Power keeps it simple
West Waterford’s Seamus Power
SÉAMUS POWER has a simple strategy for securing his Masters debut after opening the new year with a free-flowing top-15 finish in the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Content his game held up through the Christmas break, he will waste no time trying to work out the vagaries of the Official World Golf Ranking and what he needs to do to make the top 50 by March 28 who will be heading down Magnolia Lane in April.
"I don't really know how the world rankings work or where you move to, but I know if I play well, I will go up, and if I don't, I'll go down," he said after making two eagles and 20 birdies and tied for 15th behind record-setting Australian Cameron Smith on Sunday.
The West Waterford man (34) might have been lukewarm on the greens, but he was quietly pleased his tee to green game remained red-hot as he jumped10 spots to a career-high of 63rd in the world.
"Yeah, my game feels in good shape, but you never quite know coming off a break," he said on Sunday, quickly shrugging off some disappointing mid-range putting. "It was very good and I'm very pleased with it. It just wasn't my week around the greens. I hit a lot of nice, free-flowing putts that just didn't go in."
He's now set his sights on this week's $7.5 million Sony Open in Hawaii and a run of five events in six weeks for total prize funds of $52.2 million.
With the top 64 in the world qualifying for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play from March 25-28, he's not only poised to make his World Golf Championships debut in Austin, but he's also just one good week away from breaking into the world's top 50.
The final cut-off for qualification for Augusta National via the top 50 in the world comes straight after the $12 million matchplay event in Texas, and Power has every reason to feel confident.
As a tournament winner, he will head from Waialae Country Club this week to La Quinta for the American Express, then rest rather than playing the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
He then plans to play the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Waste Management Phoenix Open and The Genesis Invitational at Riviera before returning to Waterford to see family during Honda Classic week.
Another PGA Tour win would catapult him into the world's top 30, but even if he fails to perform over the next six weeks, he will have the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Players and the Valspar Championship on his return from Ireland to secure his spot in the world's top 50 and avoid having to go for broke in what would be a last chances saloon scenario in the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play.
After shooting a bogey-free, 18-under for his final 54 holes, he was bemused he made almost no progress up the leaderboard as new world No. 10 Smith shot a PGA Tour record 34-under par total to edge out world No. 1 Jon Rahm by a shot.
"We were talking about going down the last," said Power, who has finished inside the top 21 in five of his first seven starts this season.
"It's one of those odd weeks, but you've got to make some 15 footers, and my speed was just a little bit off, and I couldn't quite get it going on the greens."
There will be little time for post-mortems as he joins Graeme McDowell in Honolulu today for his fifth appearance at Waialae Country Club, looking to improve on missed cuts in his last two starts there.
"I'm staying with friends, which is great," he said. "Then I'll go and check out the golf course Tuesday and Wednesday and be ready to go Thursday."
