Power eyes big pay day after overcoming disaster as Rahm and Tiger shine in Tinseltown
Seamus Power was proud of how he bounced back from a triple bogey seven to keep his hopes alive of a massive payday and bumper haul of Ryder Cup points in the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.
Jon Rahm birdied the 18th and shot a six-under 65 - the only bogey-free round of the day - to lead by three shots from Max Homa on 15-under-par as he bids for a fifth win in nine starts that would see him replace Scottie Scheffler as world number one.
But as Rory McIlroy struggled on the greens and shot 73 and Shane Lowry three-putted the last for a 71 that left them tied for 18th on four-under, Power reeled off eight birdies in a superb 67 to share 15th with Scheffler on five-under.
The West Waterford star went to the turn in 32 as he mixed birdies at the first, second, sixth and ninth with a bogey at the eighth.
He then birdied the 10th and 11th to move into the top 10 on six-under but hooked his tee shot out of bounds at the 12th and ran up a triple bogey seven.
He might have been excused for limping home after such a mistake, but he was proud to bounce back with a birdie at the 13th, followed by another at the par-five 17th.
“It was a funny round because I wasn’t hitting it great, but I was able to hang in there and play very smart,” Power explained. “Then I hit a couple of good iron shots, which was nice, and obviously, I holed a few putts, so it was a fun day out there.
“I had one bad hole there on number 12, but besides that there was a lot of good stuff.”
Power was ranked first in the field for strokes gained putting, and it made all the difference as he outscored reigning US PGA champion Justin Thomas by two shots.
“I hit one to a tap-in distance on six, but besides that, I just took advantage and birdied the holes you feel like you can out here, like one, 10 and 11 and then just threw in a couple elsewhere. “The one on 13 was huge after making the triple on 12. Coming back with a very good birdie there got me back on that positive path. So a lot of good stuff but overall just a lot of steady stuff.”
Power is looking to take full advantage of the massive haul of world ranking, Ryder Cup and FedEx Cup points on offer and was pleased with his reaction to the triple bogey at the 12th.
“It was a typical golf thing,” he said. “I've been missing driver right all day. So on that hole, you don't want to miss right, so I just aimed down the left and assumed it was going to do what it's been doing and just double-crossed it.
“So it was one of those ones. And then I made bogey with my second ball, but that hole is so difficult. Disappointing, obviously. It's an unusual miss for me, but that’s golf. It happens.”
As for his great finish after the disaster, he said: “It's something I kind of pride myself on this year. One of the stats I know I'm high on is that bounce-back stat. We never want to make bogeys. But it does happen, so instead of letting it affect the last six holes or the last 24 holes of the tournament, you might as well argue about it and shout about it later that day, but it's not going to help in the moment.
“So that’s what I try to do - get back to what got me in a good spot to begin with.”
He’s now just one shot outside the top 10 and with a $20 million purse at stake, he was pleased, not only with his day’s work, but also with how his game has stacked up to the world’s best.
“With the world ranking points high and obviously a huge purse, it’s great,” he said. “But you know, just getting to play against all the top guys, even today I got to play with JT, it's that's one of the cool things with these new elevated events, so I am really looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully another good one.”
While Rahm was the star of the day, Tiger Woods ran him a close second after he carded a four-under 67.
It was Woods’ lowest PGA Tour round in 848 days and while it has created speculation he may play again before the Masters, he sounded a note of caution.
“I don't know about that,” said Woods, who is tied 26th on three-under. “Right now, I've got to recover for tomorrow. I'm a bit on the sore side, so let's just recover, figure out tomorrow and hopefully shoot a low one.
“I wanted to get in touch with the leaders today, I was hoping to shoot something a little bit lower than I did just so I could reach out to them hopefully with a low round tomorrow.
“I might be a little far away. Hopefully, tomorrow go out and play a good one, post this event, we'll go ahead and reassess everything and see where we are, see how I recover from a full tournament.
“I haven't done this in a while. The last time I did it was at The Open Championship, so it's been a while. Hopefully, the body will still feel good sometime later next week. As of right now, recovery time will be fun.”
Rahm struggled from the tee, but nobody hit their irons better, and he leads by three strokes from Homa and by four from Keith Mitchell after both shot 69s.
“Really proud of today,” Rahm said after rolling in a 24-footer for a closing birdie to extend his lead. “Heck of a round of golf.”
He’s expecting to have to shoot in the sixties to become just the fourth international player since 1960 to rack up 10 PGA Tour wins before the age of 30, joining Gary Player, McIlroy and Jason Day.
Asked what it would mean to win at Riviera, Rahm said: “You join a list of champions that frankly Tiger and Jack have never joined, which probably never happens on any other golf course but this one, right?
“It would be an honour.”
