Ian Poulter overcame the earliest wake-up call of his professional career to card an impressive second-round 68 at the Australian PGA Championship.
The Englishman had completed 15 holes of his opening round when the storm clouds arrived on Thursday and had to be back in place at 05.30 on Friday morning to finish the job.
He did so with three pars in a level-par 72 and then made a surge up the leaderboard in round two, turning in 32 from the tenth to get to four under.
A level-par 36 would then follow on the front nine to put the 12-time European Tour winner in an encouraging position heading into the weekend, although he admitted the 03.30 alarm call was something of a challenge.
"I refused to set it any earlier," he said. "There was a car going to leave the hotel at 03.45 and I said, 'I’m still going to be asleep'. I love my bed. Someone who’s half man/half mattress does not get out of bed at 03.30 to play golf, let alone to go to the airport to get to a tournament.
"That was a very early morning. I think that was the earliest wake-up call I’ve ever had in 17 years on Tour."
Poulter was making his first appearance on the European Tour since the Masters Tournament this week after missing five months of the summer to fix a longstanding foot issue.
The 40 year old has played some recent tournament golf on the US PGA Tour and believes if he can get the putter going again, he can put himself right in contention.
Someone who’s half man/half mattress does not get out of bed at 03.30 to play golf - Ian Poulter
"I played nicely," he said. "I think I’ve been doing some work on my putting and I’m trying a different visual. I went back to a putter I used to use a while ago in terms again as a visual.
"I felt I played really nicely in the last five events I’ve played, I just haven’t holed my fair share of putts.
"I started to do that a little bit today. I'm a little frustrated not to finish the round off strong once I made five birdies on my outward nine this morning, so it could have been a few better, but I’m in position.
"I’ve been playing really nicely, very comfortable off the tee, very comfortable from the fairway, hitting a lot of decent shots and getting a lot of looks and that’s what I need to convert. Then I will find myself in position and getting back to the good old days."
