Séamus Power may not know from one week to another where exactly he will be playing given his limited category on the PGA Tour, but the 34-year-old Waterford man made the most of a late call-up into the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit with a bogey free opening round of six-under-par 66 to trail leader Davis Thompson by three.
Power, who was fourth reserve to get into the field at the start of the week, was flawless in his round in a strong opening in his on-going attempt to move inside the top-125 on the FedEx Cup standings. He is currently 159th.
Having started on the 10th, Power sank a 15 footer for an opening birdie and added another on the Par 5 17th.
After turning for home, he rolled in a 12 footer for birdie on the first and then caught fire coming home with a hat-trick of birdies from the seventh: he was left with a tap-in on the Par 5 seventh, sank a 10 footer on the eighth and finished with a 15 footer on the ninth.
Thompson, making just his third professional start, fired an opening-round 63 to take a two-shot lead at the rain-plagued tournament which was suspended just after 9pm local time due to darkness after a rain delay of more than three hours.
Brandon Hagy, Tom Lewis and Joaquin Niemann carded 65s sit in a to for second at seven under.
Starting on the back nine, Thompson’s bogey-free round began with birdies at 10 and 11. Thompson, who led last year’s US Open after one round playing as an amateur, cemented his day with birdies at the seventh and eighth. He carded nine for his round.
“If the putter gets hot, you can just kind of ride that wave throughout the day,” Thompson said. “And I was on with my reads today, my caddie did a great job with that. ... I knew I was hitting it well and I just committed to every target and just stayed in the moment.”
Lewis and Hagy also delivered bogey-free rounds.
The first-round rain delay didn’t seem to bother Thompson.
“I just tried to block all that out and focus on finishing strong and I was able to do that today, which was huge,” he said following his round. “Kind of keep the momentum going into tomorrow.”
Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau shot an even par 72 and is T110 heading into Friday’s second round. DeChambeau parted ways with caddie Tim Tucker ahead of the first round. Ben Schomin took over on the bag for DeChambeau and will caddie for him the rest of the tournament.
First round scores with play suspended at 9.02pm local time (USA unless stated, Par 72)
63 Davis Thompson
65 Brandon Hagy, Tom Lewis (Eng), Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
66 J. J. Spaun, Séamus Power (Irl)
67 Jason Day (Aus), Michael Gligic (Can), Fabian Gomez (Arg), Si Woo Kim (Kor), Kevin Kisner, Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn), Hank Lebioda, Troy Merritt, Pat Perez, Robert Streb, Matthew Wolff, Chris Kirk
68 Jonas Blixt (Swe), Cameron Davis (Aus), Lanto Griffin, Garrick Higgo (Rsa), Patton Kizzire, Maverick McNealy, Henrik Norlander (Swe), Chez Reavie, Scott Stallings, Brendon Todd, Bo Van Pelt, Bubba Watson, Richy Werenski, Danny Willett (Eng)
69 Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Luke Donald (Eng), Dylan Frittelli (Rsa), Chesson Hadley, Kramer Hickok, J. B. Holmes, Charles Howell III, Sung Jae Im (Kor), Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor), Jason Kokrak, Phil Mickelson, Sebastian Munoz (Col), Ted Potter Jr., Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, Jimmy Walker, Justin Suh
70 Mark Anderson, Chris Baker, Joel Dahmen, Tyler Duncan, Rickie Fowler, Harrison Frazar, Bo Hoag, Max Homa, Mark Hubbard, Matt Jones (Aus), Martin Laird (Sco), Andrew Landry, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Tyler McCumber, Alexander Noren (Swe), Sean O’Hair, Andrew Putnam, Patrick Rodgers, Rory Sabbatini (Svk), Brandt Snedeker, Kevin Stadler, Kyle Stanley, Michael Thompson, Camilo Villegas (Col), Will Zalatoris, Peter Uihlein, Josh Teater
71 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Ryan Armour, Keegan Bradley, Ryan Brehm, Cameron Champ, Tom Hoge, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Russell Knox (Sco), Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Danny Lee (Nzl), Denny McCarthy, William McGirt, Matthew NeSmith, Cameron Percy (Aus), Brian Stuard, Kevin Tway, Harold Varner III, Vincent Whaley
72 Sebastian Cappelen (Den), Bryson DeChambeau, Austin Eckroat, Nate Lashley, Doc Redman, Adam Schenk, Sepp Straka (Aut), Nick Taylor (Can), D. J. Trahan, Gary Woodland
73 Bronson Burgoon, Austin Cook, Jason Dufner, Rhein Gibson (Aus), Harry Higgs, Michael Kim, Adam Long, Robby Shelton, Daniel Wetterich
74 Matthew Every, Emiliano Grillo (Arg), James Hahn, Peter Malnati, Vaughn Taylor, Martin Trainer
75 Brice Garnett, Brian Gay, Scott Piercy, Sam Ryder, Ben Martin
76 Scott Harrington
77 Will Gordon, Jeff Roth, Chase Seiffert
