By Kent Gray
Ian Poulter has, almost literally, sleepwalked his way to the cusp of a dream finish at the 14th Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

A brilliant eagle three on the 18th saw the 43-year-old Englishman sign for a second successive 69 Friday, move to -12 for the championship and close to within five shots of impressive frontrunner Shane Lowry.

It’s been a hugely impressive display when you consider Poulter only arrived in Abu Dhabi at 10.15pm on Tuesday after an exhausting 34-hour door-to-door journey from his T-33rd finish at last week’s Sony Open in Hawaii. No practice round, little sleep, no problem thus far.

“It felt pretty good, I have to say,” Poulter said of his third round before adding a caveat. “The round was a bit frustrating. Right from the first hole, hit it in the bunker up by the green and it was — no sand in a lot of these bunkers, they are not as good as what they should be and they have been in the past.

“It was one of those days where I wanted to keep it out of the traps but all I kept doing was hitting it in them. To finish with a three was good, especially after obviously bogeying 16.”

Poulter later absolved the greens staff for his sandy frustrations when he was asked to forecast Saturday’s final round.

“It’s tough when you hit in a few of those greenside bunkers. They have been very tricky this week, trying to predict the inconsistency. I suppose you shouldn’t really be hitting in them, so it’s my fault,” he said.

“I’ll try not to hit them in there tomorrow. Try to be aggressive and try and make as many birdies as I can and see if we can have some fun. That’s all I can do. The greens are good and I think if you play well, and you play smart, take advantage of the par 5s tomorrow, I think definitely in with a chance.”

Poulter definitely took advantage of the 18th on Friday evening, sliding a 3-wood to within 20 feet and pouring the putt in – but not before a little twirl of the set-up stick.

“243 front, 265 pin. Wind was straight left-to-right. My 3-hybrid carries 240, so that was potentially having to ride the wind. It was a 40-yard sliding cut 3-wood and it worked out pretty nice to about 15, 18 feet.

“It was one of those shots that providing you stayed committed to it and move the ball as much as you need to move it in the wind, it was definitely going to have a chance to get up there close to the pin.”

The Postman, delivering again.