A late eagle along with a last hole birdie had Seamus Power soaring back inside the top-seven but only four shots from the front heading to the final round of the AT&T Byron Nelson.
Power signed for a superb bogey-free 67 to move to 16-under par on the TPC Craig Ranch course at McKinney to the north-east of Dallas in Texas. Sam Burns superbly continued to show the way posting a three-under par 69 to move to 20-under par, one shot clear of South Korean K H Lee (67).
Four players – Jordan Spieth (66), Matt Kuchar (66), Sweden’s Alex Noren (70) along with South African and past Masters winner, Charl Schwartzel (66), who played alongside Power – share third place on 17-under par.
Power is just a shot back and this after the Irishman had dropped outside of the top-20 with just two birdies through 13-holes. That all changed when he came to the par-4 14th hole.
For a third day running, Power played sensibly in laying-up on the drivable 309-yard hole and on each of the prior two days the Waterford golfer was rewarded with a birdie both day one and day two of the €6.6m event. Though in landing his tee shot on ‘Moving Day’ into a bunker some 30-yards shy of the green, Power must have been thinking if he could pull off a third straight birdie.
Power did better than that in holing the 35-yard second shot for an eagle ‘2’ to be now four-under on the hole that is rated as index 15 on the card; showing his delight for all to see with Power high-fiving his caddy as he proudly headed to the green to collect his ball. And then in a superb finish, Power leap-frogged into a then share of fifth place in holing a 16-footer for a birdie ‘4’ on 18.
“It was a little loose today but then it was a strange round,” he said. “I probably hit it better early on and didn’t really make anything happen, and then I didn’t hit it great on the back but holed out a bunker shot on 14 for eagle, and then, yeah, miraculous up and down for birdie there on the last hole.
“All in all, it was kind of an up-and-down day. A little bit of work to do on the range, but pleased with the result. So, I will keep that up tomorrow and maybe knock in a few putts and we’ll see”.
Power’s best finish in the 100 PGA Tour events he’s contested is a T5th finish in the 2018 Corales Puntacana Championship while in this 2020/21 wraparound scheduled his best result is T22nd in the Puerto Rico Open.
Now the 34-year-old is staring at hopefully a maiden PGA Tour victory or the likelihood of going a long-way in securing his Tour card for the next season.
- Full scoring HERE
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