The Defending Champ

Twelve months ago Ian Poulter put on a four-round master class at the UBS Hong Kong Open to secure his second tournament win of the year. By anyone's reckoning, his play was sublime.

Kicking off with a tidy 67, the outspoken Englishman wowed the Fanling galleries on the second day when he tore round in just 60 strokes. Following up with rounds of 64 and another 67, Poulter – the golf world's most popular tweeter with a staggering 1.2 million followers – eventually prevailed by a shot from countryman Simon Dyson and exciting young Italian talent Matteo Manassero.

That epic performance, many thought, would have been the catalyst that lifted Poulter on to bigger things. Yes, he finished second a week later at the Dubai World Championship – famously incurring a penalty in the play-off after accidentally dropping his ball on his diamond-encrusted platinum marker to lose to Robert Karlsson – and then he won the World Match Play event in Spain in May. But 2011 cannot be considered a standout year, not by Poulter's standards at any rate.

Missed cuts at the US Open and The Open were bookended by mid-field finishes at the Masters and US PGA, putting Poulter's major ambitions on hold for yet another season.
But the 35-year-old is not one to dwell on past misfortune. Indeed, Poulter – once maligned as simply a snapper dresser, one lacking the all around game to challenge for the biggest titles – is nothing if not confident. His pathway into the professional game tells us that.

Unlike any other world-class golfer – and Poulter, who in 2010 reached the heady heights of number five in the world rankings, is certainly that – the defending UBS Hong Kong Open champion did not enjoy an impressive amateur career. Indeed, Poulter had no amateur career to speak of at all. Turning pro with a handicap of four at the age of 19, this engaging North Londoner (and avid Arsenal supporter) spent more time in the following three years re-gripping clubs and selling confectionary in the pro shop at a local golf facility near to his hometown of Stevenage than he did practicing.

But it was the confidence and belief in himself and his game that took him first to the Challenge Tour and thenceforth to the far grander stage of the European Tour and , in 2005, to the PGA Tour. His story – in the modern game, at least – is unique.

Now, of course, he is heralded as not only a wonderful Ryder Cup player – he is something of a match play specialist – but also something of a businessman. Launching IJP Design four years ago, Poulter's energy and enthusiasm (not to mention style) has made a success of his much-talked-about clothing line.

But despite his off-course apparel adventures, Poulter remains firmly focused on his original ambition: being a winner, which is something he is all too keen to replicate at Fanling next month.