Seamus

Power

The Irishman opened his week on the back nine at the Renaissance Club and traded one birdie with three bogeys before the turn. He didn’t play the final nine, however, citing a hip injury. He was 2-over at the time of his WD, so he wasn’t in the mix but certainly not out of contention. This will be his first mid-tourney WD in 157 career events played.

The Irishman was playing the par-3 contest today and ended with styling, bagging the 15th and 16th hole-in-ones of his lifetime. “It’s obviously such a special tradition here on a Wednesday. Being able to share it with my brother out there, that was probably the best part. Yeah, I don’t know whether it carries into tomorrow, but it’s certainly a lifelong memory that I’ll treasure for a long time.” Power posted a T27 in his Masters debut last year and he’ll look to match or exceed that his second time around.

The Irishman started outside of the top 10 but raced out of the gate with birdies on four of his first seven holes today. He traded two birdies with two bogeys on his way into the clubhouse. “This week was a little struggle long game, but the rest was OK, able to manage it as well as I could. Yeah, just everything’s been pretty decent. Been able to just get more and more comfortable in these positions and it just becomes a little easier to maybe make a putt I wouldn’t have made a couple years ago.” This result caps off the fall with finishes of WIN, T3, T5 which has him at 1st in the FedExCup standings ahead of the holidays. He’s never made it to East Lake in six previous seasons but already well on his way this time around.

The Irishman won in Bermuda last week but there was no hangover as he tossed together four sub-69 rounds this week at El Camaleon. That included an ace in the third round. Power was a machine from tee-to-green this week as he ranked T6 in fairways hit and T1 in GIR Percentage. With this T3 finish, he vaults to No. 1 in early FedExCup standings, the first time he’s shared that spot at any point in his career. Power is going back home to rest next week but is expected to end the fall at Sea Island (The RSM Classic).

Power earned his second career PGA Tour victory last week in Bermuda, and he has built upon that momentum over the last three days in Mexico. Saturday’s effort featured a pair of eagles, as Power made an ace on No. 8 and added an eagle on the par-4 11th. His bogey-free 63 tied a career low on Tour and moved him to 15 under for the week, alone in fourth and seven shots behind leader Russell Henley. Power now has three straight rounds of 68 or better and has made just four bogeys through 54 holes on El Camaleon GC as he looks to become the first player to win in back-to-back weeks since Tony Finau swept the 3M Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic this summer.

Seamus Power played in the final group alongside Ben Griffin and the duo raced out to a big lead over the rest of the field. Their final tee time put them in a tougher spot as the winds started to whip as the final group played the back nine. Power steadied three birdies and nine pars out of the gate then bobbed and weaved his way home with two birdies and three bogeys. It was still one-shot clear of Thomas Detry when all was said and done. This will go in the books as his second career win with the first coming 15 months ago at the 2021 Barbasol Championship. “Completely different feeling but just as special. It’s so hard, you know, I’ve played a lot of tournaments [138] and this is only my second win.” Power had limped into the week with nothing better than T30 over his last six starts, but it’s safe to say he flipped the script entirely in Bermuda, a place where he’s talked very fondly of in the past. The Irishman jumps to 5th in the early FedExCup race.

Power began the week as the highest-ranked player in the field (No. 48) and played like it in the third round at Port Royal GC. A double bogey on the par-3 13th hole was his lone blemish on a day that also included eight birdies, as Power’s 6-under 65 served as the best of the day. At 18 under he shares the lead with rookie Ben Griffin as he looks for his second Tour victory after capturing last year’s Barbasol Championship. This is Power’s first-ever 54-hole lead on Tour, and he is now one of only four players to make the cut in all four instances of the Bermuda event. He has remained busy this fall, as this is his fourth start of the wraparound season and he came in off a T-49 finish last week at Congaree.

The Irishman has lost some steam in recent months, arriving with seven straight worldwide finishes of T30 or worse. “I actually feel like I’m kind of coming around. My iron play hasn’t been great. I’ve been kind of driving it okay, but iron play has been poor. But I kind of feel like I got something figured out, so it was nice out there this morning. Do a little bit of work this afternoon. But yet still early in the season, but nice to see some progress there.” Perhaps a familiar Port Royal setup will do the trick in terms of him playing himself back into contention. Power is 3-for-3 at Port Royal including a T12 last year.

Power is making his fifth appearance at the Shriners with three paydays on his tournament resume and last year’s 21st-place finish being the highlight. He enters this week off a T30 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He lost 3.2 strokes on approach at the Country Club of Jackson and has now lost strokes in that area in three straight lead-in events, dating back to the FedExCup Playoffs. Perhaps a little local knowledge can help get the Las Vegas resident back into contention.

There were 46 major first-timers at last week’s U.S. Open in Massachusetts, 12 of those making their U.S. Open debut, including Power, and the Irishman took top honors with a T12 on 1-over 281 (71-70-70-70). That was his third made cut in three major starts overall, and this is his fifth Travelers, posting a best of T19 last year as an open-qualifier, where he was T4 at the midpoint (66-67-71-69). After kicking off with a 67 (4 birdies, 1 bogey), the East Tennessee State alum offset one bogey-5 today (failed scramble) with six birdies on 10 (of 14) fairways and 15 greens in regulation, posting 3.096 SG: Tee-to-Green and 0.820 SG: Putting at last glance. See link below to post-round comments.