Ian Poulter fought back to overhaul Geoff Ogilvy's overnight lead to win the Australian Masters title in Melbourne.
Poulter had led for the first two rounds before Ogilvy carded a course record 63 in the third round to take the lead by two shots from the Englishman. Ogilvy, on his boyhood course, never reached the previous days heights in the final round and left the home crowd disappointed with a final round 73 to finish 11 under. Poulter though showed great resillience and fighting spirit to claw back his lead, shooting a 67 to finish at 15 under to earn himself a winners gold jacket. Poulter revealed that a message from Justin Rose had spurred him on "I had a message from Justin Rose, he said 'put a nice gold jacket in your wardrobe like I have'". It was not all plain sailing though for Poulter, who was put under pressure by a late charge from Marcus Fraser, but he held Fraser off to hold onto his three shot lead. Poulter though claimed that those pressure situations are what makes him play the game: "I love being in contention, that's why I play this game of golf. If you're down the field there's no adrenalin, there's no exitement, there's no real interest. So that's why I practise hard to put myself in this position to enjoy the fact of being under pressure because you find out who you are." Poulter also battled with food poisoning on Friday, will be hoping that the grit and determination used to win his 15th title is there to stay, if he is to achieve his hopes of rising from 28th in the world rankings to join the clutch of Europeans at the top of the world game. The leader of that group, and indeed world golf at the moment, Luke Donald, finished tied 12th at 4 under par to end his wonderful run of top 10 finishes. That sort of consistency is what Ian Poulter will be aiming to achieve.
