Golf

Séamus Power hoping to make most of limited PGA Tour starts

Waterford player lost his full card but will still get some starts in new 2020 season

Séamus Power will still get some starts on the new PGA Tour season despite losing out on his card. Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images

Philip Reid's face
Philip Reid
Mon Sep 9 2019 - 17:42

Séamus Power – who lost his full PGA Tour card this past season – will get an immediate opportunity to make the most of limited playing opportunities on the full tour for the 2019/’20 season when he plays in this week’s season-opening Military Tribute at The Greenbrier tournament.

Although the Waterford native finished outside the top-125 players to retained their PGA Tour cards and then failed to salvage it in the Korn Ferry Tour playoffs, Power – who finished 143rd in the regular season FedEx Cup standings – retains Category 32a membership for those who finish between 126th and 150th on the standings.

With so many players taking a break stateside at this time of the year, Power’s category has enabled him to earn a spot in the field at The Greenbrier which signals the start of the new PGA Tour season. Most of the tour’s headline players are absent, which gives an early-season opportunity for young players – among them Viktor Hovland, the Norwegian who impressed through those Korn Ferry playoffs – to make an immediate impact.

On the European Tour, four Irish players – Paul Dunne, Pádraig Harrington, Gavin Moynihan and Michael Hoey – are in action in the KLM Open in Amsterdam, while Cormac Sharvin, within touching distance of securing his full card off the Challenge Tour rankings, is one of a quintet of Irishmen teeing up in the Open de Portugal. Sharvin is joined in the field by Stuart Grehan, Paul McBride, Robin Dawson and Ruaidhrí McGee.