Ian Poulter showed no ill effects from his late dash to the Far East as he surged into contention early on day two of the UBS Hong Kong Open.
The Englishman unexpectedly dropped out of the top 50 in the World Rankings this week, putting in jeopardy his ability to complete the 13 events required to keep his European Tour membership for 2016.
That led to a late trip to Hong Kong where he replaced tournament invite Rich Beem in the field and, despite not arriving until Wednesday night, he went on to record an opening 67 to sit three shots off the lead overnight.
The 39 year old then followed that up with four birdies and a bogey in his opening nine holes in round two to move to within one shot of the lead held by World Number Seven Justin Rose and Lucas Bjerregaard.
Hong Kong Golf Club holds happy memories for Poulter who won this title in 2010 while his last three stroke play victories on The European Tour have all been in Asia with triumphs also at the Barclays Singapore Open in 2009 and World Golf Championships - HSBC Champions in 2012.
The 12-time European Tour winner began his round on the 11th and soon picked up birdies on the 12th and 14th holes to begin his charge up the leaderboard.
Further gains followed on the 17th and 18th saw him hold a share of the lead but a dropped shot on the first saw him fall back to six under alongside overnight leaders Lu Wei-chih and Andrea Pavan.
A back nine surge from Rose on Thursday had seen him finish the first round just a shot off the lead and birdies on the 14th and 18th got him to seven under after nine holes on Friday morning.
Bjerregaard has three top tens in his last five starts and the big-hitting Dane continued his fine form in Fanling as he picked up shots on the 11th, 13th, 15th and 18th holes with a bogey at the 17th his only blemish through ten.
Poulter's playing partner Anirban Lahiri was then in the group at five under after birdies on the 14th and 15th alongside CT Pan who was among the late starters.
American David Lipsky was two under through his first ten holes to get to four under for the week so far with Indian pair Jeev Milkha Singh and Rahil Gangjee also in that group.
Another Indian, Shiv Kapur, was in the large group at three under after picking up three shots while Graeme McDowell was also at that mark but one over for his round through nine holes.
