Séamus Power’s one-under 69 sees him best placed of the Irish trio and just four back on a wet and windy opening day at the Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Club.
Just 56 of the 154-man field ended the opening round in red figures, and the Waterford man is one ahead of Rory McIlroy who battled to a round of level-par in the early wave. Coming in on the back of his first top-10 finish of 2025 at last week’s Valspar Championship, Power is hoping to continue his push up the world and FedEx Cup rankings and has not yet given up hope of playing his way into the Masters, but will likely need a victory this week or next if he’s to have any chance.
One birdie and one bogey in his opening nine holes was a decent return as he was playing the tougher back nine on the way out, and he birdied the second, third and fifth holes whilst dropping a shot on the fourth to move to -2.
A disappointing bogey on the par-5 17th, where he was never in position and missed a six-footer for par undid some of the good work, but he heads into round two and a similar weather forecast with the chance to make further ground and guarantee a weekend tee time with another round in the 60s.
McIlroy sits on the provisional cutline at level-par, but Padraig Harrington, playing on a sponsor’s invitation, struggled with his ball striking and carded a four-over 74, dropping three shots in his final four holes thanks to a bogey on 15 and a double on 16.
If he’s to have any chance of seeing weekend action, he’ll need to shoot a round of 67 or lower on day two and hope that the wind and rain doesn’t ease off for the afternoon wave.
Argentinian Alejandro Tosti, Canadian Taylor Pendrith and Americans Ryan Gerard and Keith Mitchell share the lead on -5, with Min Woo Lee, Rasmus Hojgaard and Victor Perez among the eight sharing second place one stroke further back.
At -3, ominously, lies Scottie Scheffler, who kept his card clean to post a 67. Runner-up here last year before going on to win the Masters in his next start, the Texas native was proud of the way he’d avoided mistakes in the tough conditions.
“Well, I’m always hoping there’s some good golf around the corner,” he said, looking ahead to round two and beyond, “but I think today I did a good job, keeping a clean card is always really nice and posted a solid number. Obviously I think in every round you can always feel like you can do a little bit more out there, but overall three-under bogey-free is a good solid start to the week.”
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