Power shows his human side in more ways that one
Seamus Power presents a wheelchair to a local man at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba
A crying man in a wheelchair may well be Seamus Power’s abiding memory from the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, where an opening hole triple bogey seven dashed his dreams of a maiden PGA Tour win.
For the second time in three weeks, a tough final day denied the affable West Waterford man a sizeable cheque or even a sniff of a victory that would sweep away all the pressure and given him two years of freedom to go out and play, not to mention the cheque for $1.26m, a Masters invitation and enough FedEx Cup points to make it to the Playoffs.
And yet it was a twitter picture of Power presenting a wheelchair to a a disabled and clearly moved local man, that will go down as our abiding memory of his week.
This sweet man started crying when Seamus Power gave him one of the 100 wheelchairs the @PGATOUR donated. pic.twitter.com/XsOPBgNRSu
— Kelly Hawkins (@PGATOURHawk) November 9, 2016
Whatever about Donald Trump taking a close look at the PGA Tour's tax status vis a via charitable giving, the Tour does a lot of good and Power is a guy with a great human touch.
As for the golf, the pride of Tooraneena can only be but hugely positive about his start to the year, even if he hasn't taken full advantage of some tremendous play.
A visit to the first hole jungle that almost cost Graeme McDowell the title 12 months earlier and was enough to make Pádraig Harrington choose the Race to Dubai finale over the thought of a return to this beautiful but claustrophobic Fall Series venue, proved to be Power’s undoing.
Three behind Gary Woodland overnight, the 29-year old's triple instantly left him outside the top 15 and when he dropped another shot at the par-three third to fall hopelessly behind, it was certain to be a very long day at the office.
While he birdied the par-five seventh to undo some of the damage, bogeys at the 14th and 18th took the gloss off what was really a tremendous week.
A closing 76 left him tied 28th on 10 under and 11 shots behind winner Pat Perez, who shot a 67 to win by two shots from Woodland on 21 under par.
Power picked up 48 FedEx Cup points to climb 29 places to 82nd in FedEx Cup list while his cheque for $45,550 took his season’s earnings to $86,973 from four starts — a tenth of what he will need to keep his card.
Seamus Power after his third round 64
He has no choice but to take the positives from his first four starts of the year and move on this week’s RSM Classic at Sea Island in Georgia believing he has what it takes to win.
Still, the pain of final round will take a while to go away.
Ironically, he hit more fairways on Sunday than he did in any other round — 11 of 14 — but missed more greens too, finding just nine in the required number of shots.
On the positive side, he's hitting the ball well and had just 108 putts in Mexico, breaking the 30 putt barrier on each of the four days.
He's up six places to 319th in the world but he knows that a final round scoring average of 74 for his last three starts — 77 in the Sanderson Farms Championship for T29), 69 in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open for T57) and 76 in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba for T28 — must improve.
As for McDowell, who needed a 65 on Friday just to make the cut, he eventually snuck past Power on the leaderboard to share 24th on 11 under par thanks to a final round 68.
