Poulter in contention in emergency start in Hong Kong Open

Ian Poulter flew to the other side of the world at the last minute to save his European Tour membership and keep alive his hopes of playing in the 2016 Ryder Cup. He didn’t even have to make the cut at the Hong Kong Open. He just had to play a couple of rounds and hop on a jet back home. But, since he stressed so much about getting in the field and spent all that money to get there, he must have figured he may as well try to win the thing.

Poulter backed up an opening 67 at Hong Kong G.C. with a 66 on Friday to sit two shots behind Justin Rose heading into the weekend. Poulter is tied for third at 7-under 133 with Wei-chih Lu. Lucas Bjerregaard is alone in second, just a shot behind Rose.

The whole reason Poulter is in this field is to guarantee he will play in 13 European Tour events this season, satisfying the minimum participation requirement to keep membership. That’s because European Tour membership is a prerequisite to participate on the European Ryder Cup team, either as an automatic qualifier or as a pick of captain Darren Clarke.

Poulter had originally intended to play in the WGC-HSBC Champions in China in two weeks. However, when the Official World Golf Ranking was published on Sunday, Poulter had fallen out of the top 50 in the world for the first time in nine years, leaving doubt if he could play in the event. The Hong Kong Open, the last regular season event on the Euro Tour schedule and the only tournament Poulter could swap in to save his membership, reached its entry deadline, like most Euro Tour events, two weeks prior to tournament week. So, Poulter needed a sponsor’s exemption, essentially gifted to him by 2002 PGA champion Rich Beem, who was in Hong Kong and planned to compete in the event.

The Englishman has repeatedly expressed his gratitude to Beem for the opportunity.

Rose knows Poulter, the 2010 Hong Kong Open winner, is at his best when properly motivated.

“[Poulter’s] always good when he’s got something to prove, and he’s probably a dangerous guy now that he’s outside the top 50 in the world, and I know that he’ll be desperate to get back in it,” he said.

“He always plays well when he has motivation, so he’s obviously going to be tough to beat, too.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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