Poulter is quickly into his stride after taking winter break

South African Keith Horne, who finished second last week in Johannesburg, and Southampton resident Richard Bland matched Poulter's effort to top the leaderboard ahead of a group of nine at six under par, including Ryder Cup duo Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy.

Garcia recovered from back-to-back early bogeys, while McIlroy blamed a "mental error" for a double-bogey, although he did respond in style with two consecutive birdies.

Former champion and last year's runner up Martin Kaymer dropped just one shot in a five-under 67 to share third with bogey-free Louis Oosthuizen, who also claimed a runner-up finish at Abu Dhabi Golf Club 12 months ago.

Englishman Poulter admits he is hungry to compete after a

six-week Christmas break and all signs point to a positive result this week after he returned from a similar break to end a two-year winless streak in Singapore at the end of last year.

"I wasn't expecting to come out quite as fast, but I'll take it – I hit it lovely. I started practising on Tuesday and I didn't feel 70 per cent let alone the way it was today," said the world No 12.

"I put an extra session in on Tuesday and Wednesday, my hands were raw and sore. I've done an awful lot of hard work and it definitely paid off. I hit my irons very solid and I holed some nice putts.

"One of my goals at the start of the year was to hole more 20-foot putts which I haven't done a lot of. And I said to my caddie 'I hope you're keeping count, a few of those are going in' and they kept going in. They dried up on the back nine a little, but there was a little bonus on the last."

World No 13 Garcia is still struggling with the hand injury he picked up at the end of last year, but bounced back from his early setbacks by picking up seven shots in 10 holes around the turn.

World No 10 McIlroy wants to break into the world's top five this year and picked up where he left off last year despite opting for the wrong club off the tee at the 11th which resulted in the only blot on his scorecard.

Hull's Richard Finch leads the Yorkshire challenge after firing seven birdies in a three-under-par 69. Malton's Simon Dyson, playing his first tournament of the season, is level par after a 72 while Rotherham's Danny Willett requires a good round today to make the cut after he struggled to a 77 that included six bogeys and a double-bogey.