Séamus Power continued to put the foot down in the second round of the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, and he only trails Justin Rose heading into the weekend.
The Waterford man carded a seven-under 65 on the South Course on day one, before moving over to the North Course on day two where he began on the 10th. Birdies on the par-4 11th and 13th holes, and another on the par-5 17th got him to the turn at three-under, and further birdies on five and seven gave him sole possession of second place.
His only dropped shot of the day came on the penultimate hole, but he replied in the perfect fashion, rifling a 5-iron from 215 yards to the heart of the green before draining a lengthy eagle putt to move to 13-under through 36 holes, four behind leader Justin Rose and with a two-stroke cushion over Joel Dahmen and Max McGreevy who share third on -11.
“Yeah, fantastic,” he replied afterwards when asked how it felt to shoot 65-66. “You know, I was able to finish with that nice putt for eagle there on nine. Obviously that makes everything feel better after the day. But [there was] a lot of good stuff. You know, it was — as well as I scored yesterday, it was more the putter and I knew I was a little off with the long game. So I was able to get that figured out after the round yesterday, so it felt much much better long game wise and the putter obviously was still there. So feeling really good going into tomorrow.”
The 75 players who made the cut will all play on the South Course in rounds three and four, and though the North Course has traditionally proven to be the easier of the two, Power has found the South very much to his liking in the past.
“I’ve had some decent rounds on the South going back,” he said. “So it’s kind of an unusual thing because I’ve always really liked the South Course. Haven’t played the North Course particularly well, so that was nice to get something going there today.
“It feels great, I feel comfortable. Hopefully it’s the start of some good things here.”
Power will play alongside Rose in the final group on Saturday, and he has nothing but admiration for the 45-year-old who followed a 62 on the North Course with a seven-under 65 on the South to move to -17.
“I know Justin a little bit. He’s always been nothing but nice to me over my career. He’s having an incredible career, so it will be great to play with him,” Power said.
“I can’t remember if I played a tournament round with him. I played a couple practice rounds
with him over the years but nothing too much. But, you know, going out there and get a chance to like compete against Justin, that’s what you practice for. So it will be really fun.”
Rose won this event back in 2019 when ranked number one in the world, and he was proud of the way he backed up his splendid opening round with another on the tougher of the two courses.
“Yeah, I mean, I’m feeling great,” said the Englishman. “Obviously, yeah, that was two special rounds of golf. Today probably even more so just given it’s hard to often follow up a low one. Obviously this week you kind of go from the easy course to the tough course but it was really kind of cool to keep momentum up out there.
“I felt like decision making was spot on in terms of how I managed my game, and obviously every shot was not going to be perfect out there, but when I was in a little bit of trouble, the putter would come through for me or I’d be disciplined with when I was slightly out of position, really played for the fat of the green and, you know, give myself like a good two-putt opportunity from 40 feet. So I felt like all in all I managed the game — managed the game really well more than played perfectly.”
Si Woo Kim holds sole possession of fifth place at -10, with a further seven players locked at nine-under.
Brooks Koepka, making his PGA Tour return after leaving LIV in December, shot a four-under 68 on the North Course to make the cut on the number, while Xander Schauffele, Will Zalatoris, Max Homa, JJ Spaun, and Ludvig Åberg were among the big names to miss the cut.
For Schauffele, it is his first MC since the 2022 Masters, ending the current longest made cut streak on the PGA Tour. That honour now goes to Scottie Scheffler who hasn’t sat out the weekend since the 2022 FedEx St Jude Championship.
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