Seamus Power announced himself back to the PGA Tour in carding a sizzling seven-under par round of 65 on day one of the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson.
Looking to make the most of his conditional status this year, the West Waterford professional, who started from the 10th tee, exploded out of the box to be six-under par through six holes before bogeys at 16 and 18 tempered the excitement.
Still, undeterred, Power lived up to his name on the way home, racing to the finish line with three more birdies, including a fine gain at his last hole, the ninth.
It sees Power sharing second spot heading into this evening’s second round at seven-under par, just one shot back of Tom Hoge’s lead and with plenty of reason to believe.
“I was 6-under after 6, had a little bit of a rough patch in the middle and was able to finish strong again so yeah, it was nice,” reflected Power. “I just putted well; I made some really good putts.
“The greens are so good that if you’re putting well, you can you really feel you can make almost everything out here.”
Power’s scoring had threatened to take off into orbit at one point in the round but like most weeks on the PGA Tour, he was brought back down to earth by Tom Hoge’s name passing him by on the leaderboard.
“I mean, you get used to it,” Power admitted. “That’s the PGA Tour. You get used to that. There are 156 good players here this week, so you’re always going to have guys shooting low numbers.
“But it’s a 72-hole tournament, so plenty of time to make it up and keep it going. You’re not going to win this tournament at 7-, 8-under. I think everyone who shoots a good one today – it’s a nice start, but you know it’s only a start. You’re going to have to get to 20-under.”
On three previous visits to Mississippi, Power has never finished outside the top-30 at the event but he’ll hope to better his best of tied-18th finish in order to kick start his new season.
Power knows the importance of hitting the ground running on the wraparound season and after round one, he’s certainly laid the foundations to do that this week in Jackson.
“I am in the 126-50 category this year so everything counts,” Power said.
“It is nice to get on the board early because I had a poor start to the season last year and you are always trying to claw your way back in. It’s nice any time of year but it’s huge in the Fall to get off and running.”
“I mean, it’s just golf. Like you could putt the same all week and they might not go in. You’ve got to stay patient. You’re going to get little runs like I did today and you’re going to have little rough patch like I had today.
“That’s just golf. It’s my fourth year kind of out here now, and there is a lot up and downs. I’m going to have some of lunch and do a bit of practice this afternoon, try to do the right things, and get cracking at it again and see what happens.”
Full scoring HERE
Leave a comment