Ian Poulter turned in a four-under 66 on Thursday, four shots off Jon Rahm’s lead at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Unfortunately that performance was overshadowed by a confrontation with a fan on the final hole at TPC Southwind.
“It is a shame, I hope we can control it more going forward and it gets stamped out, because it is not needed in the game of golf,” Poulter said of the incident.
The problem began when Poutler, just off the 18th fairway, struck his approach shot.
As the ball was in the air, according to Poulter, a fan yelled, “Get in the bunker!” Poulter, 43, immediately shot back, “Really, you deserve to be here do you?” Poulter then motioned to security to remove the fan in question from the course.
“It is disappointing to be honest. I get it, I’m an Englishman, I play on the Ryder Cup team, I’m sure I’ve upset a few of these guys from time-to-time when they’re watching TV,” Poulter told Sky Sports after his round. “But when we’re playing a world-class event like we do week in, week out, and you’ve got guys like that, in a small group and want to feel big in front of their friends and they scream silly things out, it is disappointing.
“I hate to do that [kick someone out], but we shouldn’t be getting abused in this day and age. Unfortunately it happens quite often. Most of the time we just ignore it and let it go.”
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