Séamus Power hopes to round off his late entry into the Valspar Championship with a run at the top-10 which he knows would help him in bid to win back his full PGA Tour card.
Power was a late addition from the reserve list at the Copperhead Course for the second week in a row after a gutsy performance to make the cut he moved up ten places in round three into 17ty place on three-under after a 70.
The West Waterford man is two shots outside the top-10 which would aid his quest to earn more starts over the next couple of months. At the moment it is difficult to see where those starts will come from, he is a reserve again for next week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open and also appears unlikely to get into the Valero Texas Open the following week. Then comes the Masters, three Signature Events and the PGA Championship so it could be a quiet period for him between now and late may.
Power has a good record at the Valspar, finishing 8th last year, after shooting 76 in the final round two years ago to fall from 2nd to 26th. And he was more solid in his Saturday effort here, carding three birdies and two bogeys while his driving improved as he hit 10 of 13 fairways and was 18th in SG off the tee.
Power will need to produce something special if he is to threaten the lead, he is currently eight shots behind Sungjae Im who holds a two shot advantage over Brandt Snedeker and David Lipsky on eleven-under after a 69 as he looks to go wire to wire.
Im has only recently returned from a wrist injury where he missed back to back cuts before finding his form again.
“I wasn’t able to practice for two months,” Im said. “So I think a lot of my shots that I didn’t like from last year I was able to, once I started practicing, I was able to correct and it’s just been consistently getting better.
“I was really happy that my play was good on the finishing stretch, 16 through 18,” Im said. “And I’m really thrilled about the birdie on the final hole, and to have a two-shot lead going into tomorrow.”
The surprise package of the week has been 45-year-old USA Presidents Cup captain Snedeker who has rolled back the years and carded a superb 67 on moving day to take his place in the final group.
Snedeker’s most recent of his nine wins was at the Wyndham Championship in 2018, and he’s struggled to reach the same level of golf since returning from surgery for his sternum in 2023, despite feeling like he has all of the pieces to succeed. Now, it’s just a matter of putting them together.
“My health is probably the best it’s been in 10 years out here,” he said. “I feel really good. My energy level’s really high. … I kept having hope, man, I really did. I was doing so much good stuff at home that I knew I wasn’t far off from how when I played my best.
“And nobody expects me to be here, to be honest with you, at 45. Nobody expects me to win tomorrow. So I’m going to have the most fun trying to prove people wrong and prove probably myself wrong that I can still do it.”
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