Poulter seizes early Players lead with 65

Britain's Ian Poulter fired a seven-under par 65 on Thursday to seize the early clubhouse lead in the first round of the $9.5 million US PGA Players Championship. With half the field yet to finish, Poulter was atop the leaderboard by a stroke over American Blake Adams and Scotsman Martin Laird, who had three holes to finish. "It was a very, very good round of golf," Poulter said. "That's definitely probably in the top 10 of the rounds of golf I have ever played. "To turn around and say that you're going to walk off 7-under par a little bit disappointed, but if I look at the chances I had on the front nine, that could have easily been a few more." Poulter, whose lone US victory came in the 2010 World Golf Championships Match Play Championship, was third at Bay Hill in March and seventh at the Masters last month, after which he played in China and South Korea. "I didn't hole putts in China and Korea that I probably should have holed, and probably if I had I would have been in contention," Poulter said. "I played really solid today and holed the right putts at the right times. I feel like I'm back to normal and I feel like I'm out there playing the golf I feel I should be playing. "I'm excited to see what happens over the weekend." After birdies on the par-5 second and par-4 fourth, the Englishman took his lone bogey of the day at the seventh. He answered by running off four birdies in a row starting at the par-5 ninth and including the par-5 11th. Poulter made a clean birdie sweep of the par-5 holes with a birdie at 16 and added another at the par-3 island 17th hole. "From 9, I had nine single putts," Poulter said. "I didn't realize until someone just told me. All of those (birdies) were decent chances, putts you would expect to hole." "There are a number of shots around this golf course which I get a good visual on and I guess it kind of focuses my mind, which is always good," Poulter added. Poulter needed the focus after spending most of last week unpacking boxes at his new home rather than working on his game. "I just looked at filling boxes and opening boxes at the house really to be honest. That's all I did last week," he said. "I barely hit a shot. "It was a big week for me to try to finally get in this house. The more I could get done of that, the more I could relax my brain to actually going out there and playing some good golf. "It's no surprise to me to be fresh in the mind this week, to know that I'm finally in the house and I'm relaxed and the family are happy and all of the hassle and stress is over and I can just go out and play golf."