After birdieing three of his last five holes to open with a 69 at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio, Séamus Power hopes that qualifying for the US Open will be a turning point in his season.
The star golfer from West Waterford hasn’t been at his best this season, but after making birdie at the last on Monday to qualify for the test next week at Pinehurst No. 2, he’s hopeful that his luck will improve soon.
Power said, “It feels great because I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of good things recently, but it hasn’t been adding up to the numbers I want.”
His 69 at Muirfield Village put him in seventh place, three shots behind Adam Hadwin of Canada, while Rory McIlroy birdied four of his last six holes for a tough 70.
“Even though qualifying for the US Open does not count for FedEx points or anything else, it was very cool to make a 12-15 footer on the last.
It only gave me a little more self-assurance, which carried over into today.
Power recalls how PGA champion Xander Schauffele never looked back after finishing fifth at Erin Hills as a rookie in 2017 and is aware that a strong performance at the US Open can transform a career.
Power commented on what he hoped would be a turning point, “very much so.” “In golf, it doesn’t take much,” you know.
“All of a sudden, things that were just lipping out or maybe just bouncing around have started to go your way a little bit, and it seems like things are a lot easier.
The past year has been interesting, with both positive and negative events. It was nice to see that on Monday and to see it continue into today because it has been getting better lately.
When you think back to Xander’s first season, that US Open finish helped launch him.
Xander is, of course, Xander. However, watching what he did with that after qualifying for the US Open was still amazing.
So that’s the objective. That is we’re attempting to’s specialty.” Hadwin, the world number one, shot a six-under-par 66 to take the lead.
1 Scottie Scheffler, Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Ludwig Aberg, and Corey Conners tied for third after a 68. Power is tied for seventh place with defending champion Viktor Hovland, Billy Horschel, Akshay Bhatia, and Tommy Fleetwood.
After a mud ball resulted in a bogey at the 13th, which brought him back to level par, Power was pleased with his finish.
He commented, “It’s great because I was playing really nicely all day and then got a mud ball on 13 and made a disappointing bogey from the fairway.”
He bounced back with birdies at the 14th, 15th, and 17th. “I told (my caddie) Simon that every birdie here feels like a birdie and a half, to be honest, so to immediately turn it around was huge.
Any birdie is a bonus because it’s just hard, especially with this breeze. A good round becomes a very good one when you get three and finish with five.
Early on, McIlroy appeared out of sorts when he found water to bogey the par-5 11th hole and double bogey the 12th. Together with Shane Lowry, who shot 74, he fell to two over.
However, he birdied four of his final six holes, including the 13th, 15th, 16th, and 17th, for a spirited 70 and a tie for 12th place.
With seven holes remaining, Lowry was one under par, but he bogeyed the 12th, 14th, and 17th for a 74 that tied him for 43rd place.
Even though it is a major event, the halfway cut will only be made by the top 50, ties, and those who are within ten shots of the lead.
