Early bird Poulter leads in Turkey
Ian Poulter continued his brilliant form at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal after making an early start to the second round of the Turkish Airlines Open on Friday.
Tee times had been brought forward by 90 minutes due to the threat of afternoon thunderstorms but had little effect on Poulter, whose love of sleeping means he describes himself as "half-man, half-mattress".
The 38-year-old, whose opening 64 meant he has recorded a total of 27 under par for his last five rounds in Antalya, began the day a shot behind Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez and saw the gap widen as the oldest winner in European Tour history made birdies at the first two holes.
However, Jimenez - who will celebrate his 51st birthday in January - then bogeyed the fourth and Poulter took advantage with birdies on the same hole and the sixth and seventh to move into the lead.
At 11 under par, Poulter was one ahead of Jimenez with Australian Wade Ormsby and Zimbabwe's Brendon de Jonge another shot back, while American Brooks Koepka was eight under following six birdies and one bogey in a front nine of 30.
Ireland's Shane Lowry, who was playing alongside Jimenez, had made a blistering start with an eagle and three birdies in his first five holes lifting the world number 51 to seven-under.
Poulter extended his lead to three shots with a birdie from six feet on the 10th before chipping to within inches of the hole on the par-five 11th to set up another.
Jimenez saw his birdie attempt on the 11th catch the edge of the hole and spin out and he was joined on 10 under by De Jonge and Ormsby, who had birdied the 18th and third respectively.
Defending champion Victor Dubuisson was languishing 16 shots off the lead on three over par and also having to cope with a persistent nose bleed which meant the Ryder Cup star had some tissue paper stuffed up his right nostril.
