PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — So now there’s a new Poulter to root for or against: Luke Poulter, son of Ian. He went to high school in Orlando, at Circle Christian, and now attends the University of Florida. But he was born in England and he’s playing in the Walker Cup, here at Cypress Point, for GB&I. His father played in seven Ryder Cups, but never a Walker Cup. He turned pro at 20 — amateur golf was never his thing.
Luke is tall and slender, like his father, but he doesn’t have his father’s flashy wardrobe (of course, he’s wearing team duds this week). The son also has a placid, even demeanor, nothing like his father’s stick-in-your-eye personality. But they’re very close, and Ian has been around this week, offering advice to the 10 GB&I players. In their accents and tone, son sounds the father and father like son.
“It’s funny: If I’m with my friends at school and my parents call me, my accent gets way stronger, it just happens,” Luke Poulter said on Friday afternoon. He’s 21 and a junior at UF, planning to stay through graduation and then turn pro. He’s lived in the U.S. for 17 years but has often spent summers in England. In March of this year, he won his first NCAA tournament; in June, all that stood between him and qualifying for his first U.S. Open was a sudden-death playoff. (He lost.)
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Luke is majoring in educational science. He was an honor roll student this semester. He drives a Mercedes on campus and to home on weekends. His father was folding sweaters and giving lessons as a club pro at that same age. What a difference a generation makes. His dad is a serious high-powered car guy. A bad place to be, back in the day, was crossing a road in the Bay Hill development after Poulter played a poor round in Arnold’s tournament. Luke once drove his father’s Ferrari FF. Around the neighborhood. “That was enough,” the son said.
The senior Poulter was a Cobra player, in his heyday. Luke plays Titleist. Cobra was semi-edgy. Titleist is your classic Establishment golf club. Read something into it — but not too much.
Luke had a stress fracture in his back last summer that kept him out of golf for seven months. It healed through rest. He’s come back stronger in every way.
Luke doesn’t remember his father, now 49, as a Ryder Cup star but he knows the legend and he has seen the highlight reels. Does he see what we see, Ian Poulter with his eyes practically falling out his head?
“One hundred percent,” Luke said. “That’s how he played, that’s him showing his passion, everything coming out.”
Literally!
The son has his mother’s eyes, deeply socketed. Luke Poulter is Ian Poulter’s son, and Katie Poulter’s, too.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.
