Hoping to regain the winning habit

Ian Poulter has lost the winning habit of late. In fact, the European Ryder Cup player hasn't won a tournament since claiming the Volvo Masters last November and, in situations like that, the temptation is to make use of whatever training aid or contraption is presented.

In Poulter's case, the device, as best as he could describe it, resembled "an enormous rubber band" which is placed around a person's knees. In his opinion, he had a valid reason for resorting to such measures.

"My legs were getting a little too wide, so I was using the training device to hold my legs closer together . . . it keeps your knees from moving in, so basically you have to put some tension (on it) and press your knees slightly out," explained Poulter.

All of which sounds reasonable, except that it left Poulter with an injury he'd have preferred not to have sustained at any time, never mind in the run-up to the US PGA which starts at Baltusrol on Thursday. He took the entire week off after the TPC of Europe in Hamburg and last week only managed to hit "20 or 30" balls in practice before compounding matters by damaging some ligaments.

He's only managed to resume practice in the past couple of days, but encouragingly indicated that "the swing is looking good".

For someone who started the season with such high hopes, Poulter hasn't exactly set the world alight in 2005. He has attempted to marry playing on both the European and the US Tours, but has slipped down to 48th in the world rankings and, uncharacteristically, has suffered eight missed cuts and one withdrawal in his 16 tournaments on the PGA Tour.

Yet, there have been glimpses of his potential too. He finished fourth in the Accenture Matchplay and tied-eighth at the Bob Hope tournament early in the season. There had been signs of a return to form with a fourth place finish in the Scottish Open and an 11th place finish in the British Open. "I walked off that green (the 18th at St Andrews) absolutely devastated," remarked Poulter of his best finish in a major this year.

"I bogeyed the 17th, then three-putted the 18th . . .

if I don't drop a shot on 17 and two-putt eh last, I finish third. Now, how can I finish third in a major with dropping six or seven shots on the front nine as I did? That's ridiculous. So I've walked off finishing 11th and not satisfied. I thought that was a great chance for me to go on and give Tiger a run for his money and that didn't happen."

Now, at Baltusrol, Poulter believes he has a chance to make amends. "I want to be in contention because I know when I'm in contention I'm going to take it right down to the wire," said the Englishman, hoping that his golf rather than his dress sense will become the main topic of conversation.