Power makes late birdie barrage to survive Sony Open cut
Seamus Power
A three-putt par at the last was merely anecdotal as Seamus Power showed his potential by producing with a late birdie barrage to survive the cut with ease in the Sony Open in Hawaii.
The West Waterford man was outside the cut mark with nine holes to go when he followed his one under par 69 with a level par opening nine at Waialae Country Club.
Needing a solid start to the year in his rookie season, the 29-year old birdied his third hole of the day (the 12th) from five feet but bogeyed the 16th and then played the next five holes in level par to find himself two shots outside the projected cut mark with six holes to play.
What he did next should fill him with confidence.
Not only did he make 90 feet of putts, he also holed a chip from 50 feet, carding a four under 66 to make the cut with ease on five under par.
His magical run began at the 203-yard fourth, where he holed from just inside 60 feet for a two.
Seamus Power is no stranger to hot putting
He then fired a 164-yard approach to six feet from the rough at the fifth and made the putt for birdie, then chipped in from 50 feet at the sixth to make it a hat-trick.
After two-putting the seventh from 36 feet for par, he holed a 23 footer for birdie at the eighth to get to five under.
With only the 509-yard, par-five ninth to play, Power left himself a 50 footer for eagle but came up five feet short and ended up three putting.
Having contended in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba and the Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi only to close with respective rounds of 76 and 77 for disappointing shares of 28th and 29th, Power showed he can compete to win on the PGA Tour.
With $98,253 already in the bank, he’s 111th in the FedEx Cup standings and could do with a big, early season haul of points to ease the pressure.
Hudson Swafford (68) and Justin Rose (64) held the clubhouse lead on 10 under par with overnight leader and last week’s winner Justin Thomas, a late starter as he bid to follow up his 11 under par 59 of Thursday.
