Bermuda Championship 2022: Seamus Power grabs second career win, joins Ryder Cup conversation
While the LIV Golf Championships wound up with $34 million for a showdown between 16 golfers in Miami on Sunday, Seamus Power had something even than Valuable at stake in an eastern time zone where Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed are busy winning $16 million first prize at LIV Miami.
Power shot a glider with a 70 in the final round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship to go through with three straight 65 seconds to start the week and beat Thomas Detry with a single shot. The win put Power into next year’s Masters (he only played a single game in his career), lifted him up from an impressive 48th place in the Official World Golf Rankings, bringing him 500 FedEx Cup points and perhaps most intriguing is officially putting him on the 2023 Ryder Cup watchlist.
The Irishman came out at 33 on Sunday but went home with four bogeys (including three of his last four!) and 37 may have increased his chances. However, his main opponent in the final round in Bermuda, Ben Griffin, had an even worse comeback as he shot a 4-of-39 in the back with two birdies, four bogeys. and a double.
“Nice done,” the European said cheerfully after his round. “…Absolutely delighted.”
The win was Power’s second win on the PGA Tour – he also won the Barbasol championship in 2021. But don’t let the quality of the win tamper with what is already a great promotion for one. not run as much as compatriot Shane Lowry but could be a teammate of Lowry’s to Rom next September.
“It feels completely different but also special,” the 35-year-old said after his win. “It’s been difficult. I’ve played a lot of tournaments and this is only my second. It’s amazing how special it is. It’s going to take a while to settle in, but it’s totally on the moon. “
In 2019, Power was a (fairly) below-average PGA Tour player averaging -1.0 strokes per round, but in each of the last three seasons he’s improved to the point where he’s now going played in the stats area with golfers like Jason Day, Paul Casey, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott.
Perhaps more impressively, Power came to this week’s Bermuda Championship as one of the few favorites to win… and then he won. It’s one of the hardest things in golf, and now the question is whether he can go from being a good underdog PGA Tour player to competing with the big boys in the most important events. or not.
In 2022, Power qualified for all four major championships and had two top 12 and top three in four starts. This is encouraging and a sign of his tremendous growth as a golfer over the past few years.
Strength can go in a number of different directions from here. He’ll probably still be a good, but not great, golfer on the PGA Tour. Perhaps he’ll make another leap in 2023, competing in more majors and achieving his first Ryder Cup experience in Rome. Perhaps somewhere in between those two realities is where he will eventually land. Despite that, his win in Bermuda on Sunday was a reminder of how far he has jumped in such a short amount of time and what that could mean for a flourishing career. his suddenness.
We had the reaction and analysis on the Bermuda Butterfield Championship and LIV Miami. Subscribe and listen to The First Cut podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
