Seamus Power leads in Jackson after 65

PGA Tour rookie Seamus Power insisted he must remain aggressive after he fired a seven under 65 to grab a share of the early clubhouse lead in the PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi.

It’s not that the 29-year old West Waterford talent does not believe he’s good enough to win at the County Club of Jackson this week.

But he knows that there are no $738,000 cheques handed out on Thursdays and that he’s going to have to keep his foot on the gas in what promises to be a low scoring event.

After making seven birdies and single-putting nine times to share the early lead with fellow Web.com Tour graduate Trey Mullinax, Power knows that he can emulate the likes of Peter Malnati, Emiliano Grillo or Smylie Kaufman, who all won on the PGA Tour shortly after graduating.

“It kind of hits home that the gap isn’t that big,” he said after following birdies at 1 and 2 with five more in seven holes from the ninth.

After hitting 11 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens and taking just 27 putts, Power added: “This is where you dream about playing. Just to see some of the other guys there you’ve been watching for years on TV, it’s been special.

“I’m not on the PGA Tour just for one year just to compete and get off.

“Your goal is to win, but there’s no FedExCup points given out on Thursdays, so it’s a nice start, but there’s a long ways to go.”

Meanwhile Scotland’s Russell Knox was delighted to make a superb start to the defence of his title in the first round of the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

Knox is aiming to become only the second player after Tiger Woods to retain a World Golf Championships title.

The 31-year-old carded a bogey-free 66 at Sheshan International to finish six under par, two shots behind Sweden’s Rikard Karlberg.

American Ryder Cup star Rickie Fowler was a shot behind Karlberg after a flawless 65 and the group of Knox,

Rory McIlroy ended the day seven shots off the pace as he chases the victory he feels is necessary to have a chance of winning the Race to Dubai for the third year running.

McIlroy is more than a million points behind Masters champion Danny Willett, who has a lead of more than 400,000 points over Henrik Stenson, who carded an opening 69.

Shane Lowry endured what was a forgettable round, the Offaly man firing four bogeys and two birdies for a two over 74.