Reporting from Southport, England — Sometimes, players have to reboot their careers and work their way back up. That’s the case for Ian Poulter, who was runner-up at Birkdale in 2008 and got up as high as No. 5 in the world rankings before his star faded.
Poulter was sidelined for four months with a foot injury last year, and, having dropped out of the top 50, had to play his way into the British Open by winning one of three qualifying spots.
All that made it even sweeter for him as he shot 67 on Thursday to secure a spot on the leaderboard. Poulter said he had felt “a bit of pressure” to qualify.
After his injury, he dropped out of the top 200 last year, and saw his string of consecutive Ryder Cup appearances end at five. He got a medical exemption to play on the PGA Tour, but missed the cut in his first two events back and would have lost his tour card but for a rules change.
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Jordan Spieth plays out of a bunker on the 17th hole during the third round of the British Open Golf Championship, at Royal Birkdale.
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Branden Grace after completing the 18th hole in the third round of the British Open Golf Championships at Royal Birkdale on July 22. Grace shot a 62.
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Brooks Koepka plays out of a bunker on the 7th green during the third round of the British Open Golf Championship, at Royal Birkdale on July 22.
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Rory McIlroy reacts to a missed putt during the third round of the British Open Golf Championship, at Royal Birkdale on July 22.
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Matt Kuchar misses a birdie putt on the 18th during the third round of the British Open Golf Championships at Royal Birkdale on July 22.
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Matt Kuchar is mobbed by fans as he makes his way to the next hole during the third round of the British Open Golf Championships at Royal Birkdale on July 22.
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Jordan Spieth of the United States smiles in the rain during the third round of the 146th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on July 22.
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England’s Ian Poulter looks on from the 14th tee box during the third round of the British Open at Royal Birkdale on July 22.
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Jordan Spieth plays out of a bunker on the 17th hole during the third round of the British Open at Royal Birkdale on July 22.
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Gary Woodland takes a shot out of the rough on the 10th hole during the third round of the 146th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on July 22.
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Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar walk to the 14th green during the third round of the 146th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on July 22.
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Brooks Koepka plays out of a bunker on the 7th green during the third round of the British Open at Royal Birkdale on July 22.
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China’s Li Haotong fails to get out of a bunker on the 12th hole during his second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Matt Kuchar hits his second shot on the 3rd hole during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Rules officials help remove a signpost to allow Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland to play on the 15th hole during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Dustin Johnson plays from the rough on the 8th hole during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland chips onto the green during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Spectators watch play on the 10th green as conditions deteriorate during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Australia’s Jason Day, left, and Zach Johnson on the 2nd green during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel looks for his ball in the rough on the 5th hole during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks off the 14th tee during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Haotong Li of China hits a bunker shot on the 12th hole during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland chips onto the 11th green during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Rickie Fowler hits his tee shot on the 9th hole during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Dustin Johnson hits his tee shot on the 5th hole during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Sergio Garcia of Spain walks on the 1st hole during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Joost Luiten of the Netherlands falls back into a bunker after missing a putt on the 8th green during the second round of the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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Padraig Harrington of Ireland acknowledges the crowd on the 18th hole during the first round of the 146th British Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on Thursday.
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Si Woo Kim of Korea putts on the 12th hole during the first round of the championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England.
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Jordan Spieth hits a bunker shot on the 15th hole at Royal Birkdale.
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Matthew Fitzpatrick of England lines up his putt on the 18th green on Thursday.
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Brooks Koepka of the U.S. holes his third shot from the bunker on the 17th hole.
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Jordan Spieth reacts after his approach from the rough on the 5th hole during the first round.
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Tommy Fleetwood of England plays from a bunker on Thursday.
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Ian Poulter of England plays his third shot on the 17th hole.
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France’s Alexander Levy plays his approach shot from the 3rd fairway.
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Spectators get a view of the 9th hole at Royal Birkdale.
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David Horsey of England hits his second shot on the 2nd hole during the first round of the British Open.
(Christian Petersen / Getty Images) The PGA Tour decided its rules had “unintentionally made it more difficult” for injured players to come back. Therefore, Poulter was allowed to continue for the rest of the season.
In May, at the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, Poulter rebounded and came close to collecting his first tour victory since 2012. He was runner-up to Kim So-woo.
“I’ve definitely had some low spots in the last 18 months,”Poulter said. “And certainly 12 months, I was getting very down. It’s easy to be down when you feel you’re a great player and all of a sudden you’re hampered with a bit of injury. You’re not getting the results you want. It’s very easy to slide away.
“So I’m proud of the way I’ve been able to refocus, get things back on the straight and narrow, clear away some of the noise in the background and get back to really focusing hard on what I need to do to get the level of golf back that I think I can play.”
sam.farmer@latimes.com
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