Poulter's position becomes perilous

Ian Poulter’s hopes of playing the Masters in three weeks’ time were left hanging by a thread today when he slumped to an 82 and crashed out of the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando.

It was the second year running Poulter had posted the score at the event – but this time it came about in spectacular fashion at the end.

A respectable level par overnight and inside the expected cut mark, the European Ryder Cup star was struggling to survive from the moment he bogeyed the short second and then took a double-bogey six on the fifth, driving into sand and three-putting.

Further bogeys at the 10th and long 16th blew his chances of qualifying for the final two rounds, but then in the space of a few minutes Poulter dropped to next-to-last in the 120-strong field, running up a quintuple-bogey eight on the 219-yard 17th.

Poulter currently lies 66th in the world and needs to be in the top 50 after next week’s Players Championship for a place at Augusta.

Now almost certain to drop further down the rankings, he might need a top three finish at Sawgrass to be part of the first major of the season. Not being there, of course, would leave him with even more to do to retain his Ryder Cup spot.

Meanwhile, American Lucas Glover set the target for the star-studded line-up, a second successive 67 taking the 26-year-old from South Carolina to 10 under par.

Glover, who had his first US Tour victory at the Walt Disney Classic last October, led by one in the clubhouse from Australians Robert Allenby and Rod Pampling, whose 65 was the low round of the week so far.

World number two Vijay Singh, without a win since last July, remained deep in the pack after back-to-back 71s, but most of the big guns were among the later starters.

Tiger Woods, four times a winner of the title and three times a winner already this season, remained two under after two holes of his second round, while Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia resumed with a par apiece to stay at five under and four under respectively.

Joint first round leaders Dean Wilson and Bart Bryant scored 70 and 71 to be eight under and seven under.