England’s Ian Poulter had a real fight on his hands to claim a first European Tour victory in two years in the weather-affected Turkish Airlines Open.
Poulter held a three-shot lead when an approaching thunderstorm forced play to be suspended on Friday afternoon, while more storms overnight saw the scheduled restart put back by an hour on Saturday morning.
However, Poulter simply carried on where he left off with a birdie on his first hole of the day, the 15th, and parred the last three to add a second round of 66 to his opening 64.
That took the 38-year-old to 33 under par for his last six rounds at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal and 14 under for the tournament, a lead of six shots over Ireland’s Shane Lowry, Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez, American Brooks Koepka, Australian Wade Ormsby and South African pair Branden Grace and Hennie Otto.
But with the players quickly sent out in the same groups to begin round three, that commanding lead was quickly eroded as Poulter struggled to reproduce his form of the first two rounds.
A three-putt bogey at the first was followed by a birdie on the par-five fourth for the seventh consecutive round, but the world number 40 then bogeyed the fifth and a string of pars took him to the turn in 36.
That allowed Ormsby to close within a single shot, the 34-year-old having started on the back nine and birdied the 15th before a brilliant approach to the 18th set up an eagle three.
Ormsby also holed from six feet for a birdie on the first to improve to 12 under, three ahead of first-round leader Miguel Angel Jimenez.