Power digs deep to remain in the hunt in Tulsa

Séamus Power. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

SÉAMUS Power was relieved to make two great par saves at his last two holes and remain in the hunt at Southern Hills.

The West Waterford man (35) never got into the red in testing afternoon conditions, but he was never more than one-over-par and happy to make two five footers for pars at the eighth and ninth and card a one-over 71 to share 38th place, six shots behind an impressive Rory McIlroy.

"I don't know it was like this morning, but it was tough going out there this afternoon," Power said. "The greens are pretty run down, and it's just getting a little crispy, and the breeze is up, so it was tough, but overall I can't be too displeased. I'm still right in it."

Starting on the back nine, he bogeyed the 10th after finding his tee shot in a divot, but birdied the 12th, bogeyed the 14th and birdied the 15th before failing to take chances at the 16th and 17th.

"I actually played quite nicely; it's just tough to make birdies out here, especially this afternoon," he said. "I had a good chance on 13, missed a short one on 14, but then I had chances on 15, 16 and 17 and I didn't quite take advantage.

"Then at the end there, I kind of made a mess of the par-5 fifth, so that was a bit of a downer. The rest of it was pretty decent on that front nine."

"On that course, just the smallest mistake and you're going to be in trouble. You're just trying to focus and make sure you give yourself the best chance at every shot.

"There definitely are chances, but the greens are really the issue at the end there. They kept them a little bit soft, so obviously the footprints and stuff really took their toll. I think tomorrow morning with better greens and even with the wind up, I'll be able to take advantage of some of those opportunities.

"Overall, it's not bad. The bogey on the par-five there kind of stings because I hit a great tee shot and hit my five wood and turned it over into a terrible spot, so that was a bit disappointing.

"But the rest of it was pretty good. I had to make two good saves on eight and nine after not really hitting that bad a shot on either one. So it's tough going out there.

"The birdies weren't happening, so you were just trying to limit the mistakes as much as you could. I don't think one over is going to be out of it after today, especially with the breeze picking up here tomorrow.

"The course is going to be completely different on the weekend, so I think a good round tomorrow morning and I can put myself in a decent spot for the weekend and I should be in good shape."

He's making no predictions for the morning with 20 mph winds forecast and reckons it could be even tougher at the weekend.

"If the conditions match the forecast, it's going to be quite a bit different," he said

"I think it's going to be blowing 20 mph at seven or 8 o'clock in the morning and then I didn't see it this morning, so I don't know exactly how the greens are running.

"I think it's going be tough and from what I see in the forecast today might've been the easiest of the four days.

"I don't know what they will do with the tees and all that kind of stuff, so I think it's going to be a pretty good test overall.

"I can put myself in good shape tomorrow, I won't be too far away from whoever is leading."

As for his closing par save at the ninth, he admitted it was a confidence booster.

"Yeah, it was," he admitted. "I hit a pretty good tee shot with the wind into off the right, and it just didn't move and caught the edge of the bunker, and then I couldn't get to the green because I was up the face of the bunker.

"Then you've got a pitch (to an elevated green) where you can't see much.

But it was nice because Scott Stallings before me was probably a yard further away, so at least I got to see and hear the sound of his pitch and the firmness of how he hit his and that definitely helped and I was able to get it close.

"But then you've got nasty, five-foot slider and you don't want it horseshoeing out the top side because you've got the same again coming back, so it was nice to hole that.

"You never want to bogey the last. It seems like it ruins dinner sometimes.

But it was nice to get it in. It's not what I was looking for, but I'm certainly not out of it."