Poulter Understandably Fuming After Thinking He Was In Masters Following Quarterfinal Win
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In defense of the number-crunchers, they are working with Official World Golf Ranking algorithms to figure out if Ian Poulter would qualify for The Masters upon graduating to the WGC Dell Match Play quarterfinals. Theoretically, reaching the quarters would have put him in the World top 50 Monday morning and therefore earn a Masters invite based on the top 50 world cut off of March 25.
However, guessing OWGR shifts is dicey business at best. That's why most weeks folks always suggest a "likely" rankings landing spot for a player. Add the match play dynamics and calculations could easily be wrong.
Nonetheless, you can imagine Ian Poulter's frustration after asking and being told he was in the Masters after his 2&1 win over Louis Oosthuizen.
From Keith Jackson's Sky Sports story:
"I guess I should never listen to other people," said Poulter. "You finish a round of golf and the press and everybody are telling you you're in the Masters, and then you get a text message 10 minutes before you tee off to correct everybody, to say 'oh, we've made a mistake, actually, no, that was wrong, you're not in.'"
Poulter lost to Kevin Kisner 8&6 after finding out the math was wrong and he needed to win that match for a Masters berth.
His Tweet to the people...
