While John Daly II could afford to skip the driving range and head to the beach after his round Seamus Power couldn’t enjoy such luxuries after he slumped to an opening 75 at the Puerto Rico Open.
It leaves Power in a share of 99th place at Grand Reserve Golf Club on three-over-par and eleven shots behind leader Chandler Blanchet.
The West Waterford man showed glimpses of form last week before a poor weekend and he produced more of the latter on Thursday as his card was littered with mistakes.
After opening with five straight pars, the two-time PGA Tour winner endured a horrible run to the turn with back to back bogeys and a double bogey on teh 8th to turn in 40 and he fell five-over after a dropped shot on 10.
Power rallied with three birdies in his next four holes but found himself reeling again after bogeys on 15 and 16. He managed to birdie the par-3 17th but he has lots of work to do on Friday.
At the top, Blanchet carded a career-low 64 to lead Gordon Sargent by the minimum on eight-under.
“Yeah, solid, very solid day out there. Really windy. Felt like I had to be pretty creative. Hit some pretty fun shots, some different shots that maybe I’m not used to, some aiming way left of greens and into the water. But yeah, it was a lot of fun. Made some good putts today, too.”
Daly II, the son of two-time major winner John, carded a two-under 70.
“It was good. Got off to a good start, made a nice birdie on 1. Solid up-and-down on 2, made about a 20-footer for par, which is nice, settled me in. And then just hit some good shots. Feel like I left a few out there, but I made it up with just a couple good saves and nice chip-in on 16.”
The amateur took a leaf out of his father’s book and decided to kick back and relax post round rather than hit the range.
“I would say I’d go hit balls, but I’m a little tired so I’m just probably going to go to the beach and probably do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.”
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