Séamus Power shrugged off a missed cut on his return to competition in last week’s tour stop by rebounding with a solid opening round in the Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, where the Waterford player shot a five-under-par 66 to jump straight into the mix.
There was a strong South Korean influence at the top of the leaderboard as Sung Kang – without a win since his 2019 Byron Nelson triumph claimed the clubhouse lead with a sizzling 10-under-par 61, a shot ahead of compatriot Sungjae Im, but Power managed to stay in touch in seeking to bounce back from his missed cut at the Sanderson Farms.
Power, ranked 107th in the world, had seven birdies and two bogeys in his opening round: starting on the 10th, the birdies came on the 13th, 15th, 16th, first, second, fourth and his finishing ninth hole, while the bogeys came on two Par 3s – the 17th and fifth – as he got into the business end of proceedings.
Course record
In the Spanish Open at Club de Campo in Madrid on the PGA European Tour, Englishman Ross McGowan – ranked 377th in the world – stole the show with a course record 61, featuring eight birdies and an eagle in a flawless round, to claim the first round lead, a stroke clear of Sebastian Rodriguez Garcia.
Lurking just two behind, however, was world number one Jon Rahm to keep alive his quest for a third straight title in his national championship having won in 2018 and 2019. The tournament did not take place last year due to Covid-19.
“We saw what Ross shot this morning, 10-under is a heck of a round out here. I played good enough to maybe do it but you have to play flawless and make the putts, to hit the right shots, and on a golf course like this that is a little bit more old school, it is a little bit narrower and targets are smaller so it is easier to end up out of position. Overall, I’m very happy,” said Rahm.
On a day of hot scoring, with the leading 20 players recording scores of 66 or better, John Murphy – who earned his place in the field with a top-10 in last week's Alfred Dunhill Links – got motoring late on with two birdies in his last three holes for an opening three-under-par 68 to lie in tied fourth after the first day's play.
On the LPGA Tour, Ireland's Olivia Mehaffey – who earned her place in the field through Monday Qualifying – opened with a level par 72 in the Cognizant Founders Cup at Mountain Ridge Country Club in New Jersey, where defending champion and world number two Jin Young Ko shot a brilliant eight-under-par 63 to claim the clubhouse lead.
Debut
Meanwhile, Pádraig Harrington will make his Champions Tour debut in the Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament in Jacksonville, Florida. The 54-holes event has a Friday to Sunday timeline, with the Dubliner – who turned 50 in August – making his bow as a senior in the no-cut tournament.
“I’m interested to see how my game stacks up. I’ve probably spent the last 10 years trying to be competitive with the younger guys, maybe I wonder have I strengthened some of my game and weakened some of the important parts that would be important out here?
“Certainly coming back to this, the Champions Tour, I’m going to be a little bit more comfortable in the environment. I know I’ve got to get back to working on my wedge play and working on my short game to be competitive.”
Madrid Leaderboard
British and Irish unless stated, par 71
61 Ross McGowan
62 Sebastian Garcia (Esp)
63 Jon Rahm (Esp)
64 Wil Besseling (Ned), David Drysdale, Jamie Donaldson
65 Grant Forrest, Ryan Fox (Nzl), Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra)
66 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den), Ashun Wu (Chn), Romain Langasque (Fra), Santiago Tarrio (Esp), Jordan Smith, Scott Jamieson, David Horsey, Julien Guerrier (Fra), Marc Warren, Aaron Cockerill (Can)
67 Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Rafael Cabrera (Esp), Jorge Campillo (Esp), Pablo Larrazabal (Esp), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Antoine Rozner (Fra), Andy Sullivan, Renato Paratore (Ita), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Adria Arnaus (Esp), Kalle Samooja (Fin), Nino Bertasio (Ita), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Francesco Laporta (Ita), Jack Senior, Darius van Driel (Ned), Connor Syme
68 Steven Brown, Haotong Li (Chn), Joachim B. Hansen (Den), Adrian Otaegui (Esp), David Puig (Esp), John Murphy, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp), Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Matthew Jordan, David Coupland, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Niklas Lemke (Swe)
69 Richard Bland, Mikko Korhonen (Fin), Daniel Gavins, Marcus Armitage, George Coetzee (Rsa), Matthias Schmid (Ger), Richie Ramsay, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry), Ross Fisher, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den), Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin), Luke Donald, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Adrian Meronk (Pol), Dale Whitnell, Alejandro Canizares (Esp)
70 Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Thorbjoern Olesen (Den), Sami Valimaki (Fin), Eddie Pepperell, Calum Hill, Ignacio Elvira (Esp), John Catlin (USA), David Law, Andrew Johnston, Gavin Green (Mal), Chris Paisley, Sean Crocker (USA), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Joel Stalter (Fra), Robin Roussel (Fra), Ricardo Santos (Por), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Garrick Porteous, Svn-Hwan Kim (USA)
71 Wilco Nienaber (Rsa), Victor Perez (Fra), Daniel van Tonder (Rsa), Graeme Storm, Jacobo Pastor (Esp), Joel Moscatel (Esp), Samuel Del Val (Esp), Jason Scrivener (Aus), Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn), Alvaro Quiros (Esp), Justin Walters (Rsa), Ashley Chesters, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger), Haydn Porteous (Rsa)
72 Sebastian Soederberg (Swe), Alexander Levy (Fra), Zander Lombard (Rsa), Jeff Winther (Den), Oliver Fisher, James Morrison, Oliver Farr, Rikard Karlberg (Swe)
73 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Scott Hend (Aus), Kristoffer Broberg (Swe), Jonathan Caldwell, Carlos Molina (Esp), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Oliver Wilson, Julian Suri (USA)
74 Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Richard McEvoy, Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Gordan Brixi (Cze), Eduardo de la Riva (Esp), David Howell, Maverick Antcliff (Aus)
75 Justin Harding (Rsa), Pep Angles (Esp), Matthew Southgate, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), Cormac Sharvin
77 Andrea Pavan (Ita), Alfonso Buendia (Esp)
