Seamus Power finished strong to make the cut at the WM Phoenix Open in Arizona on a day where he witnessed a sensational moment on the par-3 16th.
Power was in the same group as Emiliano Grillo who had a slam dunk hole in one on the 16th as his iron shot rattled the cup, ricocheted around the hole and somehow stayed in.
The West Waterford man could only make a boring par on that hole but it kept him level par for his day after bogeys on the 10th and 14th cancelled out birdies on the 13th and 15th.
The two-time PGA Tour winner did pick up a third birdie of the day on the 17th to turn in one under for the tournament.
At that stage he was still one shot below the cut line but he rallied with birdies on the 3rd, 6th and 7th to sign for a round of 67 and climb to four-under, eight shots behind leader Thomas Detry.
Detry himself came close to an ace on the 16th during his round of 64 as he opened up a two shot lead.
The Belgian fired eight birdies and a bogey to reach 12-under as he once again bids for a long overdue maiden win on a major tour having come close on both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour in recent years.
“Pretty good. I’ve actually been very comfortable on the greens this week. Did some good work with my coach, and the greens are rolling just as good as it gets. They’re much quicker than last week, obviously, at Pebble. They had to slow them down at Pebble because of the wind.
“Just very comfortable on the greens. I’ve been hitting a lot of fairways, as well. The greens are getting firm. I think they’re going to get firmer and firmer over the weekend, as well. The fairways are kind of the key. I’ve got this low-tee drive which has been working pretty well the last couple of weeks. Good fairway finder.”
Scottie Scheffler is five shots back on seven-under while amateur Luke Clanton who has an OWGR inside the top-100 needed to make the cut to secure the final point required in the PGA Tour U programme to earn a full PGA Tour card.
He came up one shot shy and will have to wait another week to earn a card.
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