Ian Poulter in control at Antalya

Edited by Anand Datla

Ian Poulter continued his brilliant form at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal before bad weather cut short the second round of the Turkish Airlines Open by the Ministry of Youth and Sports on Friday.

Tee times had been brought forward by 90 minutes in an attempt to get play completed, but the forecast thunderstorm arrived earlier than expected and forced play to be suspended shortly after noon local time.

Poulter had just completed the 14th hole at the time, and although tournament officials initially announced play would resume after a delay of more than two-and-a-half hours, the weather closed in again shortly before the planned restart.

Play was therefore abandoned for the day and scheduled to restart at 8am on Saturday, with Poulter on 13 under par and holding a three shot lead over Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge.

Tournament Director Miguel Vidaor said: “Obviously we stopped play for lightning at 12.04. We knew that there was bad weather coming today; that’s why we moved the tee times forward by an hour and 15 minutes, as much as we could, given the daylight available.

“After watching that storm system coming through, the weatherman thought we were going to get a break of about an hour and 45 minutes until the next one – because of instability in the air, there would be other thunderstorms popping up.

“As we went for the restart at 2.40pm, we had another cell just popping up southeast of us heading towards us and within 18 miles.

“So unfortunately there’s more and more thunderstorms all over the place, and there’s a big band coming behind them, so we have had to cancel it and call it for the day and come back tomorrow and restart at 8.00.

“A 72-hole tournament is still very much achievable. What we are going to do now is we are restarting at 8.00 tomorrow morning. We don’t have a cut, which means that we don’t have to do a new draw between rounds two and three.

“The players are going to go with the same groupings as they are in round two, and they are going to play the same groupings on round three, which means we are going to gain a lot of time.

“All going well, we are looking at the last group going off for round three just after 11.00 tomorrow, which means we are going to be back on track finishing round three just after 4.00 tomorrow, which then gives us the option to redraw for the final round and have a proper final round on Sunday.

“The weather forecast tomorrow is still a low chance of a thunderstorm, nothing like today, and Sunday looks very good. So fingers crossed, I think we should be able to achieve 72 holes on Sunday.”

Poulter, whose opening 64 meant he was a total of 27 under par for his last five rounds in Antalya, began the day a shot behind Spain’s Miguel Angel Jiménez and saw the gap widen as the oldest winner in European Tour history made birdies at the first two holes.

However, Jiménez – who will celebrate his 51st birthday in January – then bogeyed the fourth and Poulter took advantage with birdies on the same hole and the sixth and seventh to move into the lead.

The 38 year old extended his advantage to three shots with a birdie from six feet on the tenth before chipping to within inches of the hole on the par five 11th to set up another.

Poulter carded just his second bogey of the week by three-putting the 12th as a strong wind suddenly kicked up ahead of the storm, but the change in conditions meant the World Number 40 was able to reach the par five 13th in two and card an easy birdie.

“I’m playing nicely, and to be on the top of the leaderboard is always nice,” said Poulter. “It would have been nice to finish the round off, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be today.

“So I guess we’ll have to wait this one out, see what the weather is going to be like. Hopefully we can get round two finished at some stage tomorrow and obviously get cracking on round three.

“I’m playing great, so it’s obviously a great feeling to be on the golf course when you’re playing like that, and making birdies is always fun. Right now I’m pretty happy.”

De Jonge had carded four birdies and one bogey in 13 holes to move into second place on ten under par, with Australian Wade Ormsby and American Brooks Koepka a further shot back.

Jiménez had bogeyed the 12th and 13th before play was suspended to fall five off the pace on eight under alongside South African Branden Grace.