Power "ready to go" on WGC Match Play debut in Texas
Séamus Power, the new touring professional for The K Club, makes his World Golf Championship debut on Wednesday in the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
SÉAMUS Power insists he's "ready to go" as he enters the Last Chance Saloon for Master qualification in Texas today, looking to win at least one point on his World Golf Championships debut in the $12 million WGC Dell Technologies Match Play.
The big West Waterford man (35) is ranked a tenuous 48th in the world and so close to a Masters debut he can practically smell the azaleas and taste the pimento cheese sandwiches.
He must remain in the world's top 50 come next Monday morning to make sure of his trip down Magnolia Lane in a fortnight.
But he has a target on his back with 12 players from outside the top 50—seven in Texas and another five at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters or the Corales Puntacana Championship—in with a mathematical chance of gatecrashing the top 50 and potentially smashing his dream.
The 64-player field is broken down into 16 groups of four with the winners of each group after three days of round-robin play advancing to the last 16 and the knockout stages.
Power holds his fate in his hands and while emerging from a group featuring South Korea's Sungjae Im, world number four Patrick Cantlay, and American Keith Mitchell would guarantee his ticket his Augusta, world rankings guru Nosferatu calculates that one point—a win or two halved matches—from his three matches would likely be enough.
"I'm excited about this," said Power, whose power and wedge prowess will make him a dangerous man this week. "It's my first time, and I'm happy to be here.
"I love match play and we play it a lot at home, but I've never done very well in this format, so maybe it doesn't help me very much.
"Some people don't like this event or matchplay in general because you can play really good and somebody plays better, or you play crap, and somebody plays worse.
"But I feel like I'm in good form. Ready to go. So we'll see what happens."
Power faces Im today and Cantlay tomorrow before taking on Mitchell on Friday in what could be a make or break affair.
Shane Lowry knows all about Fridays in the round-robin format, having failed to make the knockout stages five years running.
But after starting the season in a blaze of consistency by recording five top-15 finishes in six starts, he's hoping his good golf is enough to yield some points.
"It's always nice to be playing in tournaments like this," said the Offaly man, who takes on debutant Harold Varner III today and South Africa's Erik Van Rooyen tomorrow before facing four-time major winner Brooks Koepka on Friday. "It's a good venue and a good course and I've got an interesting group, so I'm looking forward to it.
"Hopefully, I keep playing the golf I've been playing, so I'll be trying to get through to the weekend first and then looking to see if I can maybe have a run at the weekend.
"I know the three guys in the group pretty well, so you're obviously trying to win your match and play your best.
"I don't really care how you win, but there are no easy groups, so it is what it is.
"It's a tricky group, so I've got Harold, and then I've got Erik, who is playing some good stuff and obviously Brooks is Brooks."
Austin Country Club is a risk-reward course with reachable par-fives and driveable par fours, and while Rory McIlroy is skipping the event, Bryson DeChambeau is sure to produce fireworks as he returns to action for the first time since he withdrew during the PIF Saudi International nearly seven weeks ago.
Veterans: Kevin Kisner and Matt Kuchar have won 16 matches since the tournament moved to Texas in 2016 but defending champion Billy Horschel had only reached the last 16 once in four starts before beating Scottie Scheffler last year.
The American loves matchplay has fond memories of coming back from four down alongside Rickie Fowler to beat McIlroy and Jonny Caldwell in the 2007 Walker Cup at Royal Count Down.
“We hadn't played well the first few holes and Johnny and Rory had played really well,” Horschel recalled. “And I think we were 4-down after 4, but Buddy Marucci, our captain, tried to come over to talk to us to sort of get us going, and I sort of brushed him off and put my arm around Rickie, and I said, hey, we're good, buddy, just let us be.
“We made the turn at all square, and then I think we won the next couple holes and wound up winning 2 & 1 or something. It was one of those fun little matches that you get down early, you know you haven't played great, you know you're going to be fine, you know you're going to wind up winning this match, and we were able to do that. That's a really cool -- one of those memorable matches.”
WGC Dell Technologies MatchPlay, Austin Country Club
Day 1 matches
Irish time
14:20 Jordan Spieth v Keegan Bradley
14:31 Adam Scott v Justin Rose
14:42 Justin Thomas v Luke List
14:53 Kevin Kisner v Marc Leishman
15:04 Joaquin Niemann v Maverick McNealy
15:15 Kevin Na v Russell Henley
15:26 Viktor Hovland v Sepp Straka
15:37 Will Zalatoris v Cameron Tringale
15:48 Louis Oosthuizen v Alex Noren
15:59 Paul Casey v Corey Conners
16:10 Xander Schauffele v Takumi Kanaya
16:21 Tony Finau v Lucas Herbert
16:32 Abraham Ancer v Bubba Watson
16:43 Webb Simpson v Brian Harman
16:54 Collin Morikawa v Robert MacIntyre
17:05 Jason Kokrak v Sergio Garcia
17:16 Billy Horschel v Min Woo Lee
17:27 Thomas Pieters v Tom Hoge
17:38 Scottie Scheffler v Ian Poulter
17:49 Matt Fitzpatrick v Tommy Fleetwood
18:00 Tyrrell Hatton v Christiaan Bezuidenhout
18:11 Daniel Berger v Si Woo Kim
18:22 Patrick Cantlay v Keith Mitchell
18:33 Sungjae Im v Seamus Power
18:44 Bryson DeChambeau v Richard Bland
18:55 Talor Gooch v Lee Westwood
19:06 Dustin Johnson v Mackenzie Hughes
19:17 Max Homa v Matthew Wolff
19:28 Brooks Koepka v Erik van Rooyen
19:39 Shane Lowry v Harold Varner III
19:50 Jon Rahm v Sebastián Muñoz
20:01 Patrick Reed v Cameron Young
