Poulter hopes Mitchell advice doesn’t come back to bite him

AUSTIN, Texas – Keith Mitchell could not waste the chance to pick the brain of one of the best match players golf has seen.

The Honda Classic winner was on a scouting mission to Augusta National last weekend when he ran into Ian Poulter and the pair got to talking about travel plans heading to Austin for this week’s World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play.

Turned out both planned to fly over Monday morning so the two decided to come together – and it was in the air that Mitchell pounced.

“He asked me a question… Why are you so good at match play?” Poulter said.

“So we kind of had a chat about it for a minute… I tried not to answer it, to be honest. And he sort of laughed. 'You don't have to be humble; you’re sitting in this little cabin with the three of us, you can tell me.'”

Poulter, who has long been a Ryder Cup hero for Europe and has been to the final four in the WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play three times with a win in 2010, gave up some basic advice.

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Ironically later that afternoon the pair would be drawn in the same group and now face off on Thursday at Austin Country Club.

“We had a laugh about it this morning. So hopefully I didn't give away too many secrets,” Poulter grinned.

“He really hasn’t played match play a lot and he just said it's going to be new for him, and how does he play match play. And I basically said, you'll figure it out.

“Glad I didn't give him too much info. He's a great player. He's coming off a bit of form obviously winning down at Honda.”

Mitchell lost his opening match Wednesday, going down 2 and 1 to Tony Finau. He will now get a lesson first hand from the victorious Poulter who avenged his quarter final loss to Kevin Kisner a year ago with a 2-up win.

The American has to win to have a realistic hope of advancing to the weekend and Poulter expects he’ll be hungry. As such he won’t take his travel mate lightly.

“Match play is match play, right? You can make eight birdies and lose,” Poulter said.

“It's about trying to get a hold of your match and obviously staying strong.”