Dubai: England’s Ian Poulter posted his best score since coming back from a seven-month injury lay-off with a five under par 67 in the first round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Thursday.
It also equalled his best Dubai score in 25 rounds at this event, where he hasn’t played in nine years, leaving him tied for fourth two strokes off day one leader Sergio Garcia.
“I feel ready to go,” said Poulter, who shot five birdies and bogey on his front nine before a lone birdie on the turn.
“I’m not sure I’m hitting my stride just yet. As well as I played today there were still a couple of miss-hits in there. And the perfectionist that I am, I want to eradicate those, and when I do, we’ll start to shoot some real low rounds of golf.
“But I’m happy, five under par is a good score. It’s a course that I’ve not played for nine years and I had to familiarise myself with it again, and I’ve done that pretty well today.”
In six previous appearances at this event Poulter has never finished higher than the mid-thirties in the leaderboard, but he’ll be hoping to beat that after equalling his record best round here of 67, which was last achieved in the second round of 2006.
“I feel brilliant knowing that this is one of my lowest rounds here. There was never any reason why I shouldn’t play this golf course well.”
