Power seeks hot final round as he continues card chase in Mexico
Séamus Power edged another step closer to keeping full status on the PGA TOUR when he carded a five-under 67 in the third round of the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico.
While he bogeyed his final hole for the second day running, the West Waterford man heads into the final round tied for 16th on 15-under par, seven shots behind South Africa's Garrick Higgo.
With the leaderboard tightly packed, Power still has a chance to record his first top 10 finish since the Valspar Championship in June.
Every FedEx Cup point is vital for the Tooraneena man, who is 135th in the FedEx Cup Fall standings with only the top 100 at the end of the season enjoying full status next year.
He was projected to rise to 126th last night, with the top 125 enjoying conditional status next year, but can get closer to that top 100 with a hot final round.
He returns to the scene of his second PGA TOUR win for next week's Butterfield Bermuda Championship before heading to Sea Island in Georgia for the season-ending RSM Classic.
He has his work cut out to make significant points in a low-scoring affair at El Cardonal at Diamante Cabo San Lucas.
South African Higgo fired a course-record equalling, 11-under 61 to lead by a shot from Carson Young (63) on 22-under par with Trevor Cone (65), Chad Ramey (67) and US Ryder Cup star Ben Griffin (66) a shot further back in third.
Sami Valimaki (69) was on 19-under while second-round leader Matti Schmid (71) was 18-under.
While Higgo is 57th in the FedExCup standings, Young is 136th, Cone is 179th, Ramey is 123rd, Valimaki is 103rd, and Schmid is 70th, and they are all chasing rankings objectives, which means that Power has hot competition for points.
"I'm excited about it because last year I finished second here and missed out by one in a playoff," Young said. "Kind of feels like revenge here to be in the final group again. I'm excited to see if I can break through."
On the LPGA Tour, Nasa Hataoka won the LPGA's weather-reduced Toto Japan Classic at the first hole of a playoff after the final 18 holes were washed out by rain.
Hataoka and fellow Japanese golfer Yuna Araki shared the 54-hole lead on 15-under at the Seta Golf Club in western Japan.
After rain wiped out regulation play on Sunday, Hataoka triumphed to claim her seventh LPGA Tour title.
Meanwhile, England's Mimi Rhodes has been confirmed as the 2025 'LET Rookie of the Year'.
The English star has an unassailable lead heading into the season-ending Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España in two weeks.
Rhodes has won three times and can still overtake Singapore's Shannon Tan at the top of the Order of Merit.
"Winning the LET Order of Merit has been my number one goal since I got to the top of it, so I'm going to put up a big fight in the last event and hopefully, it will be enough," Rhodes said. "If not, I'll be happy either way."
