Ian Poulter admits it is his own fault that he has been forced to play in this week's Hong Kong Open.
Poulter dropped out of the world's top 50 on Sunday and was therefore ineligible for his planned appearance in the upcoming WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai, meaning he would be unable to play the 13 events required for European Tour membership.
Only members can qualify for Europe's Ryder Cup team and that meant the Englishman was forced to dash from Orlando to Hong Kong - via New York - but only after former US PGA champion Rich Beem agreed to give up his tournament invite to allow Poulter a place in the field.
Poulter set off from Orlando at 9am on Tuesday and arrived shortly after 7pm on Wednesday in Hong Kong. He is due to start his first round at noon local time on Thursday.
The 39-year-old was 33rd in the world rankings on August 10 and 46th at the start of last week, when victories by Emiliano Grillo and Andy Sullivan combined with other results to drop him down to 51st.
"To drop that far in the world rankings was not expected," Poulter said. "I knew when the cut-off was and I am very good with the rankings and doing the calculations.
"Obviously this wouldn't have happened if I had played better, but even still, dropping the way I did in the last couple of weeks was drastic. It was an incredible drop.
"It's really bizarre. It's put everyone in a bad position and I am just really grateful to everyone for helping me out. It's down to bad play and poor management of my schedule and neither of THE things are good.
"I guess that's the risk you run when you have two tour cards and you are trying to play two schedules. We got this one wrong, but I am here to try and play as good as I can."
Poulter hailed Beem's "incredibly generous gesture" in giving up his invite after flying in from Texas, adding: "It's obviously really unfortunate that Rich has basically been asked to give his invite back. I didn't want that, the Tour didn't want that and I don't think anyone would want to ask a guy who had flown halfway round the world to play a tournament to give his spot up.
"It's unbelievably generous of him to say that's fine. I am so grateful that he has given me the opportunity to get my numbers in. If he hadn't done that then everyone would have been in a situation that no-one would have wanted."
Poulter, who only received his passport back on Tuesday morning after applying for a Chinese visa for the HSBC event, will rely on a local caddie having already given Terry Mundy the week off, but can draw on the experience of his victory at Fanling in 2010, as well as top-five finishes in 2009 and 2011.
"I have been practising at home and hopefully the game will be okay," he said. "The world ranking situation is not good. I have been throwing points away frivolously all season and it is time to turn that around.
"It's not been great preparation - I don't have a caddie, I don't have a yardage book, I don't know how the course is playing or how the greens are running or anything. I have no idea. So it will be a bit of a case of suck it and see."
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