Seamus Power carded a one-under par 71 to move into the weekend rounds of the Rocket Mortgage Classic trailing just three strokes behind the lead as he looks to turn a good week into a great one and lock down his PGA Tour card.
The West Waterford man, who opened with a superb six-under 66, missed his fair share of chances in adding two birdies, one bogey and 15 pars on Friday to fall eight places on the board to a tie for 14th, albeit just three strokes back of Joaquin Niemann and Tom Lewis who set the halfway pace at 10-under.
For Power, in as an alternate this week, his first two rounds represent the continuation of some quality play in recent weeks where a top-10 finish at the Byron Nelson was backed up with top-20’s at the Palmetto and the Travelers where Power dropped shots late both weeks to deny himself higher finishes.
It’s not easy to win on Tour – it never has been – but if the 34-year old could get himself into contention, even if he were to fall short, it would go a long way towards firing him inside the top-125 on the FedEx Cup standings from his current position of 159, thus locking down his card for next season.
Amongst the men he has to catch are Niemann and Lewis who each shot three-under 69 on Friday to reach 10-under and remain bogey free heading into the weekend at Detroit Golf Club.
Englishman Lewis holed a nice nine-footer at the last to keep that run going and although he’s a winner on the European Tour and the Korn Ferry, he knows how important Saturday’s traditional moving day will be to his winning prospects on the PGA Tour.
“I think the toughest round for me is going to be tomorrow [Saturday],” Lewis said. “If I can go out and shoot under par, whatever happens, I’ll be really happy with that. Some days I really feel quite relaxed a lot of the times when I’ve been in those positions. Tomorrow’s going to be key for me.”
- Full scoring HERE
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