Ian Poulter In Clock Controversy At Masters Augusta National

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published 6 April 2018

Ian Poulter reacts to be putting on the clock twice during his second round at Augusta National

Ian Poulter In Clock Controversy At Masters

Ian Poulter was put on the clock twice during his second round at the Masters (opens in new tab), a matter he was less than impressed about when questioned after his round.

The Englishman, who was playing alongside former Masters champion Trevor Immelman from South Africa and America's Patrick Cantlay, didn't mix his words when offering his opinion.

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Whether he was questioning the speed of his playing competitors or the decision in general, he said: "Listen, I don't care if I'm on the clock. It doesn't bother me. It's not, it's never going to affect my golf, so I'm fine. And I know I'm quick enough. That's all I'm saying."

Pressed on what he thought about the matter, he replied: "What did I think about it? I think as a group we were slow, but I'm not going to say the reasons why we were slow. I'm going to say “we”. Let me just generalise and say “we". Just to keep that clean."

Asked whether he'd been put out of his rhythm, he added: "Let me just say it's fine. I'm quite happy to be on the clock every hole of my life, it doesn't affect me.

"I'm quite comfortable being on the clock every single shot. I'm not going to call foul. Unless you stand on the 12th and 11th and you get a big wind switch, that's when, obviously it's going to get tricky.

"So I mentioned to the lads, we need to get off this clock coming up 12. And we did. But quite quickly we fell back on the clock. So we rightly should have been back on it.

"We have to be on the clock. We're too slow. When you're too slow, you need to speed up, end of conversation. If we're slow."

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Poulter, who performed heroics to tee it up at Augusta after securing a place with victory at last week's Houston Open, carded a three-over-par 75, a score that was still good enough to see him into the weekend.

Michael has been with Golf Monthly since 2008. As a multimedia journalist, he has also worked for The Football Association, where he created content to support the men's European Championships, The FA Cup, London 2012, and FA Women's Super League. As content editor at Foremost Golf, Michael worked closely with golf's biggest equipment manufacturers, and has developed an in-depth knowledge of this side of the industry. He's now a regular contributor, covering instruction, equipment and feature content. Michael has interviewed many of the game's biggest stars, including six world number ones, and has attended and reported on many Major Championships and Ryder Cups. He's a member of Formby Golf Club.