Power still in the mix in Pebble Beach Pro-Am despite third round 74
Seamus Power
Seamus Power struggled to a three-over 74 in the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am but still has a chance to clinch his second PGA Tour win at Pebble Beach today.
The West Waterford star led by five strokes overnight after opening with pair of eight-under 64s.
He had an opportunity to take a sizeable lead in the final round with a good day at Monterey Peninsula Country Club but instead shot his highest round in relation to par for nearly three months, taking 34 putts to go into the final round in seventh place on 13-under par.
Despite that, he's just two strokes behind leaders Beau Hossler (65-Pebble Beach), Andrew Putnam (68-Pebble Beach) and Tom Hoge (68-Spyglass Hill), who lead by one shot on 15-under par from FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay (68-Pebble Beach), three-time major winner Jordan Spieth (63-Pebble Beach) and Joe Dahmen 66 (Spyglass Hill).
With the top 16 on the leaderboard covered by just five strokes, Power will need to rediscover his form of the first two days to prevail on a course where firm greens could prove a test.
The firm conditions certainly tested Power at Monterey Peninsula, where he started by hitting a massive drive down the par-five 10th and a 185-yard approach to around eight feet but misread the eagle putt.
He never looked consistently comfortable with his swing and to add to the difficulty of the day, he two-putted his first 11 greens, dropping shots at the 11th, 17th and first to eventually lose his lead.
Struggling to find fairways at times and with the firm greens proving difficult to hold, even for excellent shots, he regrouped and birdied the 155-yard third from eight feet and the fourth from 30 feet to regain the lead.
He endured a disappointing finish, however, and after bogeys at the fifth and seventh, he three-putted the par-three ninth for another bogey.
Spieth had one of the rounds of the day — a nine-under 63 at Pebble Beach that featured one of the most daring and nerve-wracking shots ever hit on the cliffside eighth.
His drive came to rest on the edge of 100-foot cliffs. but while he took on the 162-yard approach and escaped with a par, he immediately regretted not listening to caddie Michael Greller, who tried to talk him out of it.
"Looking back now, it was not smart," Spieth said. I wish I hadn't done it. In fact, I regret doing it."
Spieth said he "missiled" his drive and was told it was in the hazard before he tentatively approached the cliff's edge and saw it was playable on the downslope.
"He [Greller] said, 'I just don't see the point, stuff like that," Spieth confirmed. "He said that next time, if that were to happen again, he'll walk up, grab my ball and throw it in the water, so that I can't hit it. He said, 'I just didn't know what to do myself.'"
As for the final day, Spieth outlined a strategy that might suit Power, who goes out in the fourth last group with Jason Day.
"Sometimes it can be a little easier not in the final group to go ahead and fire away," Spieth said. "You almost just set a goal for a number for the day and pretend you got to get there in order to win."
Kinsale’s John Murphy shot a one-over par 72 to miss the four-under par cut by five shots on one-over.