He might have two putted his last five greens and fallen to tied sixth but Seamus Power still shot a two under 70 and trails by just two shots with a round to play in the Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi.

The 29-year old rookie made three putts inside six feet to rack up three birdies in his first five holes at the Country Club of Jackson.

But missed a nine footer for par after overshooting the sixth from the fairway, made a nine footer for par at the seventh and a 12 footer for birdie at the 11th before the birdies dried up.

He had to scramble for pars at the 12th (8ft) and 13th (6ft) and then missed a seven footer for a birdie four at the 14th.

From there, everything became more difficult and he failed to get up and down from 30 yards for birdie at the 298 yard 15th before a flyer from the rough at the 16th led to a missed six footer for par.

Scores

At 12 under par, he's in a four way tied for sixth with Cameron Smith (67), Grayson Murray (72) and Greg Owen (70) and two behind Luke List (65) and Chris Kirk (65).

They lead by one from Cody Gribble (67), Graham DeLaet (68) and Lucas Glover (68) but Power has every reason to be optimistic if his long game is on and he is clinical around the greens.

Power may need a 64 to get the job done.

Admitting he was thinking of 20 under par, List said: "I'm just going to go out there and chase that, and if somebody beats that, then they deserve it."

Kirk didn't dare set a target.

"I've tried to predict scores before, and I've never done a very good job of it, so I've kind of quit," he said. "I'm just going to go out, and I'll stay very aggressive tomorrow, and I'll try to just make as many birdies as I can, that's for sure."