Ian Poulter would "embrace" Ryder Cup without fans
Ian Poulter has said that he would rather play the 2020 Ryder Cup without fans than see it postponed to 2021.
It has been suggested by officials that the 2020 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits could be played without fans, which caused an uproar amongst golf fans and professionals, but Ian Poulter has a different opinion.
Multiple golfers including Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka have said that they'd rather see this year's Ryder Cup postponed until 2021 than play it without fans, but Poulter, who has represented Europe six times at the biennial event, says he would "embrace" a fanless Ryder Cup.
"I'm not saying 'postpone it' if there's no fans," he told Sky Sports News.
"I want to make that team and if I do, and we have to play it behind closed doors, I'm going to embrace it 100 per cent. It will be good for TV. It won't be good from a players' standpoint, there won't be as much fun, because you won't be able to feed off the energy of the fans.
"We would love to see a Ryder Cup with fans. We feed as a team, and we always have, off the fans. So if you take them away it's going to be an extremely different feeling.
"I'd love to see the world be in a better place by September, and for one of these amazing companies to find a vaccine which would turn this thing on its head very, very quickly. It's not looking likely, but miracles do happen."
The Englishman believes that the qualification criteria should be changed given the current circumstances. Nine players qualify automatically through a combination of European and world points, with captain Harrington selecting three wild card picks.
As things stand, Poulter is way off of qualifying with an automatic pick and would be relying on being selected by Harrington, although with Europe's new depth of squad, the 44-year-old could be overlooked.
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"There would have to be more picks. People haven't had the opportunity to play since February, and some guys might not have the opportunity to play much golf before August. It's up to the European Tour and it's up to Paddy to decide what is the best way to be fair to everyone.
"There are going to be guys that have weathered this storm well, and there'll probably be some guys who haven't weathered the storm well.
"A load of guys in the UK I know haven't been playing golf at all and they've just been practicing in a net in the back garden. It's not going to be easy to make that selection whether it's 12 picks, six picks, four picks, however they go about it."
