Poulter's quick off the mark

England’s Ian Poulter, who arrived at Celtic Manor in his red Ferrari, made an equally fast start to the Wales Open at Celtic Manor today.

Poulter birdied six of his first 11 holes this morning to move into a two-shot lead over the field, ending a run of poor form this season.

The 27-year-old from Milton Keynes has missed the halfway cut in five of his last six events as he works on changes to his swing under the guidance of coach David Leadbetter.

Two rounds of 74 in the PGA championship last week saw him miss the cut by five shots at Wentworth, but all that was forgotten as he took advantage of unusually perfect scoring conditions in Newport.

After saving par from 12 feet on the first, Poulter birdied three of the next four holes and also picked up a shot on the eighth to be out in 32.

Further birdies followed at the 10th and 11th – which at 621 yards is only the longest hole on the course by a mere eight yards – and at six under Poulter was two shots ahead of a group including Australian Peter Fowler, Swede Klas Eriksson and Scotland’s Alastair Forsyth.

Pre-tournament favourite Colin Montgomerie was among the later starters, the Scot and and New Zealander Michael Campbell the only players in the top 50 in the world competing despite a first prize of £250,000 (€349.42) from a total purse of £1.5m (€2.096m).

Former Open champion Paul Lawrie unable to defend his title due to a neck injury and newly-crowned Volvo PGA champion Ignacio Garrido and Wentworth runner-up Trevor both pulled out after their exertions last week.

Montgomerie was not complaining too loudly however as he sought to add the Welsh title to his English, Irish and Scottish Open victories, and Poulter would no doubt be glad of the prize money as well to perhaps add to his car collection.

The tournament has been plagued by bad weather since it began in 2000, Paul McGinley winning after a play-off in 2001 after the event had been reduced to 36 holes, and Lawrie having to complete 36 holes on the final day last year after yet more rain.

The contrast could not have been more striking today however, with bright sunshine and virtually no wind making the 7,355-yard course as tame as possible.