Power rockets to opening 67 in Detroit
Seamus Power
Seamus Power slammed his foot on the gas and opened with a five-under-par, bogey-free 67 in the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club.
The West Waterford talent missed the cut in his first two starts since the lockdown, both of them on the Korn Ferry Tour.
But he looked keen to take advantage of his first PGA Tour start since the Puerto Rico Open in March as he combined one of his best performances from the tee in some time with some clinical scrambling to sit just two strokes behind leaders Doc Redman, Scott Stallings.and Kevin Kisner, who shot seven-under 65's.
“Yeah, I drove it very well, which makes a big difference, especially with the rough being up,” said Power, who ended the day in a 14-way tie for 11th having followed a frustrating, one-under-par outward nine with a four-under-par 32 on the way home.
”It was kind of frustrating there, especially on the back side, my front side, hit some good drives into par 5s, kind of only came away with 5s, which is disappointing.
“On the front side, got it together a little bit, birdied both par 5s and made one putt, so kind of overall pretty pleased, nice start, especially playing in the afternoon.”
Starting at the 10th, Power (33) got up and down for pars at the 11th and 13th, fired a wedge close to set up a birdie at the 14th and turned for home in one under.
The world No 505 took advantage of a 350-yard drive made a seven-footer for birdie at the first, hit a 110-yard wedge to 18 inches at the 618-yard fourth and rattled in a 26 footer at the sixth to get to four-under before getting up and down from greenside rough at the par-five seventh as he came home in 32.
He missed the cut in the event last year but while likes the course, he’s not putting himself under pressure to regain full tour status this week, even though he only has limited PGA Tour starts from the 126-150 category following last season.
“I mean, not any more than normal, I don't think,” he said. “With the rules that are in place, knowing that worst case scenario you're going to have some status next year, to some extent the pressure would have been higher only for that, I guess.
“But I know I've got some like pretty limited starts here coming up, so best way to kind of approach it is kind of freewheel it and see if I can turn it into something coming down the stretch and maybe play on better status for next year.”
As for the 7,340 -yard Donald Ross design, he said: “I think it's a very good course, especially the way it's set up. You hit a good drive in the fairway and you do have a lot of opportunities, but as soon as you miss a fairway or green, the rough is nasty. So it's set up very, very well.
“Obviously today, without a lot of breeze, you're still going to have opportunities, but the course itself is fantastic. I've always liked playing Donald Ross courses, so this one's no different. It's in great shape, greens are holding up well, so really no excuses.”
The Tooraneena man was ranked sixth behind Bubba Watson for strokes gained off the tee and 13th for driving distance with 332.5 yards, leaving him 26 yards behind the bulked up Bryson DeChambeau, whose entertaining 66 featured an eagle, eight birdies with four bogeys, the last of which came at the 18th.
“There was obviously a lot of highs and a lot of lows,” DeChambeau said. “Very frustrated about some of the decisions we made and some of the shots I executed. I just felt like I hit really good shots that just didn't get rewarded today.
“Driver got a little wayward a couple of holes. Need to go clean that up like always. I'm always trying to find a little something to make me hit it more consistently straight, but if I can keep hitting it straight, hitting some greens and making the putts like I am, it's going to be a fun week."
He added: ”I'm again trying to be the casino and give myself the best opportunity to win. Having 9-iron into those par 5s, it's definitely nice to be able to attack par-5 flags rather than kind of move away from them. There's a couple holes where I can get it up close to the green and just chip it on there and make a putt. I've just got to keep hitting my driver good and getting more comfortable with the driver and if that happens, it's going to be a fun week.”
Asked his idea of perfect golf, he said: “Well, from a human perspective, it's probably impossible. if you had a robot out here calculating all the variables, I think you could potentially get really close to perfection, but from a human perspective, there's no way to understand all the wind. The wind is the biggest variable and the grass length is the second biggest variable that we just don't have control over and never will.
“My job is just to be more consistent and if I can keep being more repeatable, have my dispersion be a little less as I'm hitting it farther, there's a lot of strokes to be gained there.”
Redman, Stallings and Kisner lead by a shot from a seven-strong group on 66 that included DeChambeau and Matt Wallace.
2020 Rocket Mortgage Classic, July 2-5, 2020
(The 26th of 36 events in the 2019-20 PGA TOUR Season)
Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan
Par/Yards: 36-36—72/7,340
FedExCup Points: 500
Purse: $7,500,000/$1,350,000
First-Round Notes – Thursday, July 2, 2020
Weather: Sunny. High of 91. Wind N 4-8 mph.
First-Round Leaderboard
Doc Redman 65 (-7)
Scott Stallings 65 (-7)
Kevin Kisner 65 (-7)
Seven players 66 (-6)
Things to Know
Doc Redman, runner-up at the 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic, shoots 7-under 65 to hold a share of the lead (first of his career after any round)
Co-leader Kevin Kisner records his lowest first-round score since 2019 THE NORTHERN TRUST
Bryson DeChambeau leads the field in Strokes Gained: Putting and is second in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee
Cameron Champ, who was added to the field on Wednesday after a change in PGA TOUR’s health and safety plans, opens with a 3-under 69
First-Round Lead Notes
1 First-round leader/co-leader at the Rocket Mortgage Classic to win
(Nate Lashley/2019)
2 First-round leaders/co-leaders to win on PGA TOUR in 2019-20
(Tiger Woods/ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, Nick Taylor/AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am)
Co-leaders (entering the week)
Player Age FedExCup OWGR
Doc Redman 22 (12/27/1997) 72 123
Scott Stallings 35 (3/25/1985) 119 219
Kevin Kisner 36 (2/15/1984) 78 38
Doc Redman (T1/-7)
First lead/co-lead after any round on the PGA TOUR (31st start)
Lowest career first-round score (previous: 66/2019 The RSM Classic)
Shot a 30 on the back nine, his career-low back-nine score (previous: 31/twice; most recent: final round of last week’s Travelers Championship)
Made four consecutive birdies (Nos. 15-18), tying his career-long streak (third instance; most recent: R1/2020 The Honda Classic)
Finished solo-second at the 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic as a Monday qualifier and earned 2019-20 membership through the non-member FedExCup points list
Last player to win a tournament after finishing runner-up the year prior: Kevin Kisner/2019 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play (lost in the championship match in 2018)
Scott Stallings (T1/-7)
Third career 18-hole lead/co-lead; 0-for-2 to date converting to victory (T28/2011 Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic, T25/2012 the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide)
Second-lowest first-round score of his career (254th start); lowest: 64/2012 Wyndham Championship
Finished T6 at last week’s Travelers Championship, his first top-10 on TOUR since the 2019 Valspar Championship
Three-time PGA TOUR winner (2011 A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, 2012 Sanderson Farms Championship, 2014 Farmers Insurance Open)
Kevin Kisner (T1/-7)
Fifth career 18-hole lead/co-lead; 1-for-4 to date converting to victory (Won/2015 The RSM Classic, T5/2016 Sony Open in Hawaii, T7/2017 PGA Championship, T2/2018 The Open Championship)
Lowest first-round score since 2019 THE NORTHERN TRUST (64)
One top-10 in 13 starts during the 2019-20 season (T4/Sony Open in Hawaii); has had at least four in each of the last five seasons
Three-time PGA TOUR winner (2015 The RSM Classic, 2017 Charles Schwab Challenge, 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play)
Additional Player Notes
Bryson DeChambeau (T4/-6) leads the field in Driving Distance (358.3 yards) and Strokes Gained: Putting (3.964)
Rocket Mortgage ambassador Rickie Fowler (T11/-5) makes seven birdies to shoot 67; entered the week with missed cuts in each of his two starts since the season resumed
Defending champion Nate Lashley stands T87 after an opening 71
Wyndham Clark (during his round) and Talor Gooch (after his round) both withdrew due to back injuries
Hole statistics
Toughest hole Easiest hole
R1 Par-4 18th (4.263) Par-5 17th (4.513)
Scoring Averages
Front 9 Back 9 Total Cumulative
R1 34.968 35.199 70.167 --
Bogey-free rounds
R1 (13): Kevin Kisner (65), Emiliano Grillo (66), Peter Malnati (66), George McNeill (67), Henrik Norlander (67), Seamus Power (67), Adam Schenk (68), Tyrrell Hatton (68), Troy Merritt (68), Seung-Yul Noh (68), Zack Sucher (69), Josh Teater (70), Bo Van Pelt (70)