Power motors up Route 66 in Rocket Mortgage Classic
Seamus Power of Ireland watches his tee shot on the 11th hole during the second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic on July 03, 2020 at the Detroit Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
Seamus Power produced another superb driving performance to roar into contention for his maiden PGA Tour victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
The West Waterford man (33) followed his opening 67 with a six-under 66 to share the early clubhouse lead with Matthew Wolff (64), Mark Hubbard (66) and Bryson DeChambeau (67) on 11-under par at Detroit Golf Club.
Driving accuracy, not power, has been a problem area for the Tooraneena man in recent seasons but he was superb from the tee for the second day in a row, hitting 11 drives over 300 yards and finding 10 of 14 fairways in regulation.
As he signed his card, he was ranked second for strokes gained from the tee — a statistic for which is lies 186th on the PGA Tour this season having finished T154th in 2019, 96th in 2018 and T123rd three years ago.
Starting on the front nine at Detroit Golf Club, two strokes behind the overnight leaders Doc Redman, Scott Stallings and Kevin Kisner, he hit drives over 300 yards on the first three holes and picked up two shots.
After rolling in a 46 footer at the second, he reduced the 382-yard third to a 338-yard drive, a 44-yard pitch and four-foot putt and was off and running.
“Im pleased with it,” Power said. “I didn't quite have my A-game, I guess, but I was able to manage it pretty well and then hit some good shots at kind of the right time so overall pretty pleased.
“Got a nice kind of long putt on No. 2 to get going and that kind of settled me down a little bit and was able to go on from there.”
While he failed to birdie the 634-yard fourth, he made a good eight-footer for par after missing the green at the short fifth, then got up and down from thick rough at the par-five seventh for birdie to go eight-under for the tournament.
Out in 33, he hit a wedge to 10 feet at the 10th to set up his fourth birdie of the day and repeated the trick at the 13th before two-putting the 569-yard 14th to go six-under for his round.
After saving another good par from seven feet at the 16th after overshooting the green, he missed a chance from 10 feet at the par-five 17th and another from 15 feet at the last but could be happy with another good day’s work.
Playing out of the 126-150 category this season, a top finish could open many doors.
“I knew I liked the golf course as soon as I got here last year, so I was kind of keeping that in mind more than how I played last year.,” added Power, who missed the cut in Detroit last season.
“You know, it's a course, if you can drive it well, you're going to have plenty of chances, you can reach some par 5s, you have some wedges. So that was kind of a big focus on Tuesday, Wednesday, trying to make sure the driver's in as good a spot as possible. “
Asked when he considers this his peak time of season, he said: “I think normally, but obviously with what's happened in the last whatever, four, five months, I think that's kind of thrown things out the window.
“You know, last few years I haven't played the west coast particularly well, so, I mean, in the summertime I kind of usually play some of my best golf for whatever reason. I probably putt better on bent greens, to be honest, and just growing up we didn't have a lot of grain in the grass and that sort of thing, so that's just one more variable that we don't have.
“But, you know, with everything that's happened, I think it's just for me right now, I'm just delighted to be playing, so I'm just trying to relax and enjoy it. “
Power said after his opening round that he would try to freewheel and not focus on what a good week might mean.
” I think so,” said the Waterford man, who Now has Corkman Simon Keelan on his bag. “Knowing, especially on a course like this, you saw the scores last year, knowing you've got to get to 20 under and knowing that you've got to stay aggressive and you've got to kind of let things go and you've got to make some putts.
“So kind of knowing that from the get-go rather than last year when you come in here and you're, you know, not quite sure what the scoring's going to be. I think that and the combination of yeah, this is my first start for a while, so I'm trying to enjoy it a little bit more.”
Being aggressive, he conceded, suits his mindset.
”It probably does. You know, I probably rate myself as a pretty good course manager. You just have to kind of pick your spots. But the advantage I have, first two rounds that I've been driving it well, so I give myself more opportunities to be aggressive.“
Webb Simpson (T1/-12)
14th career 36-hole lead/co-lead; 3-for-13 to date converting to victory (wins: 2013 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, 2018 THE PLAYERS Championship, 2020 RBC Heritage)
Won the RBC Heritage in his most recent start, his second victory of the season (first: Waste Management Phoenix Open) and seventh of his career
Last player to win in consecutive starts: Brendon Todd (2019 Bermuda Championship, 2019 Mayakoba Golf Classic)
Holds the lead in the FedExCup standings for the second consecutive week
Last FedExCup No. 1 to win on TOUR: Brooks Koepka, 2019 World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational
Chris Kirk (T1/-12)
Third career 36-hole lead/co-lead; 1-for-2 to date converting to victory (T2/2011 Houston Open, Won/2013 The RSM Classic)
Won on the Korn Ferry Tour in his most recent start (2020 The King & Bear Classic at World Golf Village)
Two players have ever won on the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA TOUR in consecutive starts: Paul Stankowski (1996 Chitimacha Louisiana Open, 1996 BellSouth Classic) and Emiliano Grillo (2015 Korn Ferry Tour Championship, 2015 Safeway Open)
Four-time PGA TOUR winner (2011 Sanderson Farms Championship, 2013 The RSM Classic, 2014 Dell Technologies Championship, 2015 Charles Schwab Challenge
His caddie this week, Sam Straka, is twin brother of Sepp Straka (currently T9)
Additional Player Notes
Bryson DeChambeau (T3/-11) leads the field in Driving Distance (346.8 yards)
Matthew Wolff (T3/-11) made six consecutive birdies (Nos. 14-1), tying the longest streak of his PGA TOUR career (first instance: R3/2019 3M Open en route to first PGA TOUR victory)
Rocket Mortgage ambassador Rickie Fowler (T42/-6) collects three birdies on the back nine to make his first cut since the season resumed
Defending champion Nate Lashley makes a bogey at the par-4 18th to miss the cut by one stroke
Kevin Na withdrew during the round due to a back injury
Hole statistics
Toughest hole Easiest hole
R1 Par-4 18th (4.263) Par-5 17th (4.513)
R2 Par-4 18th (4.169) Par-5 17th (4.461)
Scoring Averages
Front 9 Back 9 Total Cumulative
R1 34.968 35.199 70.167 --
R2 34.896 35.110 70.006 70.087
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)
R2 (19): Webb Simpson (64), Scottie Scheffler (65), Mark Hubbard (66), Seamus Power (66), Sepp Straka (66), Ricky Barnes (67), Bryson DeChambeau (67), Viktor Hovland (67), Si Woo Kim (67), Ben Martin (67), Troy Merritt (67), Hudson Swafford (68), Kristoffer Ventura (68), Danny Willett (68), Adam Hadwin (69), Bo Hoag (69), Michael Gellerman (70), Sebastian Munoz (70), Vijay Singh (70)
