Ian Poulter makes big move on day two of Valspar Championship

Ian Poulter insisted he is determined to focus on his form rather than his battle to retain his PGA Tour playing rights after producing a "very solid" second round at the Valspar Championship.

Poulter is currently playing on a medical extension having missed four months of last season due to a foot injury, and he has five tournaments left to make just under $200,000 and collect 143 FedExCup points to earn a card for the remainder of the 2017 campaign.

The Englishman has cashed in his last two starts, but he got off to an erratic start at the Innisbrook Resort as he opened with a one-over 72 in the tougher, afternoon conditions.

But Poulter bounced back on day two and carded five birdies before dropping his only shot of the round at the final hole to slip to three under for the tournament.

The 41-year-old leapt over 50 places up the leaderboard and is now looking to take his momentum into the weekend, knowing that a top seven finish will secure his card.

"It was a very solid round of golf," Poulter told Sarah Stirk at the Sky Cart. "The chances I had, there was probably only one putt there which was an outside, kind of 30-footer. The rest were putts you would expect to convert.

"I missed a little one on the difficult par-three at 13, I hit a lovely shot in there to about four feet. A shame to bogey the last, but it was a good round of golf. It was looking like it was going to be a clean round of golf."

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Poulter got an early look at the Copperhead course with Graeme McDowell at the weekend, and he insisted the trip was worth the effort as they collected useful information on the conditions.

He added: "We popped up Sunday, which was valuable to see the course. The greens are super quick and they are quite firm, especially in the afternoon, if the sun gets through the clouds, it's going to bake the greens in the afternoon.

"They are a much better putting surface this year than they were last year, so they have had a little bit of time to settle in. But it's a tricky course. You know, there's a tough set of par threes, you've got to play them pretty smart. If you put it in play, you will have some chances and you need to be careful around the close where you can make a mistake.

"Going into today, I couldn't make mistakes. I needed to play well; I did that. I'm pretty pleased and I think I'm playing good enough golf at the minute. I'm very comfortable with my game.

"So I need to forget about what's going on behind the scenes. Got to play golf. Because if I can play golf, I can do some good stuff. It is there in the back of the mind. But when you go and play like this, you're not really worried about it, and I shouldn't."