Day 2 Observations Wachovia Championship

Observations around the course with LANGSTON WERTZ JR.

David Duval began the golf season thinking his game was in good enough shape to make a realistic run at a Ryder Cup spot. Friday in the second round of the Wachovia Championship, Duval showed flashes of the game he thought he had.

After shooting a miserable 7-over 79 Thursday, Duval rolled through the back nine with a hot putter on Friday.

Starting his round on the 10th tee, he birdied four of his first six holes and looked much like the guy who was once at the top of the golf world, making magazine covers and looking at Tiger Woods in his rear-view mirror.

Duval strutted to the 18th green, the final hole on his front side, his familiar wrap-around shades poking from underneath a white cap. Duval slid a birdie putt past the hole but had gotten to 4-under for the day when he stepped onto the tee box at No. 3, his 12th hole of the day.

It unraveled from there.

Duval bogeyed No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5. On No. 6, he didn't take a practice swing, just stepped in and smashed a hybrid club.

He pulled the shot left and no one clapped. Duval took off, well ahead of playing partners, Stuart Appleby and Kenny Perry. He flicked his club along the top of the grass. I wondered what he was thinking. I know what he looked like. He looked like he was ready to catch a plane.

Duval saved par on 6, but double-bogeyed seven. He shot 40 for his back nine and missed the cut. Unfortunately, that's a familiar place. Duval has missed the cut in all eight events he's played this year and made only 19 of 68 cuts in the past five years.

• No golfer here seems to inspire brand loyalty like Sergio Garcia. Garcia's fans skew younger and a good many of them are dressed, head to toe, in the clothing line he endorses. Friday, Garcia wore a bright orange shirt, belt and hat plus black trousers with his company's logo proudly — and largely — displayed on his back right pocket.

I wheel around in the crowd and I see four men decked out the same way, albeit with a different color scheme.

• Playing with Garcia, Stewart Cink — who endorses a different brand and has a more, um, conservative dressing philosophy — pulls out his driver.

Several fans are surprised to see it's large and square, given that large and square drivers are marketed toward golfers who shoot high scores and hit the ball crooked.

"He hits what I hit," one man says, bumping his shoulder into his friend.

Cink stretches his body into a nearly impossible position to get loose and then cranks his driver very high, very straight and very far.

That same man bumps his buddy again.

"Well, I don't hit mine quite the same way."

• The morning rounds at Quail were full of roars. Players were shooting low scores. If you stood anywhere near the fifth, sixth and seventh holes — all pleasantly stuck together on one end of the course — you needed ear plugs at times.

• I see new Masters champion Trevor Immelman walking up 12 with a small gallery. Only 51 people, not counting the volunteers, await his group on the green. That surprised me a little, but Immelman is 6-over for the tournament. He finished 6-over and missed the cut.

• You've read far enough. Here's your Daily Ian Poulter Wardrobe Report:

He's back in black again Friday. It's a tad conservative for him, like Wednesday when he was also all black, but Poulter's shirt collar is white, his belt is white and his shoes — which shine like jewelry and look ultra-expensive — are trimmed in white.

Poulter shoots a second straight 71, so he'll be around for the weekend, folks — and I'm betting so will the bright colors.

• No golfer on the course comes close to the crowds Phil Mickelson attracts. People line the entire length of several fairways. They crowd around tee boxes and greens to see him. There's something electric to his game. Where playing partners Carl Pettersson and Geoff Ogilvy wear khakis that look like they could've come from Wal-Mart, Phil — dressed in black and red — looks like he's ready for a magazine shoot.

Then, he hits a 3-wood as far as Ogilvy and Pettersson hit their drivers. Later he bangs a driver into the deep rough on a par-5. From here, you're supposed to hit an iron. Mickelson? He wants a 3-wood.

Then Mickelson hits under a tree, on the same hole, and smacks out a sweet wedge to a few feet and saves par. Just routine.

If nothing else, he is entertaining.