Ian Poulter is headed to Shanghai, after all.
Last week, Poulter made a mad dash from Orlando (to New York) to Hong Kong after he fell out of the top 50 in the world ranking and no longer was eligible for the WGC-HSBC Champions.
Why the rush? Because he would have fallen short of the European Tour’s 13-tournament minimum and thus been ineligible for the 2016 Ryder Cup. Rich Beem forfeited his sponsor exemption to make room in the field for Poulter.
Poulter logged the tournament start – finishing 29th in Hong Kong – and now is off to a 3-under start this week at the Turkish Airlines Open.
And then, on Thursday, he found out that last-minute trip to Hong Kong was unnecessary.
The Englishman was notified that he has earned a spot in the WGC field, as the sixth alternate, after Brandt Snedeker withdrew.
“I guess it was meant to be,” Poulter tweeted.