Ryder Cup 2018: Still Team Europe's ticking heartbeat, Ian Poulter prepares to take centre stage once again

Poulter remains very much the alpha male of the European team: the man most likely to get heckled by spectators, the man most likely to give it back

The grandstand behind the first tee at Le Golf National seats 6,500 people, but on Monday afternoon it was deserted but for one man. When Ian Poulter arrived at the course, the first thing he wanted to do was to taste the atmosphere. So he climbed the rickety steps all the way to the top of the stand, by far the largest ever seen at a Ryder Cup, and stared out over the vast expanse of seats and the lush green fairway stretching into the distance, trying to visualise what it will be like on Friday morning, when it will be heaving and shaking with song.

He’s done this five times now, going all the way back to Oakland Hills in 2004, and the feeling doesn’t go away. If anything it gets bigger, broader, more intense every time. The quivering, juddering, utterly exhilarating sensation that overcomes an accomplished professional when he steps into the Ryder Cup arena. It’s that sensation he’s tried to convey to the rookies in the team, even though he knows you can’t really convey it at all.

“It’s hard to explain,” he says. “I’ve tried to explain to a number of people through the years what that tee shot means. What the feeling is in your body when you’re walking down to that tee shot. And as a player who’s played in multiple majors now: it's different. It’s different to walking to the first tee at Augusta, walking to the first tee at St Andrews. It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn't had to hit that tee shot before. So it really is going to be quite a special moment on Friday.”

Poulter often gets accused of a lack of sensitivity, but one thing is for certain: when it comes to the Ryder Cup, he just gets it. His role he played in the Miracle of Medinah in 2012 will stay with him until his dying day. And even if he’s struggled to hit those heights in the years since, as injuries and age have taken their toll, a points return of 72 per cent - the highest of anybody on the European side - suggests that even at the age of 42, he will continue to be the ticking heartbeat of the team.

In his very lowest moments around, as he slipped out of the world’s top 200, leaving a trail of missed cuts and physio appointments in his wake, even a man as theatrically self-assured as Poulter began to entertain his doubts. As he puts it: “When you’re at the low of lows - and that wasn't that long ago - there’s a little voice in the back of your head that says: you might not get back to being as good as you were.” But all through the bad times, it was the thought of one more Ryder Cup that fuelled him.

“I was at a PGA dinner in December 2016, and I was asked a question on stage,” he remembers. “What's left for me in golf? And I said then, ‘I’m going to make the team in Paris. That’s been a goal for the last 20 months. It’s something which has kept me going. I’m more excited today than I was in 2004, if that’s possible. I don’t want to think that this is my last hurrah.”

Certainly, the current direction of travel seems encouraging. A second-place finish at the Players Championship last year was followed by a strong finish at the Birkdale in the Open Championship. This year brought his first victory in six years at the Houston Open, as well as the first-round lead at the US Open. Having looked down and out just 18 months ago, Poulter missed out on automatic qualification for the European team by just a handful of points. He is, in short, no sympathy pick.

And having hit rock bottom and come out the other side, he’s a more mature character these days. He split with his management company IMG and returned to Paul Dunkley, the agent who looked after him for the first 21 years of his career. His son Luke, now 14, is with him this week, having been there for his first Ryder Cup as a newborn baby back in 2004. “To be able to bring him this time around, where he fully understands it; it’s very special to share that with him,” he says. “He’s an excitable character. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Ian Poulter is a Ryder Cup veteran (Getty)

For all that, of course, Poulter remains very much the alpha male of the European team: the man most likely to get heckled by spectators, the man most likely to give it back. And even though the magic of Medinah seems half a lifetime away, in front of a home crowd he remains one of the danger men, a kingpin in the side. “I take it as a huge compliment,” he says. “It’s a daunting position to be in, to know that everyone really wants to take you down. But quite frankly, I want to take them down just as much.”

He has, after all, been doing this for a while. “It’s going to be loud this week,” he says, and you sense it’s as much a promise as it is a prediction. The noise on the first tee on Friday morning really will be quite something. But keep Poulter quiet, and America will take a big step towards taking the Cup back across the Atlantic with them.