Gutsy Power makes weekend as Aberg leads The Players by two

Ludvig Aberg impressively grabbed the halfway lead in The Players, but it was also a big day for West Waterford’s Seamus Power.

As the Swede (26) carded a nine under 63, scorching to the turn in seven under 29, to lead by two shots from Xander Schauffele on 12 under, Power gutted it out to shoot 72 and make the cut on the two over limit.

The Tooraneena man (39) does not have full status this year and was only added to the field as a second reserve when it was expanded to 123 due to Brooks Koepka’s status under the Returning Member Programme. 

But he took advantage of his break and now has a chance to move up the FedExCup standings.

Power is also the second reserve for next week’s Valspar Championship, but a hot weekend could make a big difference to his future.

He will have to play with a marker in round three as he’s last of the 73 players who made the cut.

But he’s just one shot behind Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, who got in for the weekend on one over.

As for Aberg, he’s clearly emerging as a likely contender for the Masters next month.

He started birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie before chipping in for another eagle three at the ninth.

He was still seven under with three to play after following a birdie at the 11th with a bogey at the 15th, but birdied the 16th and 18th to shoot 63

“I've seen the golf course in probably every wind possible, which I know this week we're going to have some different winds,” local resident Aberg said of his course knowledge.

“Is there an advantage to it? Maybe. But Sawgrass is also a golf course where you have to execute golf shots, and I love the golf course because it's right in front of you.

“It's very straightforward, but you still have to do it.

“Is there an advantage? Maybe. But you still have to hit the shots.”

Schauffele shot a 65 alongside an improving McIlroy (71) in the morning wave to get to 10 under.

Cameron Yoing lies alone in third on nine under after 67, while Justin Thomas completed a remarkable comeback from shooting two 79s at Bay Hill in his first start since back surgery to card a brace of 68s and share fourth with Canadian Corey Conners on eight under.

Thomas played alongside world number one Scheffler, who again struggled from the tee and found himself sweating on the cut line.

A bogey at the 16th left him on two over, but the world number one finished par-birdie at the treacherous 17th and 18th to shoot 73.

As for McIlroy, he’s felt he played better than his one under 71 suggested, but didn’t hole the putts.

The back injury that put his participation in doubt has also eased over the past week.

“I wish I was further up the leaderboard,” McIlroy said. “I felt like I played well enough today to be up the leaderboard, I just couldn't get a putt to drop.”

As for the back injury that forced him to withdraw before the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, he was positive.

“It feels pretty much there,” he said. “Not all the way there, but I feel like it's just progressively getting better each and every day.”

Explaining that he feels more comfortable with the longer clubs, “because I'm a little more upright with the driver with the longer stuff,” he admitted he’s still battling to regain trust when he has to bend over the ball.

“So chipping yesterday or like when the ball was below my feet is when I -- not that I felt it, but it was more -- it was okay,” he said. 

“It was just like I had a hard time trusting it, more so than anything else.

“But today it was, you know, I think having a day where I was like, okay, that was fine, I didn't really feel anything, I woke up this morning felt fine.”