Séamus Power birdied three of his final four holes to card a five-under-par 67 on the opening day of the PGA Tour’s American Express Championship in Palm Springs, California, but he finds himself five strokes off the lead.
With three golf courses in rotation for the event, Power was tackling the Pete Dye Stadium Course in round one, and he reached the turn at two-under after birdies on the second and eighth holes.
Another birdie followed on 12, but a wayward tee shot on the par-3 13th cost him his first and only bogey of the day and he remained at two-under until the 15th where a superb approach from the right-hand waste area set up his fourth birdie and he followed up with a regulation birdie on the par-5 16th, then sank a 21-footer for birdie on the par-3 17th before closing out with a two-putt par on 18.
The 67 leaves him tied for 51st, but the Stadium Course was playing almost four shots harder than the easier of the three and only two of the top 20 players on the leaderboard were playing the Stadium Course in round one and he moves over to the La Quinta Country Club course for round two.
The Nicklaus Tournament Course proved to be the most favourable in round one, and the two lowest scores and seven of the top 10 players were all playing there on the opening day. Min Woo Lee and Pierceson Coody share the lead at 10-under-par, both having gone bogey-free.
Coody reeled off seven birdies in-a-row on the back side to join the Australian, but world number one Scottie Scheffler is lurking ominously a shot behind after making nine birdies in a bogey-free effort of his own at La Quinta Country Club.
“I think the hardest part about these tests where you have to shoot so low is you can only shoot so many under par in a round of golf,” Scheffler said. “The easier tests, where the scores are crazy low, if you start falling behind it’s a lot harder to keep up, so you have to keep pace out here.”
Despite his nine-under 63, Scheffler feels that he wasn’t quite on top form.
“Felt I could have hit a few more fairways on the back nine, give myself some more opportunities,” Scheffler said. “Even the fairways I was missing, I was missing on the correct side. And it was nice, even though I wasn’t hitting it my best on the back, but to keep it in play and give myself some opportunities.”
He’s part of a nine-way tie for third alongside the likes of Ben Griffin, Patrick Cantlay, Robert MacIntyre, Jason Day and Si Woo Kim.
Blades Brown, the 18-year-old who turned pro last year, had a 67 to cap off a wild 24 hours. He finished the Korn Ferry Tour event in the Bahamas on Wednesday (tie for 17th), then flew private to Palm Springs, arriving about 8 p.m. He had a 9:58 a.m. tee time Thursday at La Quinta. He earned the flight voucher as a perk for finishing in the top 50 at the Myrtle Beach Classic last year.
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