Seamus Power facing rest of year off with hip injury

The Waterford native has been forced out of the Irish Open.

Ireland's Seamus Power, who is facing an injury layoff. Picture: Peter Byrne/PA Wire.

Seamus Power is facing the rest of the year on the sidelines after a recurrence of the hip injury that hampered him at The Open forced him to withdraw from this week’s Horizon Irish Open at The K Club.

The touring professional for The K Club, Power was forced to withdraw from the Genesis Scottish Open with a hip injury in July and while he teed it up at Royal Liverpool the following week, he missed the cut and went on to perform poorly in two subsequent FedExCup playoff events, missing out on qualification for the Tour Championship.

Power confirmed he had “hip issues, unfortunately” and that while he is unsure how long he will be out of action, he is getting estimates of between 10 and 12 weeks.

The good news is that he requires rest, not surgery. But the bad news is that with the 2023-24 PGA Tour season set to begin next week in California, he could miss the chance to defend his Butterfield Bermuda Championship title from November 9-12 and the following week’s RSM Classic at Sea Island.

Bar a swift recovery, he will not return to action until 2024 but the good news is that while he failed to make the top 30 who qualified for the Tour Championship, sealing his Ryder Cup fate, he finished a career-best 41st in the FedExCup standings, winning $3.79 million in prize money.

As a result, he’s qualified for all eight of next year’s lucrative “signature events” in the US.

Resting will give him a chance to put a disappointing 2023 behind him.

He looked set to contend strongly for a place in the Ryder Cup team when he won his second PGA Tour title in Bermuda last October and rose to a career-high of 28th in the world rankings.

But in a disappointing 2023, he’s failed to record a top-10 finish and missed five cuts in 21 starts worldwide, falling to 61st in the world this week. His withdrawal from the Scottish Open left him fearing the worst.

But an MRI scan ruled out serrious injury with his right hip, which bears the brunt of the weight on his backswing.

“Because there's so many muscles are connected in there so that it takes a lot of the force of the swing on the way back,” he said at The Open “Something was kind of fatigued in there and they’re just trying to figure out exactly what it is.” He was clearly in discomfort during the FedExCup playoffs but will have time now to rest and get back to full fitness for 2024.