Ian Poulter is back using the putter that helped steer him to third place in last year’s Open Championship in putting his way to second spot on the opening day of the Turkish Airlines Open.

Poulter grabbed an eagle, seven birdies and had just one bogey in ideal scoring conditions on the Montgomerie Maxx Royal course in Belek.

It left the Woburn golfing wonder trailing just one shot behind near 51-year old Miguel Angel Jimenez who again upstaged his younger rivals with a sizzling 63 and just one off the course record.

Ian Poulter back using the putter that saw him finish third in the 2013 Open Championship. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)

Poulter is slowly bouncing back to his best after banking a share of sixth in last week’s WGC – HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

It was a result, with his Muirfield ‘short stick’, that also that lifted him from the likelihood of dropping outside the elite top-50 on the World Rankings and up to 40^th.

“It is the putter shall I say that I had a Twitter debate when I was searching for a putter some 18 months ago at The Open at Muirfield,” he said.

“I then found myself with nearly 200 putters being sent to me, so it was is the one I chose that week where I finished third in The Open.

“So because of the slower greens this week that putter is back in the bag and I couldn’t be happier.”

And after expressing his disgust in slipping down the World Rankings to just a few places shy of 50^th Poulter is also delighted to have corrected the slide.

“Actually, I was disappointed with that sixth last week in Shanghai but then it did see me move from 44^th to 40^th which is heading in the right direction,” he said.

“But I was not happy to leave that many World Ranking points up for grabs in a WGC on the table that included not making the play-off by three shots.

“However I am back headed in the right direction.”