While the LIV Golf Championship wound down with $34 million on the road between 16 golfers in Miami on Sunday, Seamus Power had one thing even extra helpful at stake one time zone east of the place Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed had been busy successful the $16 million first prize at LIV Miami.
Power shot a curler coaster of a 70 within the last spherical of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship to go along with three consecutive 65s to begin the week and beat Thomas Detry by a single shot. The win will get Power into subsequent 12 months’s Masters (he is solely performed in a single in his career), strikes him up from his spectacular No. 48 spot within the Official World Golf Rankings, nets him 500 FedEx Cup factors and, maybe most intriguing of all, formally places him on the 2023 Ryder Cup watch record.
The Irishman went out in 33 on Sunday however got here residence with 4 bogeys (together with three in his final 4 holes!) and a 37 that would have upended his possibilities. However, his important competitor within the last spherical in Bermuda, Ben Griffin, had a good wackier again 9 as he shot a 4-over 39 on the again with two birdies, 4 bogeys and a double.
“Delighted to get it done,” the affable European stated after his spherical. “… absolutely delighted.”
The win is Power’s second on the PGA Tour — he additionally took the Barbasol Championship in 2021. But do not let the standard of victory obfuscate what has been a terrific rise for any person who would not get as a lot run as fellow countryman Shane Lowry however might probably a teammate of Lowry’s come Rom subsequent September.
“Completely different feeling but just as special,” stated the 35-year-old after his win. “It’s so hard. I play a lot of tournaments and this is only my second. It’s amazing it’s special. It’s going to take a while to sink in, but absolutely over the moon.”
In 2019 Power was a (properly) beneath common PGA Tour participant who was averaging -1.0 strokes per spherical, however in every of the final three seasons he is improved to the purpose that he is now hanging out within the statistical neighborhood with golfers like Jason Day, Paul Casey, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott.
Perhaps much more impressively, Power got here into this week’s Bermuda Championship as one of many handful of favorites to win … after which he received. That’s one of many hardest issues in golf to do, and now the query is whether or not he can transfer from being a very good lower-tier PGA Tour participant to aggressive with the large boys in an important occasions.
In 2022, Power certified for all 4 main championships and had two prime 12s and three prime 30s in his 4 begins. This is encouraging and an indication of his super progress as a golfer over the past a number of years.
Power might go quite a lot of completely different instructions from right here. Perhaps he’ll stay as a very good however not nice PGA Tour golfer. Perhaps he’ll make yet one more leap in 2023, contend in additional majors and notch his first Ryder Cup expertise in Rome. Perhaps someplace in the course of these two realities is the place he’ll ultimately land. Regardless, his win in Bermuda on Sunday was a reminder of simply how far he is jumped in such a brief timespan and what that would imply for his abruptly surging career.
We’ve bought response and evaluation to the Bermuda Butterfield Championship and LIV Miami. Follow and hearken to The First Cut podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Â