Mark Power may only be a professional a mere six months but he is in no mood to hang around and smell the roses.
The Kilkenny man represented Great Britain and Ireland in two Walker Cups during an excellent amateur career before turning pro ahead of last September’s Horizon Irish Open.
The 23-year-old made the cut at his ease that week but was one of six Irish players to miss out on a DP World Tour card in November’s Q-School. Despite playing on the Challenge Tour with limited status, mainly relying on invites, Power is eager to get off the second tier as soon as possible as he chases silverware and a DP World Tour card for next season.
“I’ve a big goal of trying to get a win on the Challenge Tour and get my card on the main tour,” Power said at the Dimension Data Pro-Am at Fancourt Golf Estate.
“I have partial status from Q-School so I’m playing on invites so my main goal is to try and get that DP World Tour card.
“In the meantime just try and gain experience, I’m only a pro six or seven months so if I can keep progressing I’ll be happy with that.”
Speaking of gaining experience, Saturday would have come as a test for the Mount Juliet Estate golfer who was battling around the cutline.
However, Power showed a maturity beyond his years, birdieing two of his last six holes to ease into the final round on three-under after a 68.
“A pretty good day, I knew we would have more scoring conditions on this golf course than the first couple of days which were tough. I knew this would be easier but you can’t go out with that mindset because sometimes you can get frustrated so I just tried to be patient and picked off most of the birdie chances I made.”
Power roared out of the blocks with back-to-back birdies and recovered well from a mental error on the par-4 5th which cost him a bogey with birdies on nine and ten.
“I had a wedge into the par-4 5th and hit it in the water which was a testing moment in my round but I came back up and moved on from there,” said Power who has enjoyed the challenge of playing three courses in Fancourt.
“It’s been good, they have definitely been different. Played the links course in the afternoon on the first day which was so tough and obviously tough conditions yesterday on the Montagu, all the courses are different and they all have different difficulty levels which makes for a great tournament so I am enjoying it.
“I played last week in Cape Town and missed the cut by one which was quite frustrating but I put in some good practice.
“I ate some good food, really enjoying it the people are great and I’ve been here before with the Irish amateur team back in 2018/19 so it’s nice to come back as a pro and hopefully I can finish well.”
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