Former Alabama golfer takes the lead at Wachovia Championship

CHARLOTTE, N.C. | As Phil Mickelson’s round imploded with a series of wayward shots, the Wachovia Championship flew in a different direction.

Jason Bohn fired a 5-under 67 on Friday to take a two-shot lead at 9 under after the second round, while Mickelson’s double bogey on Quail Hollow Club’s easiest hole began a horrible closing stretch that left him seven shots back.

Anthony Kim’s 67 put him at 7 under and alone in second place, while 2006 champion Jim Furyk, Dudley Hart and George McNeill were three strokes back after 67s.

Mickelson, the biggest draw in this event with defending champion Tiger Woods home nursing his surgically repaired left knee, finished with two double bogeys in his final four holes on the way to a 74.

While Mickelson was hitting his ball into the creek on No. 18 for another double bogey, the loose Bohn was joking with reporters.

Bohn, a former University of Alabama golfer whose sixth-place finish at the Verizon Heritage two weeks ago secured his playing privileges after his injury-filled 2007, followed his 68 Thursday with six birdies and a bogey.

“I’m just excited to play. I don’t have a lot of pressure now that my medical status is taken care of,” Bohn said. “I can just go out and free swing it.”

Mickelson parred 16 and 17 before his waterlogged finish left him with plenty of work to do to win this tournament for the first time.

“There was a low round out there and I let it slide,” Mickelson said.

“The last four or five holes, I made a few mistakes that cost me.”

Bohn will be paired on the final group today with the 22-year-old Kim.

Bohn overcame obstacles during his afternoon round with his longer putter. He needed only 26 putts, a day after he had 27.

“When you’re putting well, you don’t really care if you hit it to 30 feet, you really don’t,” Bohn said.

“You’re like, ’I can make this.’ Then typically you don’t it 30 feet, you start hitting it 12 to 15 feet, and then you start running them in.

Bohn did that at par-3 13th, when his 7-iron landed 4 feet away. He knocked in the putt for birdie, offsetting his only bogey a hole earlier, to take control of the leader board.