Seamus Power believes if he can win at least once on the PGA Tour this season and reach the Tour Championship at East Lake it could make it very difficult for European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald to ignore him.
Power was a Ryder Cup contender for the contest in Rome in 2023 but a hip injury put paid to his hopes and that problem compiled with a back issue has plagued him since and he has fallen to 124 in the World Rankings.
The West Waterford native had to play his way into the Signature Events on the PGA Tour and has shown signs of the form that saw him win twice on the PGA Tour and play in all four major championships with a T17 finish at Pebble Beach and an opening three-under 69 at the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines in very difficult conditions on Thursday.
“I mean, realistic for me, I’ve got to win at least one time, even one win. Obviously it depends on the win, but I feel like if you get multiple wins and get all the way to Atlanta, it’s going to be tougher for him not to pick you,” said Power who recovered from an early bogey on the 2nd with birdies on the 6th, 9th, 15th and 17th to lie one shot off the pace set by Denny McCarthy.
“That’s going to be my goal. I feel like if I reach a lot of my own things I kind of want to do and the goals I set for myself, I feel like things like that will kind of fall in place.”
Power has previously skipped the Farmers Insurance Open in three of the last four years, missing the cut in 2024 and might have been fearing the worst when the Genesis Invitational was moved back to this venue.
But while the North Course has always been his nemesis, he was relieved to find out that his second Signature Event of the season would be played on the South Course, a test he much prefers.
“Just my schedule like the last couple years, I’ve been fortunate enough to be in Maui, and you kind of split ’em and go three and three. But I’ve always like the South course. The North course I’ve struggled more on and that’s the opposite of guys in the tournament. One year I shot maybe 3 under in the first round on the South, great start and then I had a very poor round on the North.
“It was interesting, I was delighted to see it was just the South. But it’s a golf course I like. I mean, it’s tough, you’ve got to hit good shots, there’s no real massive amount of secrets here. You’ve got to hit it on the fairway and a lot of greens are split up into three, four little corners or whatever you want to call them and you’ve got to get like short irons and stuff in those areas. But there’s no letup and I think it’s going to be the same for the next two days.”
Rory McIlroy battled well to card a level-par 72 while Lowry also fought hard to limit the damage caused to a round of 73.
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