Ian Poulter signals start of race for world No1 as Tiger hunt begins

Poor Tiger Woods; 3,000 miles from Wentworth and still he finds himself in the cross-hairs, targeted by the cream of British golf on the eve of the European Tour's flagship event, the BMW Championship. "I can see anyone in the top 10 [doing it]," declared Ian Poulter when asked about the prospect of Woods losing his world No1 ranking. Two years ago, the Englishman became a figure of mirth when he dared to suggest he might one day rank alongside the great man. Now he claims that he and a handful of others could go by Woods in the fast lane and no one would bat an eye. There are many reasons for that, of course, and not all involve the turmoil that has engulfed the private and professional life of Woods. The best of the rest are simply getting better, and that includes Poulter, the recent winner of the Accenture World Matchplay, Rory McIlroy, who won his first PGA Tour event courtesy of a final round 62 at the Quail Hollow Championship, and Lee Westwood, who was runner‑up at last month's Masters and rose to No3 in the world rankings this week. "Tiger's performance and schedule and things like that are unpredictable, aren't they," said Westwood, who is a little more circumspect when it comes to bold predictions than Poulter (then again, who isn't?). "Phil Mickelson is obviously a world-class player but his performances are very much up-and-down, and the world rankings are all about consistency. So I suppose the No2 and No1 spots are more achievable than they have been in the last few years." For the moment, only Mickelson is within close range of Woods – victory at next week's PGA event at Colonial would see him become world No1 for the first time – but a win this week at Wentworth for any one of Westwood, Poulter or McIlroy would leave them within touching distance of the summit. That, though, is easier said than done. This is usually the case in professional golf and is definitely the case this week, against a field including five of the world's top 10 and on a layout that has been transformed by Ernie Els, who was hired by Wentworth's owner, Richard Caring, to give the esteemed West Course an overhaul. Greens have been relaid, bunkers refashioned and, in the case of the par-five 18th, the odd hole rendered well-nigh unrecognisable. The total cost was £6.5m. Opinions on the "new, improved" Wentworth are mixed, even if most of public pronouncements are positive – a reaction, perhaps, to the comments of Johann Rupert, a billionaire businessman and one of the European Tour's biggest sponsors, who used a speech at the Tour's annual dinner to scold the players for their general conduct. Rupert had a point, as Westwood acknowledged, although there should be room for opinions such as those of Paul Casey, whose response to questions about Caring's efforts was to float the idea of protection orders for golf courses. "The idea was that maybe we should introduce some kind of scheme along the lines of that we have with historic buildings in this country," he said. "When you're the owner of a Grade Two listed building it's much like you're the caretaker for the next generation."