Poulter eyes victory

Ian Poulter slipped seven strokes behind leader Phil Mickelson after the second round at the Players Championship yesterday, but don’t think he will play the final two rounds to make up the numbers.

“I’ve got a great chance,” Poulter said after a respectable one-under-par 71 at the Sawgrass TPC. “I've just got to play golf. If I do that, and don’t make any silly mistakes, I’ll have a chance to win Sunday afternoon.

“It’s quite encouraging the way I played this afternoon, to make as many birdies and have as many chances as I did.”

Poulter made a great start to the second round, with a hat-trick of birdies from his second hole, including a chip-in, but he could not maintain the momentum, dropping two shots the rest of the way.

“It was a little bit frustrating coming in,” said the 31-year-old, who at least could take consolation with a fine par save at his 13th hole.

“I made a great up-and-down, had an absolutely impossible shot that I hit to eight feet.”

Poulter was angered after his round when verbally abused by an autograph hunter. He had refused to sign for the man, convinced he was a professional seeking autographs to sell.

Poulter was so angry he told a marshal to have the man evicted, and left the local police to take care of the matter.

Despite his big deficit, Poulter had the dubious honour of being the equal best British performer, in equal 38th place, with Luke Donald and Irishman Padraig Harrington on the same score.

But at least they made the cut, unlike Brian Davis, whose promising start gave way to a sad early departure. Davis, who played with Poulter, was on the leaderboard at 2-under until he fired his tee shot into the water beyond the island green at his eight hole, the par-3 17th, for a double bogey that proved to be the beginning of the end.

He bogeyed the next two holes and never recovered, adding a triple bogey and shooting 80 to post a seven-over 151 total, two strokes shy of the cut.

The forecast for the final two rounds is for moderate winds of no more than 15mph, prompting leader Mickelson to suggest a winning score of at least 10-under.

“Even though the greens are firm, the par-5s you can make some birdies on and you can get it to 15-20 feet (on other holes) and make some of those putts, so I expect some scores will be quite low on the weekend,” Mickelson said.

The three-time major winner has a poor record at the Players Championship, but in his favour this week is that the rough is shorter than usual, allowing him to use his talent and creativity to extricate himself from trouble.

He hit only six fairways and six greens in regulation in the second round, but kept the damage to just four bogeys. Whether he can keep performing like Houdini remains to be seen.