If his golf was just half as good as his penchant for self-publicity, Ian Poulter would have won the Open Championship many times over. In one field he is very good, and getting better; in the other he has the touch of a genius.

The “fat kid from Milton Keynes”, as Justin Rose, his closest friend on tour, memorably described him, Poulter has proved himself one of the few players capable of moving golf from the back pages to the front. Many of his peers have snorted with derision at times, but what they would give for just a little of the attention the Englishman attracts.

There was a time when the detractors would sneer that he was “all mouth and trousers”, a description they felt was particularly apt in light of a fashion sense that demanded people look at him and a tendency to speak too highly of himself. His golf, they would argue, was not good enough to warrant such excess confidence. And did he care? In his own words, he did not give a monkey’s.

Now, after a year during which he finished runner-up behind Padraig Harrington at the Open at Royal Birkdale and was the star of the Europe team at the Ryder Cup in Valhalla, Kentucky, his golf can bear the closest scrutiny. He plays a mixture of events in the United States and Europe and has gained almost iconic status among fans in America and Japan.

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Poulter, at 33, is not heading for Turnberry next week simply to add a splash of colour. As the world No 16, he is a serious contender for the Claret Jug. And if he brightens up proceedings on the way, that can only be a good thing. If it so wished, the Royal and Ancient could make a little mischief of its own by pairing him with John Daly, the maverick American whose trousers will make the Englishman’s look almost bland.

It is hard to believe, but when Poulter turns up for nine holes of practice at Turnberry on Monday morning, it will be the first look he will have had at the course in 15 years as a tour professional. In 1994, the previous time the Open was held on the famous and beautiful Ayrshire links, Poulter was an assistant professional (dogsbody, to you and me) at a golf club near Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

At the time he was working in the splendidly named Jack O’Legs golf shop at the club and laughs at the memory. “Fifteen years ago I would have been sweeping up in the shop on the final afternoon,” he said. “Or that’s what I should have been doing. In truth, I was probably watching the golf unfold on television.”

In the intervening years Poulter has gone from selling Mars bars and tee pegs — and a handicap of four — to multimillionaire status with houses in the US and Britain, fast cars and his own clothing company. Not bad for a working-class lad who once had a trial for Tottenham Hotspur (despite his love of all things Arsenal) and used to make extra money selling clothes from a market stall. “I could sell ice cream to the Eskimos,” he says.

Things truly came alive for Poulter at Birkdale last year when, dressed in pink, he put in a brilliant last round of 69 to set the clubhouse lead before Harrington cleaned up for the second year in succession.

Among Poulter’s inspiration was Greg Norman, the Australian, who, at 53, was in contention throughout a week battered by the elements.

“Looking back on Birkdale, it was surreal,” the Englishman said. “I grew up a huge Greg Norman fan and over the first three days, I could not resist watching the highlights, just to see him play. It was awesome. I thought, ‘This is unbelievable. What a story.’

“Tiger [Woods] wasn’t there and everybody had said it was going to be a dull week. But it turned out to be an unbelievably exciting one. Greg was rolling back the years with unbelievable golf.