Has the Ryder Cup been bad for Ian Poulter? In quiet moments, it’s a question he’s asked himself hundreds of times.

On one level, of course, it’s a crazy thought. Shouldn’t it be more like the making of him since he’s now known as Mr Ryder Cup and no-one demurred when he got a wild card, even though he’s played poorly all year?

There’s the other side of the coin.

Ian Poulter celebrates with team-mate Justin Rose and a bottle of champagne after win in 2012 Ryder Cup

Poulter cradles his much-craved trophy after the incredible triumph in Medinah

POULTER'S RYDER CUP RECORD Years Played 2004 (winners), 2008, 2010 (winners), 2012 (winners) Overall Record Played 15, Won 12, Lost 3, Halved 0 Singles Played 4, Won 4, Lost 0, Halved 0 Foursomes Played 5, Won 4, Lost 1, Halved 0 Fourballs Played 6, Won 4, Lost 2, Halved 0 Advertisement

Why does he disappear off the charts for long stretches of each season, when we see the heights he’s capable of reaching at the Ryder Cup? Why has he never won a strokeplay tournament in America when he plays with such certainty and clarity of mind against the Yanks every other year; or contended seriously in recent seasons to win a major?

Poulter narrows his search for the answer down to what happens when he has his biennial high, and the dreadful feelings of withdrawal he experiences afterwards.

Make no mistake, this man is a Ryder Cup junkie.

‘I’ve missed it so much, I really have,’ he said. ‘I just can’t wait to get that buzz again at Gleneagles. Everything else just feels like a disappointment by comparison. Even though I played well at the back end of last year it wasn’t the same, not even close.

‘Has the Ryder Cup been bad for my golf? I talk to my inner circle about it all the time. How do you replicate that adrenalin rush you get, because I know I’ve never found it. I know how much of a buzz it is by what happens to me afterwards. I’m like the man who has just won the marathon, my body shuts down completely — it is such a high and then you’ve got two long years until the next one.

‘If you think of it as a 10 for the Ryder Cup, I’d still only give it a three for playing in even the Masters.

‘That’s my problem, there’s no middle ground. The first tee at the Open? Yes, you get a little buzz, but it’s not the same. When you’re winning tournaments, there’s a rush for the final few holes, but it’s such a short window and even then it’s still only a seven.’

The only other players who exhibited such passion for the Ryder Cup were Seve Ballesteros, who only won one major after truly discovering the ‘rush’ in 1985, and Colin Montgomerie, who never won any despite, like Poulter, clearly having more than enough talent to do so.

‘That’s interesting what you say about Seve,’ said Poulter. ‘I never knew that. I wish he was still around and I could talk to him about it.’

Poulter lives with his wife Katie and their four young children in the gated community of Lake Nona in Orlando. He answers the door in tandem with two-year-old son Josh, who is holding a football, and the two family dogs — Enzo and Bentley. Poulter is wearing his exercise gear.

‘Do you mind having a little kick around with Josh while I finish off with the phsyio?’ he says, cheerfully.

Josh kicks his ball towards what might be described as the play room. There’s a pool and snooker table and a bar area, resplendent with pink stools. The two televisions on the wall are showing the Discovery Channel. Underneath them are nine small teddy bears complete with Masters garb, representing all but one of his 10 appearances at Augusta.

‘They’re nice aren’t they?’ said Poulter. ‘They’re only given to players and a few members and their guests. I’m missing one, so I’ve got to find a friendly member who might sell me one from that year. Hopefully there’ll be about 20 on display one day.’

Poulter and McIlroy of Europe line up a putt on the 18th hole during day two of the Afternoon Four-Ball Matches

The duo's excellent display on that day helped Europe turn the tie around from a 10-4 defecit

Poulter has admitted he struggles to get the same buzz from other majors as he does the Ryder Cup

Adjacent to the cinema room, where there are iconic pictures of a young Jack and Arnie, and a signed one of Muhammad Ali, is his treasured Ryder Cup display. Given how much it means to him, you won’t be surprised to learn his four appearances to date are artfully represented. There are bags and clubs plus numerous other artifacts, including gifts given by the captains.

There is also a nice collection of golf balls from tournaments he’s won or other notable highlights, such as when he holed in one at Augusta. There’s a ball he got from his hero Seve at the 1991 British Masters at Woburn.

The ball at the front is perhaps the most significant, the one handed to him by Montgomerie in 1993 that represents the start of his magnificent Ryder Cup journey.

‘When you think what I’ve had to put up with from him over the years I should have burned it by now!’ roars Poulter, referring to the fact the pair have, shall we say, a little history. Thank goodness he hasn’t, because it’s symbolic of a lovely tale.

‘I was 17 and had absolutely no money, so I went up to that Ryder Cup at The Belfry with two mates and we stayed in a tent in a field,’ recalled Poulter.

‘A little old lady who lived nearby would feel sorry for us and let us wash up each night and she gave us a bottle of wine as well. We had a wonderful time. Not being shy at coming forward, I asked Monty for the ball after one match and he gave it to me. I’ve got stuff from every Ryder Cup. I’ve got all the clubs and all the gifts, the badges, the lot. I always wanted to be able to display it all properly because it is important to me.’

Poulter breaks into a huge grin when I ask him if he is aware of just how extraordinary his Ryder Cup record is, with the scarcely believable record of 11 wins in his last 12 matches, including seven in a row.

He has a higher winning percentage than any other player who has competed in at least three Ryder Cups.

‘Yeah, I’m fully aware of it,’ he said. ‘Winning 11 out of 12 matches is completely bonkers, isn’t it? So I need to step it up and deliver like that once more.’

Poulter celebrating with team-mates Luke Donald (left) and Lee Westwood (right) following their win

Poulter poses for a portrait picture ahead of the World Match Play Championships in May

The Englishman has struggled on the regular tour for much of this season and needed a wildcard pick

VIDEO Europe set for final Ryder Cup preparations

After a relatively minor contribution to the record-breaking victory at Oakland Hills in 2004, Poulter was one of the few redeeming features of the defeat at Valhalla in 2008 and brilliant in the win at Celtic Manor in 2010.

But it was at Medinah, last time, of course, that the legend was truly defined; the only Ryder Cup in history where the result has been influenced so heavily by the efforts of one man. What does he think now, looking back?

‘I think my abiding memory is the same as everyone else’s — how the hell did that happen?’ he says. ‘It really was one of those sporting occasions you couldn’t script. The wave they had for a day and a half was incredible, Keegan (Bradley) and Phil (Mickelson) were holing everything, it was truly horrible to watch it unfold. Then all of a sudden it all got cut off.

‘To lose from a position of 10-4 up on home soil, it’s unthinkable. When you’re the opposition, you’re in damage-limitation mode. But then it was 10-6 and now it changes. Now you’ve got the thought that if everything, and I mean everything, goes your way on Sunday you might get the outcome you want.’

Poulter was playing with Rory McIlroy in the shadows of Saturday evening when he finished with five straight birdies to make it 10-6. When he got back to the team room the Europeans, to a man, broke into song: ‘One Ian Poulter, there’s only one Ian Poulter.’

‘I think the last putt was the game changer,’ he said. ‘The team were all watching and you could see what it meant to us all. And I think it sowed a tiny seed of doubt as well, because until that moment the Americans had to be thinking they’d won. When you’re that far ahead playing at home, you’ve got to be thinking: we’ve turned these boys over and about time.’

And then came Sunday.

‘I haven’t watched the whole of that Ryder Cup because it would be pretty miserable, to be honest, sitting through the first half,’ he said. ‘But I’ve watched a lot of the highlights of Sunday and it really is impressive. You’ve got Paul Lawrie chipping in, Nicolas Colsaerts holing putts, Westy (Lee Westwood) doing his bit, Sergio (Garcia) getting up and down when he had to and then there’s Rosie’s putt (Justin Rose) against Phil Mickelson on the 17th.

‘You’re watching it all and thinking: “Wow, there’s another 40 footer that’s dropped.” Brilliant, wasn’t it?’

Indeed it was. But if he thought he had a target on his back for the Americans then, what is it going to be like this time?

‘They will all want a piece. That’s fine. You have to embrace it,’ he said. ‘We know they will be pumped. We’re all aware that the last time they won was when Tiger wasn’t around. They all know how to win. I think Dustin Johnson is a big loss, the way he can play in patches, but even without him and Tiger I don’t see them massively weakened.

‘The big thing for them is they’ve won one of the last six and anyone with that record in a two-horse race isn’t going to be full of confidence. So can they raise team spirit? It’s certainly possible.

‘But I expect the big summer the Europeans have had will help. Who’d want to play against Rory right now? Certainly anyone playing with him is going to be given a boost. Then you’ve got Martin Kaymer after the way he demolished everyone at the US Open. Justin Rose is always there. These sorts of things give everyone a lift.’

Poulter celebrates with gusto after Europe won 14 1/2 to 13 1/2 against the USA at the last Ryder Cup

Winning European captain Jose Maria Olazabal is held aloft by (from left) Sergio Garcia, Paul Lawrie, Poulter, Nicolas Colsaerts, Rory McIlroy, Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Rose, Francesco Molinari, Peter Hanson, Donald and Martin Kaymer

When he was 18, Poulter lost a ring that had been given to him by his father and his father’s girlfriend at the time, who would later die of cancer. He would search for weeks, even months to find it. The hatred of losing, then, goes way beyond Ryder Cup matches.

‘It had a lot of sentimental value and I can’t tell you how much it upset me to lose it,’ he said. ‘I’ve always been the same, whether it’s losing a match or losing an item, I detest it. Where does it come from? Maybe not having much as a kid and wearing hand-me-downs, perhaps. To me, if you’ve got something, you should respect it. It doesn’t matter how much it cost.’

Poulter has rubbed plenty of people up the wrong way over the years. Most recently, there was an episode on Twitter when he had a go at British Airways for demoting the family’s nanny from business class to economy.

‘Not my finest moment, was it?’ he said. ‘I accept my wording was rubbish and I get these brain farts occasionally. The point is, we have a nanny because we have four kids aged between two and 12 and they all have different demands.

‘It allows Katie to spend more time with the kids individually, not less. And she’s absolutely petrified of flying, so that’s why it was important for the nanny to be around. I was furious because we’d paid £4,000 for her ticket and they offered us £250 compensation for her to sit at the back of the bus. How can that be right?’

I ask Poulter to show me his amazing collection of Ferraris. Here’s something else he gets criticised about. Seven Ferraris — how flash can you get? Listen to Poulter, who never misses a trick as a businessman, and you might have a different view.

‘It’s no different from the man who has a $20million art collection, or who collects property,’ he said. ‘I collect Ferraris because they’re my idea of great art and they’re a fabulous investment. I’m no different from someone like Ralph Lauren, who might have the finest private collection of Ferraris of all. Only two of the seven I have got are production models, where the value goes down; the other five are collector’s items and they’re already worth way more than I paid for them.’

Poulter is having another house built next door where he can show off his collection of ‘art’ properly.