Séamus Power has ground to make up if he’s to see the weekend at the PGA Tour’s Bank of Utah Championship after an opening one-under 70 left him tied for 81st on a low-scoring day at Black Desert.
The Waterford man traded an opening birdie with a second-hole bogey, but made the turn at -2 after birdies on five and nine, but a double bogey on the par-4 11th after finding the water with his approach dropped him back to level-par again.
A birdie on the short par-4 14th got him back in red figures, and a nice approach to the par-3 15th set up another birdie, but he came up short on 16 and couldn’t get up-and-down. Standing on the 17th tee at -1, he hit another wonderful approach to the par-3 and sank the putt, but from the middle of the fairway on the par-5 18th, he overshot the green and ended up out of bounds, and though he managed to get up-and-down from greenside after having to re-hit, it resulted in a closing bogey that left him on -1 overall on a day where he lost almost five strokes to the field on Strokes Gained: Approach.
At the top end of the leaderboard, Zach Bauchou birdied his last two holes for a career-best round of nine-under, giving him a one-shot lead.
With several players having set the pace and posted 63s already, Bauchou holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th and reached the 602-yard closing hole in two for a two-putt birdie from 25 feet and his first 18-hole lead on the PGA Tour.
Bauchou is at No. 86 in the FedExCup, but the Oklahoma State alum said he wasn’t thinking about that.
“I felt like I spent some time the last couple weeks reflecting on the season. Felt like I played pretty solid most of the year, just didn’t have that many high finishes,” he said. “Just try to improve when I’m home and know that I am actually playing probably better than what my results are.”
Sudarshan Yellamaraju of Canada was the first of the nine players to post a 63. He is at No. 59 in the FedExCup, among those who are hopeful of a good fall to finish between Nos. 51 and 60 and be eligible for Signature Events at Pebble Beach and Riviera.
Jackson Koivun took a while to get back to his Presidents Cup form. The 21-year-old was unbeaten in his Presidents Cup debut last week. He had three straight bogeys and was 2 over for his round when he had four birdies in his last five holes for a 69.
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