They’re billed as the ‘home’ team for this week’s LIV Golf UK event at JCB Golf & Country Club even down to having a Majesticks pub on site – where Ian Poulter is hoping to celebrate a much-needed victory.
Poulter has just one top 10 on LIV Golf this season, but enjoyed some of his best results on home soil last year – with a T11 at LIV Golf London in 2023 and a runner-up spot at the Asian Tour’s International Series England.
Now Poulter is hoping the backing of a home crowd, including a special Majesticks pub on the course, can help spark a victory he’s desperate for after a disappointing spell of results.
The 48-year-old says a home victory would mean a great deal to him, especially given his age, and hopes to celebrate success in his team’s watering hole.
“It would mean an awful lot,” said Poulter of winning this week. “I don’t think I’ve delivered the performance in the LIV events that I think I should have done. I’m not happy with my play over the last couple of seasons. I think I’m very close.
“Had one decent round of golf and two okay rounds of golf and played 16 great holes and two poor holes.
“For me, it’s about having the right adrenaline, the right attitude, the right mindset to go out there this week, have fun on the golf course with the fans, enjoy myself, and hopefully if we are successful this week, this will rank pretty highly, being 48 and a bit.
“Hopefully if I do win, we can keep the pub open until early hours on Monday morning and celebrate with 14,000.”
(Image credit: Majesticks GC)
Majesticks team-mate Sam Horsfield is a true home player this week as a member at JCB who lives nearby, while Lee Westwood is a native of the area, and that theme of having a home team is one LIV Golf is looking to develop.
Phil Mickelson has talked about his team having a home course, where they would host LIV Golf events but also coaching clinics and other tournaments – and it’s something Poulter, Westwood, Henrik Stenson and Horsfield are looking at for the future.
“Yeah, we’ve been talking about that,” said Westwood. “It’s at a very early stage, but it’s certainly something that we should look at in the future and certainly consider, yeah, very, very seriously.
“I think it makes perfect sense to have home courses for every team and use those venues, and then when the tournament isn’t there, you can use it for other purposes.
“We could bring – just thinking out loud, we could bring Little Sticks to it certain weeks of the year, have ladies’ tournaments there, girls’ tournaments, other junior tournaments. Yeah, there’s infinite possibilities.”
Poulter added: “It comes down to finance at the end of the day. If we deliver on the golf course and win five tournaments next year, we can push this forward a bit quicker.
“I think every team has been tasked with a go-forward plan; what does three, five, ten years look like, and it’s definitely in that window of don’t think small, think big.
“So we’re sitting here trying to think big and how big we can take this Majesticks GC franchise, and home venue would be amazing. We need a location, we need some funding, and obviously if we play really well, then it will be that.”