelson. You were in the background looking as if you couldn’t bear to watch.

I had to turn away, I didn’t know what to do with myself at that point! I knew it was so critical to get five points (early) on the board to get ahead. That would have given everyone else in the team a massive boost to go ahead with it.

That putt he holed on 17, the 40-footer, and then again on 18 – awesome!
It would have been epic TV. I could see it (when I watched) in the re-run, the drama that was unfolding all day. I can imagine how tense people were sitting at home watching it on TV. It was magic.

Even though this Cup and others have been closely fought affairs, do you think the Europeans have it over the US a little in their competitive ‘DNA’?

I think we "get" team sport a little more than they get team sport. That’s definitely a factor and it’s been talked about a number of times.

Why that really is, I’m not sure, but it definitely is a factor. It definitely plays with them and it plays on their mind when they get into situations where it becomes a mind game. They’re then on the back foot and find themselves in a difficult situation. It plays a part.