Ian Poulter has revealed that he knew he would not be featuring in day one's afternoon fourballs at the Ryder Cup yesterday afternoon.
The 36-year-old kept up his impressive record in the biennial competition by defeating Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker with playing partner Justin Rose.
He was then left out of the eight men to play in the afternoon although foursome partner Rose was selected.
Speaking of his omission from the afternoon fourballs, Poulter said: "It's not disappointing. Well, I would love to have played five matches, but I realise that we are a team.
"That team is very, very, very strong this year, and Ollie really wanted to get everybody playing on Friday.
"So four guys have got to change from the morning round, and that's obviously going to be difficult. Ollie said to me that he would like to keep me fresh going through Saturday, Sunday. I found out Thursday afternoon."
The Americans currently lead the overall standings 3-2 and you can follow our live coverage of the remainder of the day's play by clicking here.
Pascal Lemesre
