Séamus Power frustrated after ‘so-so’ start at Genesis Invitational

Seamus Power knows he must play well in his next four events to consolidate his place in the world’s top 50 and secure his Masters debut.

Séamus Power has high standards these days and he could not hide his disappointment after a one-under 70 left him four shots behind US Ryder Cup stars Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth in the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.

The world number 45 knows he must play well in his next four events to consolidate his place in the world’s top 50 and secure his Masters debut.

But he headed straight for the driving range after a round where he followed a birdie four the first with eight pars before compiling a rollercoaster back nine.

“It was a bit so-so all day long,” said Power, who missed the Riviera’s iconic 303-yard 10th well to the right, plugged his second in a bunker in front of him, put his third in the bunker on the far side and did well to make a five-footer from the fringe for a double-bogey six.

He bounced back by firing a 262-yard approach to 11 feet to set up an eagle at the 587-yard 11th, then knocked in a 44 footer at the 12th to get to two-under-par.

But he three-putted the 13th from 17 feet, failed to get up and down from sand at the short 14th before holing a 22-footer from the fringe at the next.

“It was a bit frustrating, but one-under, all in all, is not too bad, I guess. I didn’t really do anything well, made a couple of mistakes in all parts of my game, so I have a bit of work to do this afternoon to get it back to where I want.”

He was still inside the top half of the field as the morning wave finished, but his frustration was understandable, with only a light breeze to trouble the early starters.

Last week’s Phoenix Open winner, Spieth and Scheffler, carded five-under 66s to lead by a shot in the clubhouse from CT Pan, Collin Morikawa, Jason Kokrak, Cameron Smith and Justin Thomas as Rory McIlroy headed out in the afternoon wave.

Meanwhile, Paul Dunne fired seven birdies in a six-under 66 at Royal Cape Golf Club — his best round for nine months— to lie just a shot off the lead in the Challenge Tour’s Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open.

The 29-year-old Greystones star, who has fallen from 65th to 1,694th in the world over the past five years, ended the day tied for third, one shot behind Sweden’s Christofer Blomstrand and Spain’s Ivan Cantero.

“The course was definitely there for the taking and the greens are rolling nicely, so I hit a few nice shots and capitalised when I could,” Dunne said.

Dunne lost his card at the end of 2019 before undergoing surgery on a hand injury.

He’s struggled with several aspects of his game, especially his driving and more recently, his short game. But after missing the cut in last week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am at a tight Fancourt, he feels liberated in Cape Town’s more open spaces.

“The course it’s good; it’s treelined. So for me, if you do miss fairways, you can manoeuvre a shot through the gap if you have one,” he said. That kind of golf suits me as opposed to last week where the fairways were lined with bush.”

Niall Kearney was tied sixth after making six birdies in a five-under 67 at Rondebosch Golf Club, where Tom McKibbin shot a bogey-free 68 to lie tied 12th.

Cormac Sharvin and John Murphy were joint 59th after 71s at Royal Cape with Gavin Moynihan 147th after a 74 at Rondebosch.