Seamus Power turned-up the heat, brilliantly powering his way into the quarter-finals of the WGC – Dell Technologies Match-Play in Austin, Texas.
Less than a day after losing out to Keith Mitchell, Power delivered top-ranked Englishman Tyrrell Hatton a match-play lesson in winning 4 & 3 with a convincing showing on the host Austin Country Club course.
“I played nicely and while I didn’t play my best yesterday, I did some work on the range and the game was definitely better this morning”, he said.
“I made some good putts, including some good birdies, this morning and that is what you need to do in match-play. I was also not making any mistakes and was trying to keep the pressure on.
“So, all-in-all it was a nice morning and I’m looking forward to this afternoon”.
Power was already tucking into his lunch not knowing if he was to face defending champ Billy Horschel or fellow American Scottie Scheffler with their match at all-square late on. As it turns out it will be Scheffler as he defeated Horschel 1 up.
Hatton, a veteran already of two European Ryder Cup teams, had no answer to Power’s impressive display and the present World No. 17 Hatton had described his final round robin win over Daniel Berger as a ‘pillow fight’ while Power turned their match into a bare-knuckle bruising over the six-time DP Tour World winner.
Power was buoyed of course with confirmation he will contest a first Masters next month and he won the first with an eight-foot par and then went 2 up in draining a 14-footer par putt at the par-3 third hole.
Hatton had no answer when his Irish rival holed a tap-in birdie at the par-5 seventh, and then with Power remarkably going 4 up with a 13-footer for the third winning birdie of their match.
Hatton finally stopped the slide with a 10-foot birdie at the ninth, but headed to the inward nine still well back at 4 down of Power.
However, Power wasn’t about to let-up in moving back to 5 up in safely clearing the water guarding the green at the par-3 11th, and sending a near 10-footer into the cup for his fourth winning birdie of the morning.
Hatton delayed the seemingly inevitable with his shot of the tournament, taking on the water at the par-4 13th, to find the back of the green, with Power taking the safer line of fairway and then green. Hatton chipped his second to 10-feet, with the subsequent birdie seeing him back to 4 down with five to play.
The each pared the 14th with Power then ending the encounter after Hatton’s iron-play again let him down as his 90-yard approach shot spun back to 30-feet below the hole.
Hatton declined to concede Power’s 10-foot birdie putt before Power two-putted to halve the hole and win the match.
PGA Tour Radio’s Doug Bell singled out Power’s demeanour suggesting that Power and his caddy ‘look so relaxed, it’s as though they were out for a walk in an Austin park on this sunny Saturday morning in the Texas capital’.
And that is pretty much how Power summed-up his morning’s work.
“My golf is pretty good at the moment, and you know with golf there is always something you are working on”, he said.
“The good thing is at least I know where the game is going, and that’s been important to me. I just hope to keep it up this afternoon against either Billy or Scottie.
“So, it’s going to be a fun match and I’m looking forward to it”.
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