SEAMUS POWER AND Shane Lowry both made bright starts as darkness halted play at the Valspar Championship on the PGA Tour.
While a handful of players were still on the Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead course in Palm Harbor, Florida, when play was suspended, the Irish duo had finished their opening rounds.
Power opened his weekend with a round of 70, which leaves him three shots off the lead on one-under overall. Lowry is a shot further back after his opening 71.
Power started on the back nine, shooting a bogey on the 16th and birdie on the 17th. He also birdied on the first and fifth, before finishing with a bogey on the ninth.
The Waterford man is among 16 golfers tied for 23rd, with Xander Schauffele, Sepp Straka and Viktor Hovland for company.
Lowry, meanwhile, bookended his front nine with birdies on the first and ninth, while he had bogeys on holes five and 17.
The Offaly native is tied for 39th with 22 others, four off the lead on even par.
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The lead is shared five ways, with American trio Keith Mitchell, Jacob Bridgeman and Ricky Castillo, Germany’s Stephan Jaeger, Sami Valimaki of Finland at the top of the leaderboard on four-under.
Another three players in the clubhouse are three-under following a tough, windy day in which the early starters had a distinct advantage.
Keith Mitchell in five-way tie for the lead. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Mitchell, who carded seven birdies and three bogeys in a four-under par 67, says he’s still learning from his agonising last-round collapse in the event last year.
Given the conditions, he said he couldn’t be too upset to close his round with back-to-back bogeys that dropped him from six-under into a share of the lead.
He three-putted his penultimate hole, the eighth, then found the right rough off the tee on the way to a bogey at the ninth.
“All in all I kept it together,” he said. “Number eight was playing really hard today, and nine the wind just off left I couldn’t get it started far enough left and made bogeys there.
“But you take those two out of the round and sprinkle them somewhere else. I’m feeling good.”
Mitchell started last year’s final round at Innisbrook with a two-shot lead but carded a 77 that left him tied for 17th as Peter Malnati snapped a nine-year title drought.
Asked how he moved on from that, Mitchell said he didn’t.
“I still think about it,” he said. “It’s still definitely in the back of my mind and I want it to stay there, hopefully for the rest of my career to just motivate me to remember what it feels like when you let those kind of nerves get in your way.
“A round like today feels like the opposite of that,” added Mitchell, who is trying to add a second tour title to his 2019 Honda Classic crown.
Jaeger, who claimed his first title at the Houston Open last year, closed with back-to-back birdies, getting up and down from a bunker to pick up a stroke at 18 and join the leading group.
He said he was actually aiming for the bunker after his wind-whipped tee shot found the right rough.
“To be honest with you that’s the only play I had,” he said. “I knew the bunker shot wasn’t terribly difficult, but obviously making that is a bonus. I would have taken par any day of the week.”
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Seamus Power and Shane Lowry start brightly at Valspar Championship
SEAMUS POWER AND Shane Lowry both made bright starts as darkness halted play at the Valspar Championship on the PGA Tour.
While a handful of players were still on the Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead course in Palm Harbor, Florida, when play was suspended, the Irish duo had finished their opening rounds.
Power opened his weekend with a round of 70, which leaves him three shots off the lead on one-under overall. Lowry is a shot further back after his opening 71.
Power started on the back nine, shooting a bogey on the 16th and birdie on the 17th. He also birdied on the first and fifth, before finishing with a bogey on the ninth.
The Waterford man is among 16 golfers tied for 23rd, with Xander Schauffele, Sepp Straka and Viktor Hovland for company.
Lowry, meanwhile, bookended his front nine with birdies on the first and ninth, while he had bogeys on holes five and 17.
The Offaly native is tied for 39th with 22 others, four off the lead on even par.
The lead is shared five ways, with American trio Keith Mitchell, Jacob Bridgeman and Ricky Castillo, Germany’s Stephan Jaeger, Sami Valimaki of Finland at the top of the leaderboard on four-under.
Another three players in the clubhouse are three-under following a tough, windy day in which the early starters had a distinct advantage.
Mitchell, who carded seven birdies and three bogeys in a four-under par 67, says he’s still learning from his agonising last-round collapse in the event last year.
Given the conditions, he said he couldn’t be too upset to close his round with back-to-back bogeys that dropped him from six-under into a share of the lead.
He three-putted his penultimate hole, the eighth, then found the right rough off the tee on the way to a bogey at the ninth.
“All in all I kept it together,” he said. “Number eight was playing really hard today, and nine the wind just off left I couldn’t get it started far enough left and made bogeys there.
“But you take those two out of the round and sprinkle them somewhere else. I’m feeling good.”
Mitchell started last year’s final round at Innisbrook with a two-shot lead but carded a 77 that left him tied for 17th as Peter Malnati snapped a nine-year title drought.
Asked how he moved on from that, Mitchell said he didn’t.
“I still think about it,” he said. “It’s still definitely in the back of my mind and I want it to stay there, hopefully for the rest of my career to just motivate me to remember what it feels like when you let those kind of nerves get in your way.
“A round like today feels like the opposite of that,” added Mitchell, who is trying to add a second tour title to his 2019 Honda Classic crown.
Jaeger, who claimed his first title at the Houston Open last year, closed with back-to-back birdies, getting up and down from a bunker to pick up a stroke at 18 and join the leading group.
He said he was actually aiming for the bunker after his wind-whipped tee shot found the right rough.
“To be honest with you that’s the only play I had,” he said. “I knew the bunker shot wasn’t terribly difficult, but obviously making that is a bonus. I would have taken par any day of the week.”
– © AFP 2025
With reporting from Emma Duffy
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