On A Roll
WGC-HSBC Champions winner Ian Poulter
The Dish On
Lehman Captures
Schwab Cup
Stacy Lewis
Sizzles
Asia-Pacific Amateur
winner Guan Tianlang
Poulter’s Kept Secret
In the new Stephen Spielberg film, Lincoln,
decorated London-born actor Daniel Day-Lewis plays the lead. Asked for insight on how
he prepared for the role, Lewis demurred.
“There’s a tendency now to deconstruct
and analyze everything,” Lewis told the
New York Times. “And I think that’s a self-
defeating part of the enterprise.”
All of which indirectly helps explain
why Englishman Ian Poulter said this
Sunday in China when asked for the
“secret” to his putting:
“I’m not telling you,” Poulter said, moments
after a closing 65 clinched the WGC-HSBC
Champions. “And I’m not telling anyone else.”
What’s not secret is that Poulter has
made more meaningful putts, beginning with
the Ryder Cup in September, than anybody
else on the planet. Even Poulter conceded,
his flat stick “has been pretty warm all year.”
Also in Asia, 14-year-old Guan Tianlang
of China won the Asia-Pacific Amateur in
Thailand Sunday, which means he will be
playing in The Masters next April. Guan will
still be 14 then and the youngest contestant
in the tournament’s storied history.
Like it or not, his precocity will be
analyzed and deconstructed multifariously
and internationally in the days leading up
to Augusta.
(PS: The kid uses a belly putter.)
In Japan, Stacy Lewis reversed an LPGA
trend: She’s an American woman who won
in Asia.
Her secret? A smokin’ final-round 64.
Lastly, that sound you heard accompanying
Rory McIlroy’s meteoric rise to the top turns
out to have been a swoosh. Nike reportedly
will fork out $200 million to McIlroy over 10
years in an endorsement deal.
Brian Hewitt
