Lee Westwood has ability to compare his swagger

John Hopkins, Augusta National & ,}

One of the biggest initial days in the story of the Masters was followed by one of the biggest days for English golfers in the story of the Masters.

As the shadows extended towards the finish of a undiluted open day there were two names scored equally atop the personality board. Ian Poulter got there first, usually after 3pm. Lee Westwood assimilated him there scarcely 3 hours later.

It is puzzled that dual English golfers have common the 36-hole lead in a major championship in the US before. At slightest not for a century or two.

Who would have thought it when English golfers were a shouting stock, when in 2000 there was usually one in the tip 100 in the world? At the median theatre of the Masters, Poulter and Westwood were scored equally on 136. Poulter had dual rounds of 68, Westwood rounds of 67 and 69.

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It"s engaging that they played the last turn together in 2009 and that one of the TV commentators charting their swell for CBS TV this year was Nick Faldo, an Englishman, and himself Masters hold up in 1989, 1990 and 1996.

Westwood has contended in a vital championship mostly sufficient right away to know what it takes. He was third in the 2008 and 2009 US Opens. He is confident, personification well and wakeful that he might never have a improved chance. He even talks well: "My prolonged diversion has regularly been great but right away that my short diversion has improved, I am really assured of my ability."

Poulter has been a altered man given he sank a putt of 15ft on the 72nd immature and accomplished second in the 2008 Open. He thought that putt would win it for him so the approach he rammed it in was really revealing.

It proposed a high ceiling alleviation for Poulter, one that was capped dual months ago with his feat in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona. Is it probable to see a man grow in certainty and ability in front of your eyes? It is. Poulter has.

The Masters is pronounced to come alive on the last 9 holes on Sunday. For dual English golfers, it has come alive a small progressing than that.