Seamus Power was in fine form for round two of the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, scoring a five-under-par 66 to have the Waterford man in a six-way tie for 18th.
Starting on the 10th, the 38-year-old made light work of the par-5s, eagling the 12th after finding the green from 287 yards out and sinking his putt. Power followed this up with a birdie on the 18th hole and another eagle on the sixth which took him to -7 entering his final two holes.
A double bogey on Power’s last hole, the ninth, proved to be a disappointing end to his round, leaving his green-side pitch short and two-putting for double. Were it not for this, he’d be on the first page of the leaderboard in a tie for fifth place and just two behind leader Thorbjørn Olesen.
Olesen backed up his opening 62 with another impressive 66 on day two, which keeps him one ahead of the smooth swinging Jake Knapp.
“I think both days my iron play has been really, really good. I hit a lot of shots really close to the pin and gave myself a lot of good chances,” said the 35-year-old Dane.
Olesen birdied four of his final six holes to get his nose in front on 14-under as the eight-time DP World Tour winner goes in search of a maiden PGA Tour victory.
“Today there were two or three bad drives that cost me, but I still felt pretty good over the ball. I think I hit some good tee shots out there also,” added Olesen modestly.
A bogey-free 65 from Knapp moved him into solo second and proved, once again, that he could shine on scorable courses as the 31-year-old seeks his second PGA Tour victory.
“(I) Feel like I’m kind of doing everything pretty good for the most part. I haven’t made too many putts… I feel like it’s been kind of mistake-free for the most part,” said the Californian.
“I haven’t really had to scramble too much…it felt pretty easy over the last two days.”
Adam Svensson failed to capitalise on his course-record-setting 11-under 60 in round one, and the Canadian’s struggles off the tee were a big factor in him carding a disappointing 75.
Sweden’s Alex Noren didn’t let an early bogey get in the way of him going low as the veteran golfer went round in –9, the lowest round of the day which took him to T8 at -10.
“I played great today, (the) best I’ve played in a long time… I looked at my stat sheet from yesterday and I have higher ambitions than what I did yesterday,” said the 43-year-old Swede.
“I got frustrated and then woke up with a different intent to the day… I just pulled it together.”
Missing the cut were Byeong Hun An, 67th in the FedExCup standings, and Li Haotong, who was in the final pairing with winner Scottie Scheffler in The Open and tied for fourth.
FULL SCORING
