Ian Poulter has company. And he has the same last name.

The long-time European Ryder Cup stalwart turned LIV Golf member is playing in the Asian Tour’s International Series event at Close House in England. If he thought he was going to show up and get in four casual rounds of competitive golf this week, his plans have now changed.

After three rounds, Poulter’s 19-year-old son Luke is hot on his heals.

Luke Poulter is a freshman on the University of Florida men’s golf team and is playing in his first professional event this week alongside his father. With three holes remaining in Round 2 on Friday, Luke was on the outside of the cut but finished birdie, eagle, par to make the cut on the number. Dad had finished earlier and was there on the ninth hole watching his son complete the first task, greeting him with applause and a hug.

Birdie, eagle, par finish for Luke Poulter to join his dad @IanJamesPoulter in making the cut at the @intseriesgolf at @CloseHouseGolf ?? pic.twitter.com/0oRKiQbzhm

— Majesticks GC (@MajesticksGC) August 18, 2023

Now though, it’s getting serious. Ian shot one-over 72 on Saturday while Luke shot three-under 68 to make up four shots during the third round. Ian is tied for 13th place at two-under while Luke is tied for 20th place at even par. Andy Ogletree leads the event at nine-under.

Two other sons competed in the same event, but both missed the cut. Lee Westwood’s son Sam shot 76-79 to miss the weekend. Lee made the cut but shot a third-round 81. Davis Love III’s son Dru shot 76-75.

On a day when the sun came out for the first time this week, although a strong wind accompanied it, unheralded South African Neil Schietekat carded a 66 at Close House, near Newcastle, to sit one back of Ogletree, while Australian Matt Jones (67), Abraham Ancer (69) from Mexico and Spaniard David Puig (70) are a further stroke adrift.

Ogletree, who heads both the Asian Tour and International Series Order of Merits and has been a reserve on the LIV Golf League this year, finished strongly with an eagle on the par-five 16th, followed by a birdie to edge ahead of a stacked leaderboard.

He had started the day one shot behind overnight leader and playing partner Puig, who made a costly triple-bogey on the 12th, where he four putted, to hand the lead to the American.

However, Ogletree missed a two-footer for par on the following hole and saw Jones move in front over the closing stages before his storming finish.

“I stayed patient all day, super tough, you know you got a couple birdie opportunities coming in. Hit a great shot on 16 and ended up making an eagle so that was kind of a bonus,” said the 25-year-old American, who has claimed two International Series titles: in Qatar this year, and Egypt last season.

“It was brutal with the wind. Hit a couple of crazy clubs, like I hit a pitching wedge from 168 and stuff like that. So definitely 20-30 yard wind changes, whether it was into or down so pretty, pretty difficult.”

The post Ian Poulter’s son Luke makes Asian Tour cut, is only two behind dad with 18 holes remaining appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

If you scroll down to the tee times below you may see a duplication of two of England’s most famous golfing surnames.

Nope, it’s not a typo.

I guess it shows that time flies when you are having fun as both Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood will welcome their sons to the field for the Asian Tour’s International Series event at Close House, just outside Newcastle this week.

Luke and Ian Poulter. Stuart Franklin

Having both caddied for their dads at previous events, Luke Poulter and Sam Westwood are now both in the 156-strong field in their own right contending for the $2 million prize money.

There will be 2 Poulter’s in the field for the @intseriesgolf at @CloseHouseGolf this week, excited to experience it with Luke??????

Grab your tickets now: https://t.co/p9hPUCcETu pic.twitter.com/zw9B69TwBI

— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) August 14, 2023

Last year, the senior Poulter spoke to Golf Monthly about Luke’s chances on tour. “I’m holding him off at the moment, but it will happen one day,” he said. “When he does win I know his celebrations will match anything you’ve ever seen from me. And I will plaster it all over social media, because I’ll be more proud than disappointed.”

The Westwoods have previously played in the same tournament — the 2022 Indonesian Masters, when Westwood Jr made his debut as a professional. “He started playing the game very late,” Westwood told Golf Monthly of his son. “He only took up the game seriously at age 16 and he is 21 now. I don’t really have any expectations for him this week. I just want him to enjoy himself.”

Excited to tee it up at @CloseHouseGolf with Sam this week for the @intseriesgolf eventhttps://t.co/05m2ciKXOd pic.twitter.com/TTF6MNZy0X

— Lee Westwood (@WestwoodLee) August 14, 2023

However, if the Englishmen want to make history and make it a family affair in the same group, first they will have to make the cut as, while the dads are paired together for Rounds 1 and 2, the young guns have been split across the field.

Oh, if that wasn’t enough, a youngster named Davis ‘Dru’ Love IV is also in the line-up. Yep, that will be the son of 1997 PGA champ Davis Love III.

Maybe a glimpse of the next generation is on the cards at Close House…

International Series England Tee times and pairings
Thursday
Hole 1
7.00 Kyson Lloyd, Runchanapong Youprayong, AJ Batty
7.10 Shahriffuddin Ariffin, Natipong Srithong, Luke Joy
7.20 James Wilson, Taewoo Kim #1468, Settee Prakongvech
7.30 Rattanon Wannasrichan, Micah Lauren Shin, Yikeun Chang
7.40 Denwit Boriboonsub, Luke Poulter (a), Angelo Que
7.50 Prom Meesawat, Ben Campbell, Sam Westwood
8.00 Jbe Kruger, Tom Power-Horan, Michael Maguire
8.10 Andrew Dodt, Trevor Simsby Chikkarangappa S
8.20 Hung Chien-yao, SSP Chawrasia, Poom Saksansin
8.30 Pawin Ingkhapradit, Ajeetesh Sandhu, Kyongjun Moon
8.40 Siddikur Rahman, Jaco Ahlers, Bjorn Hellgren
8.50 Josh Younger, Seungtaek Lee, Carlos Bustos
9.00 Alex Ching, Dominic Foos, Lloyd Jefferson Go

Hole 10
7.00 David Puig, Pavit Tangkamolprasert, Taehee Lee
7.10 Abraham Ancer, Chan Shih-chang, Brendan Steele
7.20 Hideto Tanihara, Sarit Suwannarut, Matt Jones
7.30 Ian Poulter, Nitithorn Thippong, Lee Westwood
7.40 Eugenio Chacarra, Steve Lewton, Scott Hend
7.50 Hudson Swafford, Travis Smyth, Peter Uihlein
8.00 James Piot, Chase Koepka, Tomoharu Otsuki
8.10 Simon Robinson, Chanat Sakulpolphaisan, Kartik Sharma
8.20 Danthai Boonma, Honey Baisoya, Ian Snyman
8.30 Gunn Charoenkul, Richard T Lee, John Lyras
8.40 Kevin Yuan, Lee Chieh-po, Bai Zhengkai
8.50 Jack Murdoch, Nicolas Paez, Faisal Salhab
9.00 Will Marshall, Jean Bekirian, Rory Franssen

Hole 1
12.00 Chanmin Jung, Taichi Kho, Jediah Morgan
12.10 Miguel Tabuena, Andy Ogletree, Wade Ormsby
12.20 Richard Bland, Sadom Kaewkanjana, Graeme McDowell
12.30 Anirban Lahiri, Phachara Khongwatmai, Jason Kokrak
12.40 Sebastian Munoz, Kieran Vincent, Dean Burmester
12.50 Pat Perez, Danny Lee, Sihwan Kim
13.00 Brendan Jones, Jaewoong Eom, Shiv Kapur
13.10 Chonlatit Chuenboonngam, Jack Harrison, Davis Love IV
13.20 Ben Jones, Nicholas Fung, Suradit Yongcharoenchai
13.30 Itthipat Buranatanyarat, Viraj Madappa, Yongjun Bae
13.40 Jyoti Randhawa, Jack Thompson, Nick Voke
13.50 Rhys Thompson, Chen Guxin, Matt Sharpstene
14.00 Terry Pilkadaris, Suteepat Prateeptienchai, Matthew Cheung

Hole 10
12.00 Naraajie Ramadhanputra, Meenwhee Kim, Saud Al Sharif
12.10 MJ Viljoen, Marcus Fraser, Othman Almulla
12.20 Turk Pettit, Jeev Milkha Singh, Neil Schietekat
12.30 Mardan Mamat, David Drysdale, Veer Ahlawat
12.40 Chapchai Nirat, Rahil Gangjee, Matt Killen
12.50 Miguel Carballo, Yoseop Seo, Zach Murray
13.00 Berry Henson, Tirawat Kaewsiribandit, Ben Leong
13.10 Jarin Todd, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Atiruj Winaicharoenchai
13.20 Todd Sinnott, Chang Wei-lun, Kosuke Hamamoto
13.30 Dodge Kemmer, Wang Wei-hsuan, Rashid Khan
13.40 Douglas Klein, Khalin Joshi, David Hague
13.50 Harrison Gilbert-Wong, Shergo Al Kurdi, Karandeep Kochhar
14.00 Laird Shepherd, Ye Wocheng, Sangpil Yoon

The post Bring your son to work day? Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood to tee up alongside sons Luke and Sam at International Series England appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
Get ready to feel old. Ian Poulter’s son is going to college.

Golf fans have seen plenty of Luke Poulter through the years. He carried his dad’s bag at this year’s Wells Fargo Championship, but more famously, he held the Ryder Cup as a baby in 2004:

Andrew Redington.

But that little boy has grown up. Into a Gator. A Florida Gator.

Proud papa Poulter announced Luke had signed with the University of Florida on Thursday:

Not many bigger days in your life than signing for @GatorsGolf?

Proud to see Luke work so hard & be offered a position to join such a great team. @realjcdeacon I know you’ll guide him along the next part of his journey. @AndrewLoseyGolf you’ve done an amazing job! Go ?‘s ?? pic.twitter.com/7JVWypY2qM

— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) November 11, 2021

So, yeah, the kid’s got some serious game. Florida finished this fall season just outside the top 25 in the coaches’ poll, but it’s a program with a storied history that has won four national titles and produced players like Tommy Aaron, Gary Koch, Chris DiMarco, Camilo Villegas, and Billy Horschel.

And it should be noted that young Poulter isn’t the only son of a famous golfer to take his talents to the SEC recently. His buddy “Little” John Daly is currently a freshman at Arkansas. Sounds like the beginning of a fun rivalry.

The post Ian Poulter’s son signs with storied college golf program appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

On Monday night, Ian Poulter shared a video of his son, Luke, converting the short birdie look on his final hole of the second round at the Dye Junior Invitational. But it wasn’t the putt itself that attracted attention, rather what happened immediately before.

As Poulter writes, the “bizarre birdie” came after Luke managed to dislocate his left kneecap reacting to his eagle putt lipping out. This caused a delay in play as paramedics were called to reposition and wrap his knee. Luke eventually holed the putt before hobbling off the ninth green at Crooked Stick. Have a look:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Ian Poulter (@ianjamespoulter)

As Poulter noted, Luke was eight over through his first nine holes before going seven-under over his next 27 holes to get within two shots of the lead entering the final round. But his status for Tuesday is uncertain.

“Not sure right now if by icing and compression will allow him to compete tomorrow in the last round,” Poulter wrote.

What is for sure, though, is that both father and son will remember that birdie for a long time.

The post Ian Poulter’s son dislocates knee during junior tournament, manages to make bizarre birdie appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.