WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY

March 26, 2021

Ian Poulter

Austin Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Ian, another solid day. Talk about advancing to the round of 16.

IAN POULTER: Well, mine was obviously extremely boring according what I've just heard. Sergio holing out for a hole-in-one against Westy to advance and MacIntyre just drives it to three feet and nudges in for eagle for half to go through. I just managed a 2 & 1 and I'm through, so I guess it was quite lame.

It was just an interesting day. I was up early. I missed three opportunities in the first three holes and I didn't want to let those keep flooding past, so I won the next couple of holes with a couple of great shots and then pretty much had control the whole match.

Lanto made two birdies on me on 12 and 13 to get back to 1, and then I hit a great shot into 15 to two feet, which was a gimme, and it went up 17.

Q. You've advanced out of this stage before. Is this the best your game has felt, advancing through to the round of 16, do you think?

IAN POULTER: My game feels really good at the minute. I feel very comfortable. I feel comfortable on the green. I feel comfortable if I'm missing the odd green with my short game. I'm having plenty of chances. I wouldn't say it's the best I've felt, but I feel pretty good.

Q. Kind of along the same lines, you're described as a match play magician, that you're always going to show up and play well in this format; but don't you also have to be playing well no matter how much you love this format?

IAN POULTER: Yeah, no one is going to give you a match, and today it was apparent, Lanto coming back at me pretty hard towards the end, and also yesterday Cam Smith kind of putting the pressure on with a couple holes to go.

You have to play well, you have to hole out, you have to hang tough when need be. It's just no one is going to give you a match in this format. You've got the best 64 players in the world playing against each other, and it's not easy.

Q. Are you using a new putter this week?

IAN POULTER: I am using a new putter. Well spotted, yeah. I'm using a Scottie No. 11.

Q. Reason for the change?

IAN POULTER: I've been -- you know, I've been looking -- I've always used a No. 7 Odyssey for a while and it's gone cold. So when I look for putters, it's interesting, because so many great companies -- they keep sending me putters. It's good and bad because there's so many great manufacturers in the world that make lovely putters and they keep turning up on the front door.

So I am kind of trying them and I'm trying to get the right feel, the right look, and Scottie made me one a week ago, two weeks ago. I told him what I wanted. I wanted some grooves in the face. He did it. It sits right, and that's all I want. I want something that sits well, that looks nice and feels good. At the minute it's working out quite nicely.

Q. You mentioned round-robin play and you kind of prefer the old way, the knockout stages. Now that you go into the knockout stages do you ratchet your intensity up or does it remain the same?

IAN POULTER: I'm not sure I can ratchet my intensity up any more. I'm pretty focused right from Wednesday. I wanted to come out hard and fast Wednesday. I wanted to win every match. I didn't want to have to rely on someone else doing something to help me get through. That's what I've been focused on this week, just play real hard and try and be as aggressive as I can to every pin and try not to make any mistakes.