Séamus Power found himself in the middle of a birdie fest at the Worldwide Technology Championship in the Riviera Maya at Mayakoba in Mexico, as – in his quest for back-to-back wins on the PGA Tour following his Bermuda Championship success – a fine opening round of four-under-under par 67 still found him playing catch-up.
American Will Gordon, who regained his full card after graduating off the Korn Ferry Tour, claimed the clubhouse lead with a superb nine-under-par 62, while Scottie Scheffler – needing a win to leapfrog back over Rory McIlroy to number one in the world rankings – shot an opening round 65, as did defending champion Viktor Hovland.
Power continued the momentum from his win in Bermuda with a round of five birdies and a lone bogey to remain in the mix.
A winner on the Korn Ferry last season, Gordon, 26, is aiming to make the next step in his bid to win on the main circuit: “There’s a lot of guys kind my age and younger that are having a lot of success out here that I grew up playing with. So I think it does kind of take the fear away in a sense because you know you can do it.”
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In Europe, the Rolex Grand Final of the Challenge Tour in Mallorca has the stage to itself this week where Scotland’s Euan Walker and Spain’s Javier Sainz shared the first-round lead after carding four-under-par 68s.
Tom McKibbin, the 19-year-old from Holywood in Co Down, showed tremendous fortitude in recovering from a poor start, he was four over through the turn and dropped another on the 11th, only to fire four birdies in his closing eighth holes, to ultimately sign for a one-over-par 73.
In the limited field of 45 players, the leading 20 come the completion of Sunday’s final round will earn full tour cards for the DP World Tour next season. McKibbin, who was 15th heading into the Grand Final, has provisionally dropped to 18th after the first round but still has his destiny in his own hands.
Corkman John Murphy, the only other Irish player in the field, went into the Grand Final in 42nd place but provisionally dropped a place after an opening round of four-over-par 76.
