Séamus Power endured the wrath of the drivable Par 4 10th hole at Riviera Country Club only to find redemption within minutes as he fired an opening round 70, one-under-par in the Genesis Invitational where in-form Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth took route 66 to the early clubhouse lead.
For Power, a front nine of an opening birdie followed by eight successive pars burst into life once he made the turn: on the 10th, a risk-reward Par 4 of just 315 yards, the Waterford man’s tee-shot found a greenside bunker only for him to commit the cardinal sin of his recovery flying into another bunker and ultimately running up a double-bogey six.
To his credit, Power’s reaction was to turn that adversity into a motivation on the Par 5 11th where his 329 yards tee shot was followed by a 259 yards approach to 12 feet which he holed for an eagle. The topsy-turvy run home continued with birdies on the 12th and 15th and back-to-back bogeys on the 13th and 14th to sign for that 70 and within touching distance of the pacesetters.
Rory McIlroy sits one shot ahead of Power after carding an opening 69. Birdies came on the first, 10th, 11th and 17th for the Northern Irishman but dropped shots at eight and 13 cost him a higher position on the leaderboard.
Scheffler, fresh from his breakthrough tour win in the Phoenix Open, maintained that momentum with a fine round compiled of an eagle, four birdies and a bogey while Spieth too continued his good form with a round of seven birdies and two bogeys.
“I had a really good attitude, played this course with more patience than I typically do and you need that (attitude),” remarked Spieth.
Best golf course
Looking for his first tour win since the Valero Texas Open last April, Spieth added: "If I could pick one non-Major/Players championship to win on the PGA Tour, it would be here. I love Riveria. I think it's in the conversation as the best golf course in the world. It's more so that than anything else really, but obviously the fact that it's an invitational and Tiger's taken it over and all that added stuff too."
On the Challenge Tour in the Bain's Whisky Cape Town Classic, Paul Dunne – who has been plagued by injuries in recent seasons – showed a welcome return to form in shooting an opening 66, six-under, to trail first round co-leaders Chris Blomstrand and Ivan Cantero Gutierrez by one stroke.
"I was happy enough. The wind blew a bit but not as much as in the practice rounds, so the course was there for the taking and the greens were rolling nicely. I hit a few nice shots and capitalised when I could," said the Greystones golfer who missed the cut on his seasonal debut in the Dimension Data Pro-Am last week.
Dunne, a past winner of the British Masters (in 2017), has endured a miserable time of late – either missing the cut or withdrawing from each of his last 13 events – but showed his class and perseverance in his opening 66 to again get into the mix in a tournament, with fellow Irish players Niall Kearney (67), John Murphy (71) and Cormac Sharvin (71) all also getting off to solid starts.
