Ian Poulter Bit by Insect, Rendered Unable to Play Pro-Am

I don’t golf. I’ve never had an insect bite get infected. But I’m with Shane Bacon of Dogs That Chase Cars: Ian Poulter looks like a wimp for pulling out of the French Open pro-am because of an insect bite.

⇥Ian Poulter did not compete either after a bite on his right shin appeared to have become infected.⇥⇥Poulter said: “I was practising at Woburn on Monday and got bitten by a horsefly or something.⇥

⇥⇥“It was swollen yesterday and when I put my hand in my pocket I felt a big lump on my groin and knew it wasn’t right.”⇥

Poulter also went on impugn English doctors as wimpier than French ones—“An English doctor said I should go and have an intravenous drip but the French one did not think that was the right thing to do.”

In all seriousness: it’s possible that Poulter ended up with a dangerous infection because of a bite. That happens. (How it goes from shin to groin is for doctors to explain.) But Poulter, a guy who wears Technicolor plaid and gauche flag-based designs on his slacks, is not the golfer who will be given the benefit of the doubt on toughness. And if a horsefly actually felled the world’s eighth-ranked golfer, if only for a day, it’s only going to allow the hacky dismissals of golfers as sissies to continue.

But look at the bright side: Cristiano Ronaldo now has a role model.

↵