Séamus Power lies tied for 12th at the halfway mark of the PGA Tour’s CJ CUP Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch, but the Waterford man will feel he should be closer to the top.
An opening five-under, thanks in large part to a red-hot putter that saw him leading in Strokes Gained on the greens after day one, had him tied for 16th and he came out firing again in round two and birdied six of his opening nine holes to get to 11-under.
Though he’d struggled a little off the tee in the first 18 holes, he found four of the six fairways on that front side and one of the two he missed was on a driveable par-4 where he thumped 325 yards into a greenside bunker.
But he couldn’t keep the momentum going on the back side, and reeled off nine consecutive pars with fairway misses on both of the par-5s. Still, it leaves him well-placed for a weekend assault as he continues to seek crucial FedEx Cup ranking points in his bid to regain full PGA Tour membership for 2027.
The marquee grouping of Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka and Si Woo Kim drew attracted the majority of the crowd, but though they have nine majors between them, it was the man still searching for his first major title that electrified the crowd.
Like Power, Kim birdied six of his opening nine holes, then reeled off three more to start the back nine, and when he added another pair back-to-back on 14 and 15, 59 watch was very much on with the par being 71.
A downhill slider found the heart of the cup on 17, meaning he just needed to par the last to become the 16th player to break 60 on the PGA Tour. But it wasn’t to be, as a pulled approach left him a tricky up-and-down and he couldn’t get the 15-footer to drop.
“Yeah, I had a great grouping, some of my favorite two players, and it was fun to play with them,” said the Korean.
“I hit it great and putted great. So everything was perfect, other than the last hole. I’ll still take it. 60 is hard, but I was a little bit of thinking about the 59 after I make that on 17. It was a little bit of like adrenalin.
“Yeah, it was a tough shot, but I’ll take it still, 60.”
Kim has opened up a five-stroke lead at -18 with Scheffler, Sungjae Im, Wyndham Clark, Jackson Suber and Kensei Hirata all tied for second.
“I was joking there earlier, I felt like I was hitting all my shots to 15, 20 feet and Si Woo was hitting all his shots to like 8 feet or closer,” Scheffler said.
“Yeah, it was fun to watch. I was glad for myself to be able to kind of stay in the tournament. I made some nice putts there on the back nine, but it’s always fun to watch Si Woo do his thing.”
Jordan Spieth is among the quintet at -12, one ahead of Power.
Leave a comment