Seamus Power produced a sizzling super Saturday showing, including a hole-in-one and a hole-out eagle, to brilliantly put himself in frame for back-to-back triumphs on day three of the World Wide Technologies Mayakoba Championship.
Power cut a swath through the $US 8m field, posting an eight-under-par 63, and effort handing the Waterford the early clubhouse lead at 15-under-par, and then three clear of Thomas Detry (64), also in the clubhouse at 13-under in the $US 8.2m event.
At day’s end American Russell Henley opened-up a sizeable six shot lead posting a round of 65 to move to 22-under with compatriots Will Gordon (68) and Patton Kizzire (67) sharing seccond place on 16-under with Power one back now heading to the final round lying fourth.
Power went into golf’s traditional ‘moving day’ sharing 22nd place and while he birdied the first to move to eight-under, a string of five pars suggested it may be an average day in the office for World No. 32.
But then those who love the ancient club-and-ball game know that two days nor two holes are the same with the Waterford golfer birdieing the par-5 seventh before sensationally sending his tee shot at the par-3 eighth to the bottom of the cup for an ace.
Power later confirmed it is the 14th ace in his golfing career and his second PGA Tour hole-in-one after he holed out for a ‘1’ at the 2019 Players Championship.
“I had 138-yards using a gap-wedge. It was a very similar number and a very similar wind to the first round, so I knew it was going to be spot on for a club,” he said.
“I hit it to maybe four feet on Thursday, very same numbers, very same winds, so I hit the same shot and obviously landed a foot long left and spun back in.”
Power parred the ninth and 10th holes and then pulled a lob-wedge to hole-out for an eagle ‘2’ at the par-4 11th.
“I just had a couple of good visuals for those shots, which helps, but obviously need a lot of luck for those to actually fall in,” he said.
In that five-hole, mid-round Power pencilled-in on his ‘card scores birdie at seven, ace at eight, pars at nine and 10 and an eagle two at 11.
Then to keep his golfing steam-roller on the move, Power holed a bunker shot at the par-4 14th to move to seven-under for his round and 14-under, and then caped-off a marvellous bogey-free display with a fourth birdie of his day at the 16th.
Power headed to a well-earned lunch and moments before Ireland claimed a stunning three-point 19-16 victory of the mighty Springboks.
“It was a great day out there,” he said.
“I actually feel great after last week. You know, I think sometimes it’s easy to overplay as a player. I think the thing that’s helping me right now is I took five weeks off after the Playoffs finished in Delaware.
“It was a long summer, I needed to get the energy levels and kind of — you just like the fun of the game back in there. I did that and I feel like I’m in a great spot right now.“Obviously today I got some great breaks, played some really nice golf. It’s obviously a bonus to hole out some of those shots, but it was one of those days, I was burning the edges all over the place with putts so it’s kind of weird a couple of wedge shots went in.
“That’s golf sometimes and hopefully I can get some of the putts to drop tomorrow.”
