Poulter and Siem in contention at French Open

England’s Ian Poulter and German Marcel Siem found themselves out in front after overnight leaders David Howell and Anders Hansen made poor starts to the Alstom French Open final round at Le Golf National near Paris today.

Howell bogeyed the first, Hansen the second and then both ran up bogey sixes at the long third.

Poulter’s birdies at the first and fourth and Siem’s four on the third lifted them both to five under par, one ahead of seven players – Howell, Hansen, South Africans Retief Goosen and George Coetzee, French hope Raphael Jacquelin, Swede Henrik Stenson and Italian Francesco Molinari, who hit back from an opening double bogey with six birdies in the next 12.