Poulter hopes best Masters finish bodes well for future

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Ian Poulter reacts after his tee shot on the 12th hole, where he made par in Sunday's final round. He hopes two recent top-10 finishes bode well for his season.

Ian Poulter kept looking up at the leaderboard. For a while, he liked what he saw.

Not only was he 3-under through the first nine, but many of the players in front of him weren’t creating much separation.

“If they got off to a decent start, I think they would have been hard to catch – but they didn’t,” Poulter said. “They weren’t really going anywhere.”

He got to 6-under before a bogey on No. 18 dashed his Masters Tournament hopes.

He finished his tournament 5-under, alone in seventh place and his best showing in eight Masters.

Poulter’s previous best finish came in 2010, when he came in 10th place.
He was also 5-under that year.

Looking ahead, Poulter, who shot par or better in every round this year, hopes his top-10 finishes in Augusta and at the Arnold
Palmer Invitational hint at more success in the coming months.

“It’s another good week,” he said. “Playing well at Bay Hill was very, very nice, and I played well again
here, so obviously my form I’m carrying right now is good.

“I feel fit, I feel healthy, and it’s now getting stronger for the summer.”

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