Ian Poulter, known for his fiery passion and impressive skills on the golf course joined Al Arabiya presenter Micheal Prendergast in an exclusive special interview at LIV Golf Riyadh 2025.
The English golfer shared his thoughts on the LIV Golf tournament in Saudi Arabia, the challenges of night golf, on a potential Ryder Cup return and PGA/Liv merger after Donald Trump has got involved. He also teased a future digital venture and revealed his one fear: 'Snakes'.
As the PGA Tour says it is "closer to a [merger] deal" with rival LIV Golf after PGA called upon help from Donald Trump who said he could sort a deal in one 15 minute phone call and if he sees himself coming back into the fray for the Ryder Cup, Poulter said, ‘Never say never’: “Never say never right, as it stands today that isn’t an option for me, but things change quite quickly like we’ve seen in the golf landscape, so let’s see how things play out, you never know.”
On any surprises or a ‘glow in the dark’ number in his wardrobe for the tournament, Poulter said: “Well no glow in the dark, the store, our new sponsor, we’re pretty proud to obviously launch that this week, it’ll be the first time out in the new gear this week, so even though it’s not quite bright colours, but it looks great, we’re very happy with our new clothing sponsor.”
Michael Jordan said the one thing he’s afraid of on a golf course is Ian Poulter. Poulter was asked ‘What are you afraid of on a golf course?’ Poulter said: “What am I afraid of? Well I’ve never played against Michael so I wouldn’t know if I have to be afraid with him on the course, but maybe one day I’ll get that opportunity to take him on, that would be quite fun. But no, there’s nothing really that I’m afraid of, I don’t like snakes, I don’t like those animals with no shoulders, that’s about the only thing I’m afraid of.”
With Bryson DeChambeau doing amazing things on YouTube with his Break 50 series, Prenergast put to Poulter if he has any big social media plans. Poulter added he has a new channel coming soon: “I think in the not too distant future you might see a digital channel coming out, so you’ll have to wait and see.”
When Predergast asked Poulter how he prepared to play under the lights? [The first time the tournament has been]: “It’s been good, it’s been for me half man half mattress I like to lay in, so obviously tiering off at 6pm is very different.
“But from a golf playability perspective it’s new, it’s innovative, like when you see it as it is now, it looks very different at night, so a good test for us all I think, to be able to really kind of pick your lines off the tee visually. It looks a little different at night to what it does in the day.
“So, get your homework done over these few days to be able to select exactly where you want to hit it. And it’s a challenge - but it’s a great challenge!
“The light’s obviously very different. Standing there you’ll have the odd shadow which you have to get used to when you’re setting up over the ball.
“But I think it’s brilliant, I think for us to showcase live golf and do it in a slightly different way and make it a bit more fun, you’ll see that over the coverage.”
