Everything coming together for charging Wagner

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FORT WORTH, Texas -- Another win and he's playing at Torrey Pines.

Johnson Wagner won the Shell Houston Open earlier this season.

Inside the Numbers

A look at Johnson Wagner's 63 on Thursday at Colonial Country Club

Birdies 9 Pars 7 Bogeys 2 Driving Accuracy 71 Driving Distance 296.5 Putts 26 GIR percentage 83

• Wagner's scorecard, click here

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No, Johnson Wagner isn't looking ahead to the U.S. Open. He merely did his homework.

Think of this as a brave new world for the man whose name -- say it fast -- could double as an accounting firm or law office.

At the start of the year he couldn't make a cut. Now he's got every exemption and asterisk imaginable running through his mind and he's penciling in majors.

Oh, and did we mention, he already has one win in the Lone Star State this year and is leading a tournament at a country club whose logo could be his favorite of all time?

Try nine birdies, two bogeys and an opening 63 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial on Thursday. Wagner will start the second round two shots clear of Brett Wetterich and Phil Mickelson and three up on Glen Day.

"(I) just hit it in the fairway a lot and got off to a really good start,'' Wagner said simply.

Good? He birdied two-thirds of the Horrible Horseshoe -- the third through the fifth hole -- tucked down there near the banks of the Trinity River. He created a birdie from the trees at the third after a tee shot that went way right and a scrape down the fairway to 10 feet. Then he hit it to 6 feet at the fourth for another birdie and made par on the fifth, a hole he has yet to figure out.

"It was great,'' he said, "to get through there.''

Actually, life itself is pretty great. Has been for the last nine weeks or so, ever since he picked up his first PGA TOUR win at the Shell Houston Open. Twenty four hours later, the kid who spent his first eight years in Amarillo was walking Augusta National.

Now, as a champion, Wagner finds himself in pairings with other young guns like Adam Scott and Luke Donald and veterans like Jim Furyk. He's more comfortable, he's having more fun and he's recognized in restaurants in Charlotte, N.C., where he now makes his home. And there's the scenery. As in galleries. He has them now.

"I feel I should be playing better now that I'm a winner,'' he said. "I'm just more comfortable, more confident, having more fun. Not letting bogeys bother me. Or doubles bother me.

"I think I made a double a couple of weeks after Houston. I king of laughed it off and birdied a couple of holes after it. At the beginning of the year, I would have gotten real frustrated and down, let a bogey or a double turn into four or five bad holes in a row before I collected myself. (Now) I'm just having more fun. There is not the pressure to play well immediately. Now I can go out and focus on winning.''

Wagner spent his early years in Amarillo -- about four hours northwest of here on Highway 287 in the Panhandle -- before his family moved east to Tennessee and later to New York.

"I won the Amarillo Country Club Junior Championship when I was six or seven,'' he grinned. "So definitely my first big win. I've visited family and played golf in Texas my whole life.''

His aunt has a ranch north of Dallas. He's still got family out in Amarillo, too. Add the win in Houston to the comfort zones he has here and Dallas, and then there's Colonial, which is known as Hogan's Alley. Wagner, who played college golf at Virginia Tech, is a huge Ben Hogan fan.

"I don't know how accurate it is, but some people say my swing resembles his a little bit at the top,'' he said. "I don't like to say it because I don't agree with it. Just the history of this tournament; the fact that no other TOUR event has been at the same course to date as long as this one . . .I have always been a fan of this club and this tournament. "

And now? Well, he's in position to make a run at becoming the first player to win in Houston and Fort Worth in the same year.

Did we mention he shot an opening 63 in Houston? Coincidence? We won't know until Sunday night.

We do know he's not afraid to try and back it up Friday. He's a good wind player and it's gusting here. Not as bad at THE PLAYERS Championship two weeks ago, but it is windy. And hot.

"You know, I'm playing so nicely right now, I want to go out and do the same things,'' he said. "If I don't make as many putts, whatever, it's just Thursday. If it was a Saturday 63, and I find myself leading by one, it would be hard. Going out Friday should just be the same thing.''

Wagner battled his draw at THE PLAYERS and has it back after a week at home with instructor Bobby Heins. He's added a fade to his game, now too, which gives him just about every shot he needs in his bag.

As for those majors? Well, he's either got to win here, climb into the top-10 money winners (he's 34th right now) or climb 70 spots in the world rankings by Monday to be exempt into the U.S. Open. He's got another list of possible ways to get into the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, too.

Like we said, he's not looking head, just doing his homework. Something he did to get where he is in the first place.