Despite a better second round in Mississippi, Séamus Power will have the weekend off as he missed the cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson.
After a level-par opening round left him with work to do to stick around for the final two days, a two-under 70 signalled progression but not enough to get him above the five-under cut line.
The Waterford man had given himself hope with birdies at the 13th, 15th and 16th, which meant that two birdies to close would have secured his spot in Saturday’s draw, but a par and a bogey left him three shots adrift of the required mark.
In truth, the damage had already been done earlier in the round as Power couldn’t keep the mistakes off the card, bogeys at the first and seventh meaning he only made the turn one-under with birdies at the third, sixth and eighth.
His biggest error came when he found the water with a lay-up shot on the par-five 11th, leading to a bogey, which meant that despite his excellent run of three birdies in four holes he had too much to do to stick around for the weekend.
Power will jump straight back on the horse next week as he heads to Las Vegas for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC at Summerlin, where Graeme McDowell is also scheduled to tee it up.
In Jackson, the lead at the halfway stage is shared by first round leader Sahith Theegala and Nick Watney at 13-under, and they have been joined at the top by Will Zalatoris after he dazzled with an 11-under 61 in his second round.
The reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year was bogey-free for his round, starting at the 10th and going out in 31 strokes before returning in 30 after finishing with back-to-back birdies, and he admitted that watching the Ryder Cup from home rather than taking part has spurred him on.
“Honestly, I watched more highlights of the guys that I’m really close with, like I wanted to see Scottie (Scheffler) playing. It definitely fired me up a little bit,” acknowledged Zalatoris.
“I was always on the outside looking in but, still, any time you get a chance to represent your country, and me missing out by a little bit, it was definitely motivating.
“But I think if anything my goal for this year is to win a golf tournament, and I’ve done a really good job today, just everything that I’ve worked on over the past really six, seven weeks, it really clicked.
“A lot better wedge game, a lot better speed control with the putter and I drove it a lot better today. Driving and then I’ve got the distance but when I hit fairways is when I shoot low rounds. So everything kind of came together today.”
The lead trio are just one shot ahead of Cameron Young and Hayden Buckley at 12-under, with Canada’s Roger Sloan lurking a further stroke back at 11-under.
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