At the start of 2023, Séamus Power was coming off a year where he became a two-time PGA Tour winner, was being heavily tipped to be part of the European Ryder Cup team in Rome, was guaranteed his place in each of the PGA Tour’s new ‘Elevated Events’ – rebranded as ‘Signature Events’ for 2024 – and all four majors, and was inside the top 30 in the world rankings.
Now, just over two-and-a-half years later, the 38-year-old needs to produce something special in the final PGA Tour event of 2026 to avoid having to tee it up in PGA Tour Q-School as a last-ditch attempt to avoid being relegated to the Korn Ferry Tour or uprooting and playing on the DP World Tour.
He’s been unfortunate with injuries, of course. A hip injury forced him to withdraw from the Genesis Scottish Open in 2023, effectively putting an end to his hopes of a Ryder Cup place, and back issues flared up in the aftermath, extending into the early part of 2025 and even forcing him to withdraw during the opening round of the RBC Canadian Open back in June.
But even with the injury troubles, he’s had his chances.
A disappointing finish in extremely testing conditions at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship last week at Port Royal Golf Club – site of Power’s last PGA Tour win – proved costly, and instead of the significant leap up the FedEx Fall Rankings that a top-three or top-four finish would’ve provided, he only climbed four places and goes into the RSM Classic ranked 129th, needing to climb 100 places to retain full membership.
When the PGA Tour announced it would reduce FedEx Cup exemptions from 125 to 100 starting in 2026, big casualties were inevitable. Players like Max Homa, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar, Matt Wallace, and Tom Kim all find themselves outside the top 100, though both Homa and Scott are safe due to prior season accomplishments.
Cutting cards by 25 put an even higher emphasis on the need to make hay while the sun shines, and the fact of the matter is that Power finds himself in the position he’s in because on weekend rounds – and Sunday rounds in particular – he’s missed out on big chances.
At the 3M Open in July, rounds of 67 and 66 had him comfortably inside the top 20 at the halfway mark, but rounds of 68 and 70 saw him gradually slide down and finish tied for 28th. At the John Deere Classic, he was just three back and tied for sixth going into the final round before a 75 saw him tumble all the way to T44, and at the Corales Puntacana Championship, he entered the final round in 11th and slipped down to 18th with a closing 73.
After the FedEx Cup Playoffs, it was a similar story. A final-round 74 at the Procore Championship saw him fall 22 places to T47, and a closing 73 at Sanderson Farms resulted in a drop of 19 places.
While it’s hard to lay the blame on any one of these final rounds individually, collectively, they’re very much the difference between coming into the final week with breathing space and coming in chasing.
Now, the equation is simple, if daunting. Power, who is 142 points behind 100th-ranked Karl Vilips, will likely need to finish in solo third place or higher if he’s to make the requisite jump into the top 100.
That’s a huge ask, given that his last finish of tied for third or better came at the Worldwide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, a week after winning in Bermuda in 2022.
If we’re looking for a silver lining, however, he did finish tied for fifth at this event that same year, and tied for fourth in 2021, so it’s a golf course that he’s proven he can play well on in the past and his current streak of five made cuts is his longest since the early part of 2024.
He’s rounding into form, which could bode well for Q-School if needed, but he’ll be hoping that it all comes together this week and he gets to avoid it.
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