Ireland’s Séamus Power took a big step toward his trans-Atlantic dream.
Power held on with a shaky finish amid an epic collapse by playing competitor Ben Griffin to win the PGA Tour’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship on Sunday.
Power, 35, has set his sights on making Europe’s Ryder Cup team. After securing his second career victory on the Atlantic island of Bermuda, he likely will be in the conversation.
“I knew it was going to be really hard coming in,” said Power, who entered the final round tied for the lead with Griffin, “and it was.”
Power played the final six holes in 2-over and signed for a 1-over 70 and a 19-under 265 total at windswept Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton. He edged by one stroke Belgium’s Thomas Detry, who holed a greenside pitch on the 18th to cap a birdie-birdie finish.
Griffin, 26, a PGA Tour rookie who was making only his eighth career start, squandered the lead with an epic back-nine collapse. After birdieing the first two holes on the homeward nine, Griffin played a five-hole stretch, Nos. 12-16, in 6-over and tumbled into a tie for third.
Considering where he was just a little more than a year ago, though, working in the mortgage industry before restarting his golf career, it wasn’t all bad, though.
“I hate to finish the way I did,” Griffin said. “It’s tough coming down the stretch in a PGA Tour tournament, especially for a guy who was in the office just a year and a few months ago. I’m very optimistic about my future here.
“It’s pretty unbelievable, where I came from.”
Power, who had won once in 137 previous starts – the 2021 Barbasol Championship – was the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 48 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He and Griffin had set the 54-hole scoring record with an 18-under 195 total.
Power entered the 2022-23 season coming off strong finishes on the game’s biggest stages. He posted top-30 results in three of the four major championships in 2022, led by a T9 at the PGA.
The Bermuda title represents the second in a row for players from the Emerald Isle. Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy won the previous week’s CJ Cup in South Carolina, which attracted 15 of the world’s top 20 players, as he regained the No. 1 world ranking.
Aaron Baddeley, a four-time tour winner who Monday qualified via a 6-for-2 playoff, tied for sixth and earned a spot in this week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba tournament in Mexico.
Lucas Herbert did not attempt to defend his only PGA Tour title because he was home in Australia to be in a close friend’s wedding party, according to a Golf Digest report.
The Bermuda stop was the sixth event of a nine-date autumn in the final wraparound season on the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 schedule. The tour wraps up the calendar year in the next three weeks: World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba on Nov. 3-6; Cadence Bank Houston Open on Nov. 10-13; and the RSM Classic in St. Simons Island, Georgia, on Nov. 17-20.
Steve Harmon