Power secures tour card in style

West Waterford’s Seamus Power shot a blemishless final round of three under par 68 over the fearsome Champions Course at PGA National, West Palm Beach, Florida, yesterday to take a massive step towards achieving his ambition of claiming a place on the lucrative US PGA Tour.

The 27-year-old, now resident in Charlotte, North Carolina, took on and beat the dreaded Jack Nicklaus-created “Bear Trap” to tie for fifth place in the Web.com qualifier and so earn a very strong card on the US secondary tour in 2015.

Power, a former three-time winner of the Irish Youths Championship and a product of St Augustine’s College, Dungarvan, and East Tennessee State University, produced the finest golf of his life at the qualifier, shooting six straight below par rounds of 68, 70, 71, 68, 68 and 68 over the Fazio and Champions courses at PGA National.

Such scoring reflected immaculate ball striking by the 6 foot 2 inch Waterford man whose short game was also in first-class condition — as it needed to be over the Champions layout famous for its Bear Trap, the treacherous Jack Nicklaus designed three hole stretch from the 15th to the 17th which annually creates havoc in the Honda Classic, one of the big events on the PGA Tour.

Power now goes forward to the 2015 Web.com Tour, which in turn offers places on the primary circuit to the top 50 players on the money list at the end of the season. He went into yesterday’s final round in a share of seventh place on 13 under par and virtually assured of being among the top 45 qualifiers. However, he desperately wanted to finish as close to the top of the leaderboard so as to be assured of as many starts as possible on the tour next year.

And he did so in style. He dipped under par with a two at the short fifth and after protecting his top 10 position through the middle of the round, birdied the short, water-strewn 17th and the long 18th for a third successive 68 over two of the most testing PGA Tour courses. Power’s 16 under par total of 413 left him behind Canadian Brad Fritsch, who shot 27 under, and Americans Andrew Landry, and Dustin Bray.