David Lipsky eagled his final hole and found himself part of a four-way tie for the lead when play was suspended due to darkness at the Bank of Utah Championship, while Seamus Power is five shots off the pace at a tournament that could go a long way to help him secure a PGA Tour card for 2026.
The tournament at Black Desert Resort is in its second season as part of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Fall schedule. Players who finish the autumn schedule inside the FedEx Cup top 100 Rankings are guaranteed full tour cards for the 2026 season.
Power could lose his PGA Tour card as he currently sits 130th in the world after just one top-10 finish this year and 11 missed cuts from 24 events worldwide.
The Irishman signed for a round of 70 to leave him on one under for the tournament but it could have been so much better after he was three under going to the 11th hole. Three bogeys over the next four holes wiped out all his early good work but he did manage to scramble a birdies on the 18th
Lipsky posted a six-under-par 65, as did Sweden's Jesper Svensson and Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen. Austin Cook was 6 under through 13 holes when play was halted at 6:47 pm local time. The round will resume Friday morning.
That means Thursday's strong start is good news for Lipsky, who entered the week 99th in the standings, as well as Svensson (115th), Olesen (116th) and Cook (204th).
Lipsky, 37, has won on the European and Asian tours but not yet on the PGA Tour.
At the par-five, 610-yard finishing hole Thursday, his second shot traveled 292 yards and settled less than nine feet from the pin, allowing him to sweep in an eagle putt to close a round with five birdies and one bogey.
Lipsky said of his approach shot on 18, "Luckily (it) was a little into the wind, which actually helped the shot. So it sort of took (hitting too) long out of play, so I could hit it as hard as I wanted to. Pulled off the shot, got the right bounces."
He added, "I hit it close a lot today, so I had a lot of tap-in birdies. I also had quite a few like mid-range putts, like 10 to 15 feet, and burned a lot of edges today. So I was really happy to see that last one go in and give me some confidence going into tomorrow."
