If you want an outside bet for this week’s BMW Championship at Wentworth, you could do worse than consider Ian Poulter. A less obvious choice than Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Henrik Stenson because they are ahead of him in the world rankings, but a man in form nonetheless.

Poulter, the world No 25, has recently returned from a foray on the PGA Tour in the United States, where he averaged winnings of nearly $90,000 (about £46,000) each week.

Think of Poulter, 31, and you think of a man who walks, talks and plays quickly. He is so slim he looks as though he could climb down a chimney. He has a questioning mind and an alert, boyish face. He also has a game that does not quite live up to the billing he gives it.

A fellow professional once said of Poulter: “Ian always stops short of being a prat.” You know exactly what he means. Those of a conservative disposition might find his clothes and his hair a little avant-garde.

Were he to add to this by being a talkative know-all, he could be unbearable. In fact, he is liked and respected because although he can sometimes look as though he has been undergoing a brainstorm while designing or wearing his clothes, and is prone to making a noise, he can’t half play golf.

More relevant is that he does not irritate those around him. He is not disrespectful to them or to the game.

Poulter has played ten tournaments in the US this year and lasted four rounds in all but two. Five times he has finished in the top 25, three of those coming when he finished in the top ten and one when he finished third. His scoring average is 70.55. His performances on Sundays have been exceptional – a 69 in the Buick Invitational, a 70 in the Masters, a 66 in the Byron Nelson and a 69 at The Players Championship. In all but the Byron Nelson, they were the lowest rounds of his week.

“I am very, very happy with my game at the moment,” Poulter said. “My new irons are working well. My 69 at Sawgrass [in The Players Championship] contained some of the nicest shots I have hit for some time. I hit 17 greens [in regulation]. I played lovely. If I’d holed a few putts it would have been a 64.”

In one way, Poulter resembles Darren Clarke. Both men like their boys’ toys. In Clarke’s case it is tailor-made clothes, exotic cars, vintage wine and submarine-size cigars. In Poulter’s case it is tailor-made clothes, exotic cars, contemporary music and football, and there has been a conjunction of these lately.

On Saturday he went to Wembley, his eyes shining with excitement, although not quite so much as if his beloved Arsenal had been playing. Tomorrow, he will play in the pro-am before the BMW event, which starts on Thursday, with the former Arsenal trio of Ian Wright, Ray Parlour and Lee Dixon, and then will settle down to watch Liverpool and AC Milan in the Champions League final in Athens.

Last week, Poulter played golf with Tim Farriss, the guitarist in INXS, the Australian band who will play in a special concert at Wentworth tomorrow night. Poulter, the music fan, admitted that he had stars in his eyes. “He is a much better golfer than I am a guitarist,“ Poulter said. “He can play golf.”

–– David Howell, the holder, has pulled out of the BMW Championship. The 31-year-old Briton has suffered a recurrence of a back injury.