Séamus Power fired a stunning second-round 64 at Monterey Peninsula Country Club on Friday to storm into contention at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour.
The Irishman had six birdies in his round, but the highlight was the 16th hole where he eagled the par 5. He moved up more than 70 places in one day to seven under and tied sixth, two shots behind the leader Kurt Kitayama on nine under.
“I had an interesting day,” Power said.
“I didn’t play particularly well, but I scored very well. It’s something I kind of pride myself on. Made some good putts, hung in there when I wasn’t hitting a lot of great shots. So all in all very pleased but I would like to kind of see a little better ball striking so I’ll go work on that now for awhile.”
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The golfers play a three-course rotation of Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula CC for the first three days, before Pebble Beach on the final day. Power will play Pebble Beach for the weekend.
“I love Pebble Beach,” Power said. “Obviously getting to play tomorrow, I think the forecast is pretty good. It’s one of those things you kind of grow up dreaming about, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
In tied second place on eight under is a group of four golfers - Hank Leboida, Joseph Bramlett, Brandon Wu and Keith Mitchell.
Justin Rose and Viktor Hovland are in a group one shot worse than Power at six under.
Meanwhile on the DP World Tour, young Irish star Tom McKibbon moved into the top 20 at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship with a 67 on Saturday to move to eight under.
Pádraig Harrington is a shot further back on seven under after a round of 70.
“It was a tale of two halves, I hits lots of nice shots. Even on the back nine I hit a lot of nice shots, just lost my focus on two shots, on 11 and 18, which was disappointing but the rest of it was pretty strong. I like what I see and keep running up good numbers, which is the nice thing.”
South African Zander Lombard leads on 15 under by a stroke over Rasmus Højgaard.
