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By Kent Gray
Watch out if Ian Poulter managed a good night’s kip leading into the third round of the 14^th Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

The 43-year-old has played impressively well running on empty following a 34-hour door-to-door journey from last week’s Sony Open in Hawaii to Abu Dhabi Golf Club, ignoring exhaustion and the lack of a practice round to card rounds of 66-69.

At -9 he’s right in mix at the $7 million Rolex Series event and hopes to be sharper Friday as he sets out in pursuit of Shane Lowry and the three shot buffer the Irishman enjoyed at the halfway stage.

Poulter admitted to a “decent night’s sleep” before his second round but blamed tiredness for a disappointing bogey finish when his final drive on the 9^th (he started on 10) ended up wet.

“Missed the fairway just left yesterday and made birdie. It was downwind today, I didn’t want to miss it left, so the power of the mind taking over…I mean, it’s a negative thought. It shouldn’t even be even in my mind that I’m even thinking about yesterday’s tee shot, and because of that, the power of the mind takes over and you obviously hit it to the right,” Poulter said.

“Obviously slightly tired, allowing that kind of nonsense to get in there, because pretty much the rest of the day was flawless, especially from the tee. It’s a bit of a frustrating way to finish, but if you’d have offered me that stepping off the plane a couple nights ago, I would have taken it.”

Poulter has earned a sleep-in and is clearly looking forward to his 12:32pm third-round tee-time in tandem fellow Brit Scott Jamieson.

“Obviously, I just need to keep those silly little mental errors out, and I think I’ll have a good week. It’s what you practice for, right, to get out there and play at that end of the leaderboard. It should be a good weekend.”