GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 29: Ian Poulter of England speaks to media during a press conference ahead of the 2016 Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort on November 29, 2016 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
GolfBy Jay Rigdon on

Ian Poulter has a reputation for being a dick. It’s well-earned on his part, as well, and it surfaced again this weekend, both on and off the course.

On Friday, Poulter took a quad bogey 8 after repeated failures to get out of the bunker. Being Poulter, he took issue with a cameraman.

The video is worth watching, as Poulter basically stalks directly at the camera, growling “Next time I’m ready to play my shot, don’t come running in behind me.”

Presumably the cameraman hadn’t done that for all eight strokes. But, hey, in the moment, tempers can flare. After the round, Poulter had a chance to cool off, and tweeted a light-hearted apology. Oh, no, he didn’t do that at all, actually:

The only thing thinner than Poulter’s skin is the wedge he bladed over the green en route to that quad.

Poulter has always had a theatricality to his demeanor. Here he is complaining about a bounce at the 2010 U.S. Open:

There are plenty more in the same vein. Now, this could still all be written off as a competitive nature. He does this for a living, after all. He’s also struggled quite a bit of late; once ranked fifth in the world, he currently sits 179th in the rankings. Poulter hasn’t finished inside the top ten in a full-field PGA or European Tour event since May of 2015 at the Colonial. That’s not good!

But then, after the camera rant made the rounds, things somehow got even more ridiculous. Take a look at this tweet he sent out:

That’s Poulter, tagging a man’s employer after somehow coming across a Facebook post in which he was called a dick. But wait! Not only was Poulter so incensed by this comment that he took to Twitter, he also posted to Instagram:

Who does this kind of thing? A 40-year-old professional athlete, having earned almost $38 million in his career, can’t handle being criticized online? And it’s not even inaccurate criticism. But it’s one thing to respond to people, it’s another thing entirely to try to get a guy fired, and that’s absolutely what Poulter seemed to want. He tweeted that he’d actually met the guy after receiving a service (Reliable Carriers transports cars):

Apparently Poulter and Mr. Stacey have a bit of a difference in how they remember their encounter. Poulter continued to dig himself deeper, responding to accusations of bullying and poor form by somehow invoking client confidentiality, while also sounding suspiciously Trump-like:

He did also tweet this, in fairness, though it’s tortured logic at best and outright dishonest at worst:

So, here’s the situation. Poulter inarguably acts like a dick on the golf course, going after someone who at the absolute very most was guilty of a very small infraction of etiquette, one that every other player has had to deal with at one time or another. Then, having been called out for his behavior, doubles down by trying to get a truck driver fired. A driver he says he’s met in person and liked, even! He was called a dick, and essentially said “That’s out of line. I’m actually an asshole.”

Ian Poulter used to be one of the very best golfers in the world as well as a world-class asshole.

Now he’s just one of those, and it’s pretty easy to see which one.

UPDATE: Sigh.

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.

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