Seamus Power continued his impressive showing to end the day sharing sixth place at the halfway stage of the AT&T Byron Nelson to the north of Dallas in Texas. The West Waterford golfer added a solid second day four-under par 68 to his sizzling opening 65 to move to 11-under par in the €6.6m event on the TPC Craig Ranch course.
Power went into day two just two shots off the lead and wasted little time making his presence felt with three birdies in his opening five holes. Starting from the 10th, Power landed his 181-yard second shot at the par-4 11th to just three-feet for birdie.
Power headed to the next, the par-5 12th hole and elected to lay-up short of the water guarding the green before landing his third to 11-feet for a birdie ‘4’. The 34-year old then moved into double figures at the short 318-yard par-4 14th in deciding to lay-up some 80-yards shy of the green ahead of landing his second to 12-feet right of the flag and holed the putt.
He then played steady with seven straight pars before Power dropped a first shot in two days at the par-3 fourth or the 13th of his round when he found the green back left but three-putted from some 60-feet for a bogey ‘4’.
Power was clearly not going to allow the bogey to upset his push up the board, however, and it was like the Irishman was seeing the hole as big as a bucket when he drained a 38-foot birdie at the 16th hole of his round, the par-3 seventh. Power was now back inside the top-10 in 10th place at 10-under par.
He then rounded-off two very respectable Texas rounds with a par at his 17th and then superbly found the ‘dance floor’ at the par-5 ninth and calmly two-putted from just over 50-feet for the fifth birdie of his round.
“Today probably wasn’t quite as sharp as I was yesterday but overall, I kind of managed it pretty well and knocked in some chances when I got them,” he said.
“My iron play has been pretty sharp, and the driver is not as good as I would like it yet, but it’s getting better. I do like the greens. I feel like I’m reading them pretty well. Most of the game is pretty sharp.
“I also like this golf course. It’s easier off the tee I guess a little bit longer, but my irons, as I said my irons have been good, so I feel like going after a lot of pins that some other guys can’t, and then my wedges and putting have been good the last two weeks.
“All in all, feel like any time I tee it up here I’m going to have a pretty good chance.”
Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington endured three back nine bogeys in a three-over par 75, missing the cut by two strokes at three-under par despite carding an opening day 66.
In a week of hot scoring thus far, nobody went lower than Sam Burns over the first two days with the American chasing his second PGA Tour win in a matter of weeks after a second round 62 gave him a two-shot lead over Sweden’s Alex Noren at 17-under par.
“The biggest thing for me is just seeing the hard work that we put in it, start seeing results from that,” said Burns. “A lot of times you don’t know how long the results are going to take. Golf is a fickle game.
“It’s cool to see some feedback from the progress we’ve made back home and seeing it in tournament play as well.”
Texan Jordan Spieth, with scores of 63 and 71, was at 11-under par, looking to capture the Lone Star State double after earlier last month ending a four-year winless run to capture the Valero Texas Open.
Though Spieth, who was out in the morning half of Friday’s second round, revealed he didn’t take too kindly to being woken at 4.30am.
“When I wake up at 4:30 I’m in a bad mood just as most people probably are and I needed to kick that today,” he said. “On Thursday even when I wasn’t playing a good hole, I was kind of laughing at the miss or chunked it and laughed. Today I had a shorter fuse.”
- Full scoring HERE
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