Séamus Power followed his opening, five-under 67 at the Pete Dye Stadium Course with a four-under 68 at La Quinta Country Club to move to -9, but he’e eight behind Scottie Scheffler and 18-year-old Blades Brown.
The Waterford man is hoping to make the most of his early season chances having lost full PGA Tour status last year, and after finishing tied for 31st in the season-opening Sony Open in Hawaii last week, he’s on course to make the 54-hole cut in the American Express Championship at Palm Springs.
Starting on the back nine, Power took care of the four par-5s at La Quinta CC – 11 and 12, and five and six – and traded a bogey on the par-4 second with a birdie on the par-3 third to sign for a 68 that lifted him three places on the leaderboard and into a share of 48th on another week of low scoring with each pro assigned an amateur partner for the opening three days.
Power moves over to the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West for round three, and it’s proved to be the easiest of the three in rounds one and two. Seven of the top 10 players on the leaderboard after the opening round were playing the Nicklaus course, and it was the scene of the big storyline on day two as 18-year-old Blades Brown, playing on a tournament invitation, shot a 12-under-par 60 to join world number one Scottie Scheffler – also playing the Nicklaus – at the top of the leaderboard.
By his own admission, Scheffler isn’t quite as sharp as he’d like to be, but still managed an eight-under 64 to remain bogey-free through 36 holes and he set the clubhouse target at 17-under.
“Yeah, felt like today I started hitting it better as the round went on,” Scheffler said. “I didn’t get off to the start I would have hoped to get off to today. Outside of that, I did a really good job on the back nine of staying patient and didn’t really try to force things out there. I made a good birdie on my 9th hole today, which was 18, and made some nice birdies on that back nine.”
Brown, who played in the Korn Ferry Tour event in the Bahamas that concluded on Wednesday and only arrived at Palm Springs the night before the tournament started, began on the 10th hole and found himself eight-under through seven after eagling the par-5 11th and birdieing the other six.
He looked certain to become the first teenager to shoot 59 on the PGA Tour – and only the 15th player in Tour history to break 60 – when he birdied four of the first six on the back nine, leaving him needing to play the final three in -1.
Sadly, he came up short, but it wasn’t for the want of trying. A mammoth drive on the last set up a wedge to seven feet but he overread the break and watched his birdie putt slide by on the high side.
Despite the disappointment of narrowly missing out on the magical 59, he was naturally in great spirits.
“I love what I do. I love to play golf,” Brown said. “You’re telling me I get to play, hopefully, eight straight competitive golf rounds, one being on the Korn Ferry Tour and the other one on the PGA TOUR? Like what’s not to love about that?”
He’ll play in the final group alongside the world number one who, with 19 PGA Tour wins, has been in the winner’s circle more times than Brown’s had birthdays.
“I feel 18. But what I like about golf is the golf ball doesn’t care who how old you are,” Brown said. “If you’re 60 years old or 18 years old, the person that gets the ball in the hole with the least amount of strokes, that’s what really matters.”
Si Woo Kim is in solo third place at -16, one shot behind, with S.H. Kim and Matt McCarty sharing fourth a shot behind.
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