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Séamus Power’s one-under-par 70 was more impressive than the score might initially suggest on the opening day of the Northern Trust tournament at Liberty National golf course in New Jersey, the first of three events in the FedEx playoff series.
The 34-year-old Waterford golfer teed it up in 73rd place in the FedEx standings – the top 70 in the rankings go forward to the BMW Championship at Caves Valley in Maryland next week and only 30 will play the PGA Tour finale at East Lake in Atlanta in a fortnight’s time – so a priority would have been to try and make some inroads on those ahead of him.
Making the weekend is crucial to that goal and Power has given himself a decent lie in that respect. Windy conditions made it a morning for grinding and that challenge proved beyond the FedEx series leader and British Open champion, Collin Morikawa (74) and the golfer who finished two shots behind him at Royal St George’s, Jordan Spieth (72).
Early momentum
For Power the number 10 was to be quite prominent during his round; it was the hole he started on, the number of fairways he hit out of 14, the number of times he found greens in regulation and one final statistic, he didn’t miss a putt inside 10 feet.
A birdie on the par-five 13th provided some early momentum but he gave the shot back on the first, his 10th, failing to get up and down after missing the green. He dipped back under regulation figures with a birdie at the par-three seventh, holing from seven feet to crown a solid day’s work.
If Power’s progress was prosaic in scoring terms then the same could not be said of Rory McIlroy’s jaunt around Liberty National. His level-par 71 proved something of a rock’n’roll affair containing five birdies and five bogeys.
He holed a 34-foot putt on the first for birdie but missed greens on two and three led to a brace of bogeys and despite draining another sizeable putt for birdie on the fifth, he gave it straight back on the next a reachable par five; the trouble coming from a wild tee shot. Reaching the 13th with his second shot, he two-putted for birdie but three goes with the blade at the next saw him slip to one over.
He drove the par-four 16th to set-up a birdie, followed immediately by another with a glorious wedge to six feet, but another errant tee shot on the last pre-empted an infuriating dropped shot at the last.
Much like McIlroy, Shane Lowry’s opening round was topsy-turvy. Three over after three holes after starting with double-bogey six on the 10th and making a bogey on the 12th, the Clara golfer made birdies and the 13th and 17th to turn in one-over 36 and came home in one under to sit alongside his fellow Olympian on level par.
Harold Varner 111 was the early clubhouse leader, the American putting his five-under 66 that contained seven birdies to a change in attitude going into this week’s tournament. He said: “The biggest thing for me was last week I just had a terrible attitude. That probably makes me more mad than I guess playing bad golf.
“That’s [your attitude] the only thing you control. You don’t really control what you’re going to shoot or where your golf ball is going to end up, but you control how you approach each shot. The best players in any sport always feel like they have a chance and are always scrapping, always fighting for it. You just can’t lose that. That starts with having a good attitude.”
Meanwhile on the European Tour, European Ryder Cup captain Pádraig Harrington (70) leads the Irish contingent at the D&D Real Czech Masters at the Albatross course in Prague following his two-under-par opening round, three shots behind the joint leaders Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (67) and Australian Maverick Antcliff (67).
Gavin Moynihan signed for a 71 while Niall Kearney and Michael Young will have plenty of work to do if they are to make the weekend after carding a pair of 76s.
Czech Masters scores
British and Irish unless stated, par 72
67 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Maverick Antcliff (Aus)
68 Danny Willett, Dean Burmester (Rsa), Sam Horsfield, Sean Crocker (USA), Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin), Paul Peterson (USA), Adrian Meronk (Pol), Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Ondrej Lieser (Cze)
69 Daniel van Tonder (Rsa), Sebastian Heisele (Ger), Aaron Cockerill (Can), Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa), Marcel Schneider (Ger), Janne Kaske (Fin)
70 Richard Mansell, Sebastian Soederberg (Swe), Ross McGowan, Ryan Fox (Nzl), Pádraig Harrington, Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Soeren Kjeldsen (Den), Oliver Fisher, Tae-Hee Lee (Kor), Niklas Lemke (Swe), Shiv Chawrasia (Ind), J. C. Ritchie (Rsa), Pep Angles (Esp), Steven Tiley, Daniel Young, Philip Eriksson (Swe), Jordan Wrisdale, Gary Stal (Fra), Shiv Kapur (Ind)
71 Joost Luiten (Ned), Callum Shinkwin, Adrien Pendaries (Fra), Michal Pospisil (Cze), Vincent Norrman (Swe), Zander Lombard (Rsa), Nino Bertasio (Ita), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Robin Roussel (Fra), Johannes Veerman (USA), Svn-Hwan Kim (USA), Lee Slattery, Gavin Moynihan, Marcel Siem (Ger), Nicolai von Dellingshausen (Ger), Deyen Lawson (Aus), Rory Sabbatini (Svk)
72 Brandon Stone (Rsa), Sami Valimaki (Fin), Bryden MacPherson (Aus), Filip Mruzek (Cze), Matyas Zapletal (Cze), Haydn Porteous (Rsa), David Howell, Lars van Meijel (Ned), Hugo Leon (Chi), Clement Sordet (Fra), Yi-Keun Chang (Kor), Louis de Jager (Rsa), Max Schmitt (Ger), Ben Evans, Emilio Cuartero (Esp), Damien Perrier (Fra), Tom Gandy (IoM), Aaron Zemmer (Ita), Berry Henson (USA)
73 Tadeas Tetak (Svk), Jan Cafourek (Cze), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Benjamin Poke (Den), Jake McLeod (Aus), Josh Geary (Nzl), Romain Wattel (Fra), Liam Johnston, Matthew Baldwin
74 Andrea Pavan (Ita), Renato Paratore (Ita), Michael Feuerstein (USA), Jiri Zuska (Cze), Matej Baca (Cze), Ales Korinek (Cze), Jakub Bares (Cze), Adria Arnaus (Esp), Gavin Green (Mal), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Rikard Karlberg (Swe), David Coupland, Garrick Porteous, Bryce Easton (Rsa), Bernd Ritthammer (Ger), Jesper Sandborg (Swe), Chase Hanna (USA), Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind)
75 Matthiam Keyser (Rsa), Gordan Brixi (Cze), Simon Zach (Cze), Lukas Tintera (Cze), Toby Tree, Rhys Enoch, Eduardo de la Riva (Esp), David Dixon
76 Liam Robinson, Joshua Grenville-Wood, Suradit Yongcharoenchai (Tha), Niall Kearney, Stanislav Matus (Cze), Stepan Danek (Cze), Michael Young
77 George Coetzee (Rsa) Maximilian Jelinek (Cze), Carlos Pigem (Esp), Kristoffer Reitan (Nor), Tyler Koivisto (USA)
78 Pavol Mach (Svk)
79 Gary King, Sebastian Garcia (Esp)
80 Krystof Strycek (Cze)
89 Sebastian Vida (Svk)