• Abu Dhabi Golf Championship

Poulter leads Abu Dhabi Championship

Ian Poulter holed a huge putt to take the lead in Abu Dhabi © Getty Images

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Golf in pictures

Ian Poulter shot a seven-under par first round to take a share of the lead on day one of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, alongside England's Richard Bland and South Africa's Keith Horne.

Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia are pursuing the Englishman as part of a group at six-under containing Brits Paul Lawrie and Stephen Dodd.

European Tour Players' Player of the Year Lee Westwood entered the clubhouse at three-under par. Elsewhere Paul Casey - who won the championship in 2007 and 2009 - completed his round at level par despite struggling with a rib injury.

It was Dodd and Lawrie, leaders for a period, who outshone Westwood and Casey as the British stars of the early stages. "I played nicely. I think it was important to get a tournament under my belt before coming over for the next three weeks," Lawrie said.

Poulter, who stole Lawrie's lead at the 18th with a huge putt, was delighted with his performance on the early holes. "Front nine or 12 I played solidly and hit it pretty close, within 15-20 feet, and I was rolling some putts in. But over the last five or six holes nothing was going in - and then I holed a 60 footer on the last," he said.

That long-range putt was not the product of hours of recent practice. The 34-year-old revealed that he had hardly worked on his putting in the weeks preceding the tournament: "I probably putted for less than an hour in total during the five weeks I had off over Christmas," he said.

Poulter hit four birdies on the front nine of a round that featured no bogeys. Bland was in similarly efficient form - particularly when hitting consecutive birdies at holes eight to 12 - as he belied his status as the world's No.287. So too Horne, ranked No.224, who recorded an eagle three on the second hole.

Speaking about McIlroy, Garcia insisted that the Irish player's best form was yet to come: "He could get better - obviously you can improve all parts of the game - but he doesn't need to do a lot of work on it." Those are ominous words for the rest of the field. McIlroy hit eight birdies between holes five and 17, with only a double bogey on 11 scuppering his bid for the lead.

For his part, Garcia recovered from a dismal start - bogeys on holes three and four - to record an otherwise near-flawless scorecard that was littered with under-par holes on the back nine.

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