A sure sign that Séamus Power’s strategic plan is on track is the need to readjust scheduling.
Like adding the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui on to his early-year travel itinerary for one; like pondering if the week after he should make the trip to Abu Dhabi for the Hero Cup, a matchplay event where Europe’s captain Luke Donald will match two teams – one representing Britain and Ireland, another continental Europe – against each other as preparation for the Ryder Cup in Rome.
All of these things have taken on proper significance for Power, after the 35-year-old Waterford man won his second PGA Tour title in the Bermuda Championship and propelled himself into new territory in achieving different career ambitions and targeting new ones.
Power – who remains in the tournament mood in travelling onwards from Bermuda to Mexico for this week’s Worldwide Technology Championship at Mayakoba – has, with his win, made a huge leap (from 95th to eighth) in Europe’s world points qualifying for the Ryder Cup, while also moving to a career best 32nd in the updated official world rankings.
The fringe benefits, aside from the €1.15 million pay-day, for Power include a three-year exemption on the PGA Tour and a place in the Tournament of Champions in January (a limited field with almost €15 million in prize money) which is confined to tournament winners through 2022.
“[Getting] those extra couple of years [exemption] is fantastic,” said Power.
“To be able to focus on just practising and improving and just playing my own game and not really worrying about stuff. I noticed last season having the winner’s exemption for ‘21-’22 I was really able to play much more freely when you’re near the lead. That’s also a goal to be doing anyway but, sometimes, it is a little harder than normal.
“So it’s going to be great. It gets a lot of bonuses. I mean, one of my favourite memories in golf was in Maui and being able to go back there [in 2023] again, and having a three-year exemption, is fantastic.
“It opens doors as you get higher in the world rankings, all those kind of things are just all positives,” said Power, who also will earn an invitation to the Masters as winner of the Bermuda Championship.
His upward trajectory in the various rankings – to fifth in the FedEx Cup and a massive jump to eighth in the Europe Ryder Cup world points list – means that Power can continue dictating his own career path in picking and choosing where and when he plays, with places in all of next year’s Majors guaranteed at such an early juncture of the season.
“It’s kind of a funny thing. I didn’t really pay attention to world rankings until I got into like the top 100 in the world and now it becomes very, very relevant. Even close to the match play and then obviously the cut-off for some of the Majors starts approaching.
“So it’s nice to be able to kind of get a bump away from that. It’s nice. It opens up so many doors. All of a sudden you’re looking at changing your schedule and you’re going to add Maui and tournaments like that, and even knowing that you’re going to be in the [FedEx Cup] Playoffs and all this kind of stuff. It makes things a lot simpler, that’s for sure. It’ll definitely clear your thoughts, clear your mind going forward,” he said.
Power’s focus over the coming weeks will be this week’s tour stop in Mayakoba and the RSM Classic in Sea Island in just over a fortnight’s time, tournaments where he will also be able to add to his Ryder Cup qualifying points.
As it happened, Power had a chat with Donald at the pre-tournament players’ party in Bermuda where Europe’s captain explained the thoughts behind the new Hero Cup – similar to the old Seve Trophy – that will take place in Abu Dhabi on January 13th-15th.
“[Luke] was just telling me some of the details about it, GB&I versus Europe team event and just some of the options I might have. As I said to him, before this week, how I played was going to affect some of my schedule, so obviously this [win] helps a lot, gives me more flexibility going forward.
“I’m going to talk to him about it again now that I have a little bit more freedom to play where I want. I’m going to talk to him and see what he recommends. If it doesn’t match up, it doesn’t match up, but I certainly want to ask his opinion and I don’t want to come to next September and [be] finding out if I would have done this, I would have been on it [the team]. This win certainly helps, but I’m going to talk to Luke and see what happens.”
