Boo-gate still rumbles on in St Andrews as Ian Poulter continued to answer questions about those stray voices on Thursday morning. The Englishman’s Open could have been very different had certain aspects taken a different turn in the first hour of play; his opening tee shot very nearly resulted in a reload at 7.08 and, had a couple of fans kept their mouths shut instead of some comedy boos, then we could all have saved ourselves some very prickly exchanges.
Instead we were back there on the 1st hole on Thursday morning after the Englishman had signed for a 70 and five-under total on Saturday night.
The initial exchanges were all fairly standard with Poulter going through the motions with a generic appraisal of the home fans.
“Every hole has been great. Because of the way the course shapes itself, they’re kind of one side or the other side the whole way out and the whole way back in. You only allow them to come in around the loop, where they can kind of get in and have some food and stand in the stand. But the support’s been amazing. I mean, a lot of fans. I’m not sure of the numbers, but I would think it’s almost record numbers,” he reflected.
So far, so good in this colour-by-numbers back and forth. And then the elephant in Fife would re-emerge and we would head back down the tried-and-tested path of stirring him from his platitudes.
Strap yourselves in, settle into your seats and get the popcorn out.
“It (the crowd support) must be quite welcome after people talking about you getting booed on the opening day?”
“Are we still talking about it?”
“I was walking with you today.”
“Did you hear one bad comment?”
“No, I heard a lot of good ones. That’s why I’m asking.”
By this point you would suspect that most people’s heads would be firmly on the floor to avoid even the remotest chance of catching his eye.
“I’m asking you a question, did you hear one bad one?”
“No.”
“It’s amazing how we still talk about one person that’s 100 yards down the 1st, where there’s conveniently a microphone positioned way down halfway down…
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