Golf: Johnson surges ahead at halfway stage

Dustin Johnson was once witheringly described by American satirist Rick Reilly as "so dense, light bends around him".

It is a reputation derived both from his somnolent South Carolina drawl and a penchant for spectacular miscalculations on the course - his wild flail out of bounds while contending at the 2011 Open being a prime case in point.

Here at the season's final World Golf Championships event in China, the 29 year-old was living up to his billing as an immovable object by building a five-shot lead over Rory McIlroy, thanks to his consummate second round of 63 and a third-round 66, to lead Ian Poulter by three strokes.

The 7,266 yards of the Sheshan International represent a bomber's paradise and the 6 foot 5 inch Johnson plundered without mercy to erase McIlroy's overnight advantage and eclipse his rivals with no fewer than 10 birdies.

"This course seems to fit my eye pretty well," he reflected. McIlroy, whose resurgence in Shanghai veered off track as he followed his opening 65 with an error-strewn 72, took a detour to the lake at the 18th, leaving the sourest taste but shot 67 yesterday to be fourth, six shots back.

While Johnson, at 12 under par, ought to be the early favourite to seize his maiden WGC title, nothing with this prodigiously talented yet maddeningly mercurial player ever quite proceeds to plan. He led into the final round of the 2010 US Open only to shoot 82, derailed his Open chances at Royal St George's by driving into the hay with five to play, and sabotaged his tilt at the 2011 US PGA by grounding his club in a bunker to incur a two-stroke penalty. The mental game is not his forte.

Johnson is one of 22 Americans who have decamped to Shanghai, less for a love of all things Chinese than the fact that this is the first year the tournament counts towards the PGA Tour's 7.5 million ($14.4 million) FedEx Cup bonus. The extent of cultural appreciation was best expressed by Boo Weekley, who famously showed his distaste for the 2007 Open at Carnoustie by saying: "Ain't no sweet tea, and ain't no fried chicken."

Weekley still appears not to embrace the joys of travel, to judge by his responses after he moved alongside McIlroy and fellow Floridian Bubba Watson into joint second at seven under. How did he like being in China, they asked. "We're here."

When you come to a new country, should you not try to see something? "I don't need to see nothin'."

The only priority for a man who enjoys hunting hogs back home in the southern states was to chase down leader Johnson, who on previous evidence would struggle to keep the lead in a school play.

McIlroy, likewise, was optimistic he could bridge the gap.

So, too, was Graeme McDowell, after a 64 yesterday.

The 2010 US Open champion has endured a fluctuating season, with two tour triumphs but dismal performances in the majors.

His form has recovered of late, although he confessed yesterday that he found it "pretty demoralising" to be outdriven by 50 yards on every hole by playing partner Johnson.

"He was putting it past me by the distance of a four-bedroom house," the Northern Irishman lamented. "With a nice garden."