Live leaderboard: Round 1, Valero Texas Open

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THE OVERVIEW There are plenty of reasons to watch Ian Poulter. Maybe you love his chest-thumping passionate antics. Maybe you get rubbed the wrong way by this animated Englishman. Whatever end of the spectrum you fit, you cannot look away. At 42, Poulter might be getting closer to the veteran stage, but he’s got just as much passion if not more than any of the young stars coming through the ranks. His Houston Open victory last season, the third PGA TOUR title to go with his 10 European Tour wins, was inspiring stuff. Told the week before that he had earned a Masters berth before recalculations showed that he actually had not, Poulter left nothing to chance in Houston. He rebounded from an opening 73 to win in a playoff and punch his ticket to Augusta. Bottom line – if you fire this guy up, he will produce. Poulter competes with heart as much as anything else. His Strokes Gained stats all sat in reasonable spots last season without being spectacular but importantly he limited his weaknesses. As long as he maintains that base line, he can will himself to another level of competition when the whips are cracking. — By Ben Everill Click here to see who else made the Top 30 list. BY THE NUMBERS How Ian Poulter ranked in Strokes Gained statistics during his last full season on the PGA TOUR: FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 59th Playoff appearances: 11 TOUR Championship appearances: 0 Best FedExCup result: 31st in 2009. SHOTLINK FUN FACT No player on the PGA TOUR last season putted better from 6 feet than Ian Poulter, who made 41 of 45 attempts for a 90.24 percent success rate. That’s the best-ever percentage from that distance in the ShotLink era. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Ian Poulter in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: Poulter can certainly polarize the golf public but I, for one, think he’s great for the sport. It wasn’t that long ago he appeared to be heading towards the golfing wilderness but he climbed off the scrapheap to win again and lengthen an already impressive career. If the Englishman can find a villain in his mind on a handful of occasions this season, there’s nothing to suggest he can’t win again. — By Ben Everill FANTASY INSIDER: While he’ll turn 43 in January, because of his profile as a grinder and a clutch putter, his game will age well on most tracks. As it correlates to our world, his limited schedule always has been a problem. It’s relegated him to a complementary role in full-season leagues in which you can’t roster more than a couple like him due to limited opportunities to score. However, that reality multiplies his value in weekly games, especially on the biggest stages on which he’s thrived. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Poulter, like many other golfers in 2018, is currently using a Mitsubishi Tensei CK Orange shaft, which has a counter-balanced design with an extremely stiff tip. As for the driver head, Poulter employs the new Titleist TS3 (9.5 degrees). While Poulter used to play combo sets of CB-MB irons when he first joined Titleist’s staff in the mid-2010s, Poulter now plays Titleist’s 718 AP2 irons, and a 716 T-MB 4 iron. With 13 Titleist clubs in the bag, Poulter uses an Odyssey #7 model putter. — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: Best known for bold and colorful Tartans, Ian Poulter has toned down his wardrobe recently. Since shuttering his apparel company, he has stuck with simple and classic setups with modern fits. Although he remains one of the best dressed in the game, I wouldn’t mind seeing some of that old Poulter flair return in 2019. — By Greg Monteforte

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From telling longtime Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo he was actually a Washington Redskins fan, to the Web.com Tour Finals, it has been quite the year for Denny McCarthy. But while the 2017-18 PGA TOUR season was a learning experience for the University of Virginia alum, his return to the Web.com Tour Finals has been a fruitful one. He has taken advantage of some course knowledge, and after a 3-under 67 Sunday at the DAP Championship presented by NewBrick, he has earned a return to the PGA TOUR. McCarthy finished 149th in the FedExCup standings, but a tie for fifth at last week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship coupled with a tie for ninth this week, and McCarthy has secured a spot in The Finals 25 and a TOUR return. “It’s a nice relief for sure,� McCarthy said. “At the same time, I haven’t really been thinking about it. My game has been feeling good for a couple months now. The last couple weeks, I’ve been trying to put my head down and focus on winning the golf tournament and let that take care of it.� McCarthy explained his change in mindset – from just trying to get to a number, to focusing on raising a trophy – has been beneficial for him, attitude-wise, these last two weeks.  “I wasn’t thinking about getting back to the PGA TOUR. Obviously It was the goal but I was taking a different approach, trying to win tournaments,� he said. “I have a couple more cracks at it. It will be nice to have a week off and refresh, and I know I’m playing some good golf to compete and win right now, so I’m just going to keep doing the things that I think are going to prepare me for the next year on the PGA TOUR and maybe get a win under my belt for these last two events.� McCarthy said he felt as though he was playing well enough to make a run at the leaders Sunday, but that didn’t quite happen. The Maryland native ended up six shots back of eventual winner Kramer Hickok. He made bogey on the par-4 second and said the golf course firmed up “quite a bit� through the afternoon. He said he played a “solid� round after that early bogey.  “I made a bogey early and that frustrated, me but I made four birdies coming in with no bogeys coming in … so a pretty clean round, and I’m pretty please with the way I played,� he said. McCarthy had one top-10 finish during the PGA TOUR this season — a solo fourth at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, where he played the first two rounds with Romo. He said he’s anxious to get back to the TOUR in the fall with a year of learning now under his belt. “It’s always difficult learning a new golf course, let alone 20 new golf courses,� he admitted. “Every week last year was a learning experience trying to figure out how to navigate each course “I feel better going into this year, knowing all the courses and knowing what it’s like to play tournament rounds on these courses. I really like the way my game is trending, so overall I think it’s a double-win.�

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