Johnson, Poulter Lead Chevron; Major Winners Lurk

Caught the coverage of the Chevron World Challenge yesterday and was really surprised to see Ian Poulter in the lead.  Not because I don't think he has been playing well, but the quality of shots that I saw him hit from the fairway on the par 5s was just awful.  He darn near stubbed one on the third par five for his approach.

He was wondering about what might have been.  "Two three-putt pars on the 2 and 5 from 25 feet. You know, two two-putts there and all of a sudden I'm 7, 8-under par," Poulter said.  "I'm disappointed."

Yet, still, he and Zach Johnson are tied for the lead on -4.  (You'll notice that I like to use the Renton Laidlaw way of saying someone is "on par" not "at par.")

Zach Johnson had the quote of the day.  When told that Darren Clarke led this tournament after day one a few years back and stopped drinking for the rest of the week, Johnson responded incredulously.

"He didn't drink the rest of the week?"

The other funny quote was more of a trick played by the transcript.

Q. (Indiscernible).
ZACH JOHNSON: Lucas's mom. But my point is they're out here to watch golf. They're not out here to see what's going on.

Two major winners in '09 - Stew Cink and YE Yang - are tied at -2.  The other major winner in the field, Lucas Glover, is next to last but only six shots out of the lead.

Masters runner-up Kenny Perry will be a guest on our podcast next week, but right now he is in the middle of the pack at even par.

If Poulter could hold on to win, he would enter the top ten in the world rankings for the first time.