US college golf action

Waterford’s Seamus Power got the spring collegiate season off to a flying start on Tuesday with a tied second-place finish at the PING Arizona Intercollegiate tournament in Tucson.

Power, a freshman at East Tennessee State University, led his more experienced Buccaneer team-mates with three sub-70 rounds at the highly regarded par-71, 6,785-yard Arizona National Golf Club.

The 19-year-old shot rounds of 69, 66 and 68 for a 10-under-par total 203 that secured the best finish of his fledgling student-athlete career.

The 2005 Irish Youth champion was four shots back from individual winner Brian Prouty, of the University of Arizona, who made the most of home course advantage that has in the past stood to Annika Sorenstam and Jim Furyk at Arizona National.

Power’s previous best came in October when he tied for 14th place at the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate tournament in Birmingham, Alabama, scoring his lowest round to date of 64.

Power, a former student at St Augustine’s College, was ably supported at Arizona National by 2007 Walker Cup squad duo Gareth Shaw and Rhys Davies as the ETSU team finished in sixth place overall in the team event, won by the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) at 23-under for the event.

Compatriot Shaw, a junior from Lisburn, carded scores of 68, 69 and 69 for an aggregate 206 to tie for fifth place, while senior Davies, from Wales, tied for 20th with a total of 211 after rounds of 69, 76 and 66.

Another Irishman, Limerick’s Cian McNamara, who, like Shaw, is in his third year at ETSU, struggled with consistency over the three rounds for a 15-over-par 228 and 65th place.

Power, Shaw and McNamara were the first Irish collegiate golfers to spring into action this new year in the United States but while their countrymen and women begin to tee it up in the coming weeks, the ETSU Bucs now have almost a month before they return to competition at the Puerto Rico Classic in San Juan on February 25.