Seamus Power is at it again – the West Waterford man this time carding seven birdies in another bogey-free effort to leave him just one off the lead after play was suspended on day one of the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship.
The 34-year old has been a revelation over the past few weeks, bolting inside the top-125 at 123 on the FedEx standings with a string of top performances as he looks to lock down his card for next season.
The Olympian is firmly looking upwards, however, projected to move to 111th if he was to maintain his current position after Sunday’s final round and although there’s a long way to go, the pre-tournament favourite will have no thoughts of settling after nailing birdies at his closing two holes to move to within one of Brian Stuard’s lead.
Power really is in the form of his life, looking to add to top-10 finishes at the John Deere, Rocket Mortgage Classic and Byron Nelson already this year while he’s making bank, already earning $854,029 on the course alone. With 30 players still to complete their opening rounds, he’ll also have the added benefit of being able to set his focus on round two after rolling in a 15-footer at his last late on Thursday after play had been suspended twice during a stop-start afternoon because of lightning.
Power and the weather weren’t the only things lighting up Keene Trace as Stuard birdied five of six holes to start his back nine to take a slender lead in Kentucky.
“I felt like my iron play was nice today,” Stuard said. “I didn’t think I drove it well, but there’s not a lot of rough so you can kind of attack from anywhere, so that’s what I was able to do.”
And Power had company too at minus-seven, lots of it, with Luke List, Joseph Bramlett, Ryan Armour, Scott Harrington, J.T. Poston, Vaughn Taylor, David Lingmerth and Taylor Pendrith amongst 12 players tied at seven-under.
Sitting at the top, Stuard is no stranger to disrupted championships having won the rain-shortened Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 2016 for his first and only PGA Tour title.
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