GOLF IS a game of confidence. Ian Poulter has plenty and Tiger Woods has none, a story written in the bold ink of a Players Championship leaderboard yesterday showing the Englishman at the head of the pack and the American in 91st place, nowhere in other words.

On a day when the TPC Sawgrass course was not easy, Poulter make it look like a municipal pitch-and-putt course, signing for a seven-under-par 65 that gave him a one-shot lead over the field in early running. He had only 10 putts in a back nine of 31 which included five birdies.

“That would be one of the top-10 rounds of golf I have ever played,” he said. “It is silly to say you would be disappointed after a round of 65 but it could have been even better. I had a lot of chances on the front nine and it would have been nice to take a few of them.”

Maybe so, but Poulter took more than his share.

The Englishman’s game is built around his putting – he has long been one of the best in the world – but on his day he can be a fine ball-striker too. This was one of those days. He found 11 of 14 fairways off the tee, and 14 of 18 greens in regulations.

At the par-four fourth he hit his approach shot to less than an inch. There is just something about this course that he loves.

“There are a lot of tricky holes out there, a lot of tricky shots. But that helps me focus my mind, which is always good,” he said.

You don’t say, Poults.

There is also the not insignificant matter of the Englishman’s new house, a veritable Taj Mahal by all accounts, which had been under construction for a number of years. Last week, the Poulter family moved in en masse and the man of the house spent the week unpacking boxes. “At last I can play without the hassle and stress that comes with every construction project,” he said.

What a contrast Poulter made with Woods in attitude and, more significantly, in the quality of golf he produced. It was not so long ago the Englishman was being mocked for placing himself on the same pedestal as Woods. These days he is probably as good as the former world number one, if not better. Then again, there are more than a few players in the field this week who could say the same.

When it comes to the technicalities of the swing, Woods has long been a mystery wrapped in an enigma, though perhaps that is no longer the case. Perhaps he really is as bad as he looks.

Woods suggested the other day he needed to hit a “million” more range balls in order to bed in the swing changes he has been working on. A million balls? That would take him around 10 years, working 50 weeks a year. Presumably he was exaggerating for the sake of effect, although on the evidence of yesterday’s play maybe he was not.

At this exalted level it is the inconsistency that gets you every time. Suffice to say Woods was the very model of inconsistency, mixing the good, the bad, the mediocre and the simply awful with great abandon and ruinous effect.

He started early, hitting his opening tee shot on the 10th hole left of its intended target, then leaving his approach in a greenside bunker and then, finally, missing a par putt from less than 7ft. The tone was set and it was mostly discordant from then on.