Power suffers as Gribble has his day in Sanderson Farms Championship

Seamus Power during the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson, Mississippi.

West Waterford’s Seamus Power was hoping for the greatest day of his career but ended up having his worst for 13 months in the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi.

Bidding to become just the sixth Irishman to win on the PGA Tour, the 29-year old rookie crashed to a five over par  77 — his worst round since he shot a 79 in October last year — and finished tied for 29th on seven under at the Country Club of Jackson in Mississippi.

Power finished 13 shots behind fellow Web.com Tour graduate, Texas left-hander Cody Gribble, who was one of three players forced to settle for second behind him when he won the Web,com Tour’s United Leasing & Finance Championship in May.

While he’d love to have ended the week clutching a $738,000 winner’s cheque and a two-year PGA Tour exemption, Power was left to reflect on the positives of the play that saw him enter last night’s final round in a four way tie for sixth on 12 under par in just his second PGA Tour start.

He will be disappointed that with a chance to challenge for a win, but he knows he hit too many destructive shots and took 32 putts with his longest successful effort a nine footer for par at the 13th in a round featuring two birdies, three bogeys and two double bogeys.

While Power went through the turn in one over par, he was still just three behind pace setter Luke List, who had been joined in the lead by English veteran Greg Owen, who was seeking his first PGA Tour win in 249 starts but ended up tied second.

Power got off the perfect start, splitting the first fairway and then firing a 110 yard approach to three feet to set up a birdie three that left him just a shot off the lead.

But when he failed to birdie the par-five third and then missed a five footer for par at the 175-yard fourth, it was clear that it was going to be a tough day.

He needed a birdie at the 601 yard, par-five fifth to get his round back on track but failed to get up and down from 25 yards, missing a seven footer for his four.

He came to the 408-yard ninth looking to get to within two of the leaders with a birdie,

But after finding the centre of the fairway, he missed the green left from 124 yards, failed to make the green in three and had to hole a three footer for a bogey.

Back to 11 under par and four behind Graham DeLaet and List, his goal was to stop the bleeding and amass as many FedEx Cup points as possible.


When he bogeyed the 210-yard 10th to go two over for the round, three putting from nearly 70 feet, he was in danger of undoing his week’s work.

It looked as though he was ready to dig deep when he pitched to two feet to set up a birdie four at the 11th.

But he immediately made a double bogey six at the 12th, his first of the week, to slip to three over for the day and seven off the lead.

After a 322 yard drive into the right rough at the 440-yard par-four, Power found a greenside bunker l and took four more to get down.

Chasing birdies, he blasted a 26 footer nine feet past at 13th and did well to save his par three.

His week ended when he ran up a double bogey seven at the 14th, where he was forced to take a penalty drop after pulling his tee shot into a water hazard.

That he finished with four successive par fours was a show of character but a homeward nine of 40 will sting for a while, especially after his fellow Web.com Tour graduate, 26-year old Gribble started the day just one ahead of him but managed a seven  under 65 to win by four strokes from Owen (68) and List (70).

Power was set to win around $20,000 and move to 103rd in the FedEx Cup rankings with 125 to keep their cards at the end of the 2016-17 season.