Ian Poulter has claimed that he has never felt so unprepared for a tournament than he does for this week's Masters.

Poulter was the last player to qualify for the event at Augusta having won the Houston Open on Sunday night, a week after he had agonisingly missed out on a spot at the first Major of the year at the Dell Accenture Match Play.

The Englishman has acknowledged that he is excited to join the field at the sport's most prestigious tournament, but says that he has "zero expectations" after a whirlwind two weeks.

The 42-year-old is quoted by the European Tour website as saying: "I'm here late and I'm going to get a late look at the golf course, but it's a place I love and I'm really excited to be here.

"I have zero expectations. I have never pitched up to the Masters on a Tuesday afternoon, I would never have done as little preparation as I'm about to do for this event.

"So as confident as I feel going into this week, I believe I'm unprepared, so let's see if that unpreparedness works in my favour. Sometimes we've seen that in the past with players and it worked out well last week, hopefully it can work out well this week."

Poulter now sits at number 29 in the World Golf Rankings after his triumph in Texas.