After missing the cut in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas last week, Seamus Power made the lengthy trip to Japan to tee it up in the Zozo Championship in Tokyo as he continues his efforts to remain ranked inside the top 60 in the FedEx Cup standings at the end of the year.
The Waterford man is getting his first look at Narashino Country Club, and began his tournament with eight straight pars before dropping a shot at the par-5 18th after a wayward second shot left him blocked out. Six more pars followed on the second nine, but he finally opened his birdie account on 17, and it was almost a hole-in-one as his tee shot on the 160-yard par-3 came to rest inches from the hole.
Another excellent iron approach to 17 set up a 10-footer that he’d drain to get into red figures, and rounded out with a par for a 69 and a one-under tally that’d ultimately leave him tied for 35th.
Defending champion and one of the pre-tournament favourites Collin Morikawa sits alongside Power, while local-hero Hideki Matsuyama is two further adrift at +1 and world number two Xander Schauffele is an addtional two back after struggling to a 74.
There were no such struggles for Taylor Moore in the opening round, however, and the American cruised to a seven-under 63, aided by six birdies and an eagle, and he is projected to leapfrog Power into 51st place in the rankings and virtually guarantee his place at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational at Riviera.
“Yeah, I think so,” said Taylor when asked if he was trying to play as much as he can before the end of the year. “Just try to give myself maybe a handful of starts and obviously work my way into the top 60. Finished just outside of the top 50 in the regular season, so just trying to play my way into that top 60 to get in the first couple elevated going into next year.”
He leads the trio of Nico Echavarria, Max Greyserman and Eric Cole by a single stroke, with both Greyserman and Cole already secure inside the FedEx top 50 and Echavarria just inside the top 125 and hoping to secure his playing rights for 2025.
Justin Thomas is the best placed of the big names after a 66 that leaves him three back on -4. The two-time PGA Championship winner is enjoying a much better 2024, and that’s evident in the fact that he’s only reasonably satisfied with his opening effort.
“I played solid,” he said. “I feel like I took advantage of some opportunities when I had ’em. I mean, although the course is in such good shape, the fairways have a little bit of run in ’em, the greens are still soft so I feel that if you miss fairways, if you miss greens, if you’re in the right spot you can get it up and down. I feel like I struggled with a little bit of a miss off the tee in the beginning and I feel like I ironed that out pretty well. You know, wasn’t great, wasn’t bad, but it’s nice to get it around with a good score.”
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