Early birdie boost for Poulter

Ian Poulter made a promising start to his second round at the BMW Championship in Illinois.

Poulter, who needs to finish probably no worse than second to advance to next week’s Tour Championship, collected a birdie at the par-four first hole under threatening skies at Cog Hill.

He moved to four under par, three strokes behind American leader Jonathan Byrd, who had not teed off.

Justin Rose, who along with Poulter and Luke Donald makes up the small British contingent in the FedEx Cup play-off event, had not teed off either.

For the second successive day, officials brought tee times forward in an effort to beat possible thunderstorms, which never materialised.

The BMW is the third of four events in the new play-off series, with only the top 30 players on the points table qualifying for the Tour Championship.