Seamus Power is again knocking loudly on a hopeful maiden PGA Tour victory door after adding a solid second round 67 to his opening 66 at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut.
Power’s second day’s effort included four birdies and none more important than on his closing two holes on the TPC River Highlands course.
The effort, on the back of a sizzling four-under par 66 on day one, handed Power a seven-under par tally and an seven-way share of fourth place heading to the weekend rounds of the $US 7.4m event.
Jason Day is leading the pack by one shot on nine-under par after a sizzling 62 on day two and he’s closely followed by Bubba Watson who unbelievably broke his driver on the second tee (his 11th), went on to birdie the hole and still managed to hang onto second place as he recorded 3 more birdies and one dropped shot on the way home.
Tied with Watson is American Kirk Hickok and one shot adrift of them comes the group containing Seamus Power.
Power could not have been happier in the chilly and wet morning conditions to end his second round after holing birdie putts of 12-feet at the par-3 eighth hole, and the 17th of his round, and he then rolled-in a nine-footer birdie gem at the par-4 ninth hole.
“Yeah, it was totally different to when we finished yesterday as the greens were firm and kind of crusty on top, and came out this morning, and unexpectedly in the rain,” he said.
“I knew it was be overcast out on the green; certainly wasn’t expecting the rain.
“Yeah, overall it wasn’t too bad. Wind never really got up. I don’t know if it’s going to get up today. It was nice. The greens are fantastic, so overall very pleased.
“I kind of hung there early. Hit a couple loose tee shots early and made a couple good par saves at 13 and 14, and that kind of — you know, when you get off to a rough start sometimes it’s tougher to turn it around, so it was nice to hang in from there.
“I made a couple brides at the end to put a nice finish on it”.
Power’s effort over two rounds is that more impressive as for a second time in recent weeks, the North Carolina based Irishman did it the hard way in gaining entry into one of the more prestigious events on the PGA Tour schedule.
In fact, Power was not into the field when the Tour released entry details late last Friday (US time) and entered Monday’s qualifying event at the Ellington Ridge Country Club located to the north-east of Hartford.
The 34-year-old finished second among the four spots up for grabs for the event being hosted around a 45-minute drive from TPC River Highlands that’s to the south of Hartford.
“Monday qualifiers are tough and with a lot of good players and only four spots”, he said.
“On days like that you need your ‘A’ game to be there. I’ve been playing really well recently and I got — I Monday qualified for Charlotte, whenever that is five, six weeks ago. So that gave me a bit of confidence. That was the first time I had entered Monday qualifying for a PGA TOUR event.
“All of a sudden it just doesn’t seem as undoable in a way like it had before. So that gave me a bit of momentum. Yeah, as I said, the game is in good shape, so I made enough putts on Monday”.
And as we know, Power has been commanding a lot of TV time of late with his strong showings with his T9th finish at the Byron Nelson and then a T19th at the inaugural Palmetto Championship.
“Yeah, to be honest, it was really in the fall when it started as it didn’t show because we didn’t get many events in the fall, but like since the COVID return my game has been pretty good,” he said.
“I really struggled. I had a lot of elbow pain in the fall, which really kind of — wasn’t able to kind of show off. I knew my game was going to be in a good way, but then I was able to get my surgery done.
“Once I kind of got back into full practice, maybe February, March, it was in a good spot. It’s just when it was kind of feel comfortable.
“I know when I hit a poor shot, I know where it’s coming from for probably the first time in a long time.
“So, yeah, I’ve just been able to put stuff together”.
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