Power eyes best PGA Tour finish
Seamus Power after winning his card in 2016
Seamus Power fired a one-under 71 to move into a tie for fifth just six shots off the lead with a round to go in the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic.
The Charlotte-based West Waterford man is seeking his maiden PGA Tour win in the opposite field event to the WGC Dell Technologies Championship with sponsor's invitee Paul Dunne two shots further back in a share of 15th.
Power has his best PGA Tour finish in his sights — a T10 in the Canadian Open last year is his only top-10 so far.
But with just four players ahead of him, he'll be going for a win that would leave him exempt until 2019-20 and earn him starts in the US PGA, the Players Championship, the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Dean & Deluca Invitational, the Memorial Tournament and the Quicken Loans National.
He wouldn't qualify for the Masters as a tournament winner as the event offers just 300 FedEx Cup points to the winner.
Be that as it may, it's still a huge opportunity for Power, who was nine shots behind Brice Garnett (34) before the leader dropped three shots in his last six holes in windy conditions, carding a three-under 69 to lead by two strokes on 16-under from Corey Conners, who shot 67.
Tyler McCumber, the son of 10-time PGA TOUR winner Mark McCumber, is just four behind on 12-under after a bogey-free 67 with Tom Lovelady a shot further back in fourth after a 68.
Power shares fifth on 10-under after making five birdies and four bogeys in his 71, going out in two-under with three birdies on his card before making two bogeys and a birdie on the back nine.
Garnett, who extended his lead to six strokes at one point during the third round, is trying to become the first player to win wire-to-wire on the PGA Tour since Marc Leishman captured the BMW Championship last year.
Conners led the recent Valspar Championship through three rounds but closed with a 77 to tie for 16th behind Paul Casey at Innisbrook Resort after coming into that week as the third alternate.
He received his spot in the field when Kyle Stanley withdrew.
Power's best result in 36 previous PGA Tour starts is a T10 at the 2017 RBC Canadian Open.
Following a T11 showing at this season’s CareerBuilder Challenge, the Tooraneena man came into the event on the back of four consecutive missed cuts.
There were just two bogey-free rounds on Saturday — Harris English (67) and McCumber (67) — but Dunne had to settle for a 71.
The Greystones native was three-under after 10 holes but bogeyed the par-five 14th and par-three 17th coming home in his ninth PGA Tour start as a professional and his fourth this season.
He was T38 in the WGC-HSBC Champions last October and followed a missed cut in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with a T55 in last month's WGC Mexico Championship.
