Rich Beem has said that giving up his place at the Hong Kong Open for Ian Poulter was "the right thing to do".
Poulter had to compete in the tournament in order to keep his European Tour card and maintain his eligibility for the Ryder Cup, but needed a golfer to withdraw in order to compete.
"I'm not looking to gain anything from this," Beem told reporters. "I looked at it in the simplest terms. There's a guy who loses his tour membership if I don't step away. Is it any more awkward because it's Ian Poulter? I don't know and I don't care. It was the right thing to do.
"I wasn't going to say 'no' and be a jerk. It was a situation where the right thing needed to happen. And this was the right thing.
"I want to play in the worst way but there were no other options, and I'm not going to keep a guy from losing all his status and not be eligible for the Ryder Cup. So I stepped aside. I didn't think twice about it or ask for huge demands."
Poulter has won 12 of his 18 Ryder Cup matches and been part of a winning European team in all five appearances.
Jonathan McIntosh
