Power eight back as Sungjae Im leads at Copperhead
Seamus Power
Seamus Power's often magical short game skills couldn't save him as he opened with a one-over 72 in the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook.
The West Waterford man (39) got up and down four times for pars in his first seven holes to be just one over par at the testing Copperhead layout.
But after reeling off three birdies in a row from the 17th (his eighth) in a run that included a hole out from a greenside bunker at the 18th, he played his last eight holes in three-over to trail Sungjae Im by eight shots.
Power's first goal this season is to make the top 100 in the FedExCup who will be exempt next season.
But he found just eight greens in regulation in Florida last night to find himself battling to make the cut.
Three bogeys in a row from the second left him on the wrong side of par and while he birdied the par-five fifth, he bogeyed the seventh before salvaging par from six feet at the last.
Im could do little wrong and made two eagles and six birdies in a seven-under 64 to lead by a shot from 45-year-old veteran Brandt Snedeker.
Purcell, Hurley and Power start well in India
It was a better day for the Irish at the HotelPlanner Tour's DP World PGTI Open near New Delhi.
Conor Purcell fired a bogey-free, five-under 67 to share fourth place, a shot off the lead, as Gary Hurley shot 68 to share eighth and Power signed for a 69 to lie joint 17th.
On the DP World Tour, American Jordan Gumberg shot an eight-under 64 to lead the Hainan Classic by a shot from Spain's Jorge Campillo.
Meanwhile, the Southern Guards lived up to their billing as home favourites by dominating the team leaderboard after the opening round of LIV Golf South Africa at The Club at Steyn City.
Around 90,000 tickets have been sold for the Saudi-backed league's first event near Johannesburg, where Bryson DeChambeau and Charles Howell III fired eight under 63s to lead by a shot from Sergio Garcia and home hope Branden Grace.
With Charl Schwartzel shooting 66, Dean Burmester a 67 and Louis Oosthuizen adding a 69 to Grace's 64, the Southern Guards topped the team standings by a shot from Smash's Talor Gooch (65), Jason Kokrak (66), Harold Varner III (66) and Graeme McDowell (70)
Tom McKibbin shot 68 to share 29th as Legion XIII trailed by just three shots.
At the LPGA's Fortinet Founders Cup in California, Leona Maguire came back from a quadruple bogey eight at the second at Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club to open with two over 74.
She went on to mix five birdies with three bogeys to trail Korea's Jin Hee Im (63) by 11 strokes.
Lauren Walsh also shot 74 to leave them tied for 89th.
