Poulter to return for PGA Championship

The 31-year-old had caused dismay at European Tour headquarters and risked criticism from his fellow professionals when he announced that he would miss the high-profile tournament at Wentworth to concentrate on improving his position on the US Tour.

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But after talks with tour chief executive George O'Grady, and taking into account his current form, Poulter has re-arranged his schedule and will return to Britain for two weeks in May to line up alongside Colin Montgomerie, Paul Casey, Darren Clarke and the rest of the leading Europeans in the biggest British event outside the Open Championship.

The man known for his eye-catching outfits insists that his main reason for changing his mind is because he is coming to win — not to silence his critics.

"The schedule I had planned did not involve the PGA Championship for a simple reason," he said at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship in Texas. "My performances there haven't been as good as I would have liked. I decided to take it off my schedule because I wanted to play well in the 20 or 21 events I'm playing over here.

"I'm playing fewer events this year and I want to make sure I'm competitive every time I peg it up so that I can get as many world ranking points as possible. But I've had a decent start to the year and I looked at my schedule again.

"I like the PGA Championship. I went there so many times as a kid to watch Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Seve Ballesteros.

"It's a place where I want to play golf. It's the PGA, it's at Wentworth and it's the European Tour's home and I really feel as though I should play.

"Do I have an obligation to be there? Yes and no. I haven't played a great round of golf at Wentworth and at the start of the year I decided to take it out of the schedule.

"But now I can afford to play there if I feel I'm playing good enough golf to win — and I am.

"I'm going to play for the right reason rather than because I'm under so much influence and pressure. I'd like to think I'm one of Europe's top players and obviously they wanted me to play. I didn't need people leaning on me to play.

"George O'Grady, executive director of the European Tour, is very happy I'll be there. It would have been too easy to play 27 events in America, but that's not what I want to do. I still want to keep up my membership in Europe, which is where I learned my golf and is still my home. Playing in the PGA Championship is the right thing to do for me."

Poulter has clearly convinced himself that, after five missed cuts and no top 10 finishes in the past seven years, he will not be wasting his time at Wentworth.

"I have to go to Wentworth and give it my best shot," said the world No 29.

"There's no reason I can't play well there, especially the way I've been hitting the ball this season."