Lowry falls out of world’s top 50 for the first time since Portrush win as Power exits top 100

Shane Lowry has fallen out of the world's top 50 for the first time in five years with Seamus Power now outside the top 100 and battling to qualify for the Majors.

US Open champion Wyndham Clark (30) moved to sixth in the world when a planned Monday finish was ruled out and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and he was declared the winner after his third round 60 left him a shot ahead of Swede Ludvig Aberg after 54 holes.

Lowry failed to qualify for the Signature Event at Pebble Beach as he didn't make the top 50 in last season's FedEx Cup.

As a result, he fell from 48th to 51st in the latest Official World Golf Ranking, leaving him outside the top 50 for the first time since January 2019, when he arrived in Abu Dhabi ranked 74th in the world and claimed a win that put him on the road to Open glory at Royal Portrush six months later.

Lowry (36) has played in two Ryder Cups since he lifted the Claret Jug, but he's won just once, claiming a 54-hole BMW PGA at Wentworth in 2022.

While he has had periods of great form, recording six top 10s in 2021 and another six, including that win in 2022, he lost a little impetus in 2023 with his tie for third in the Irish Open his lone top 10 finish.

He's exempt into all the Majors this year thanks to his five-year exemption for winning The Open, and he believes he's got a lot of good golf in the tank.

Getting to the Masters in good form is his early season goal, but he'd also love to add the Signature Events to his schedule and will have another chance in this week's WM Phoenix Open to try and make the field for next week's Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.

Power, already in the field in Los Angeles, will also be at TPC Scottsdale this week looking for a win that would secure his Masters return, or at least a big finish that would halt his slide down the world rankings.

Ranked as high as 28th in the world following his second PGA Tour win at the end of 2022, the big Waterford man has since slipped to 104th after finishing tied 31st at Pebble Beach.

The Tooraneena man (36) suffered a hip injury in the spring of last year that ultimately derailed his Ryder Cup qualifying hopes and forced him to sit out the last four months of 2023.

He was ranked 82nd in the world when he returned to the fairways in January, but he's failed to hit top form so far and followed a tie for 50th in The Sentry with a tie for 74th in the Sony Open in Hawaii, a missed cut in the Farmers Insurance Open and a tie for 31st in Pebble Beach.

While he's in all the Signature Events this year, having finished 41st in last season's FedEx Cup standings, he is in none of the Majors just yet.

As for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a storm affecting the Monterey Peninsula on Sunday was forecast to continue into Monday, forcing the PGA Tour to declare the 54-hole standings final "out of an abundance of caution".

"It was kind of surreal; it really felt like I won the tournament with that two-putt even though it was a Saturday," Clark said of the 28-footer eagle chance he left short for a 59 on Saturday.

"I think that was because I broke the course record. Everyone gave me a standing ovation. It honestly felt like the end of the tournament and that's what made yesterday so unique and weird because I would have thought that it was Sunday.

"So that's what made today and all of last night very unique; it felt like I won the tournament, yet I still had one more round."

It was the first 54-hole tournament on the PGA Tour since the 2016 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

The DP World Tour moves to Doha this week for the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, where Tom McKibbin is the only Irish player in action.

Meanwhile, the DP World Tour has announced that FedEx will sponsor the Open de France at Le Golf National from October 10 to 13.

The Ladies European Tour season begins with the $300,000 Magical Kenya Open this week with Olivia Mehaffey and Qualifying School graduate Lauren Walsh, the only Irish player in the field at Vipingo Ridge.

Leona Maguire returns to action for the $5 million Aramco Saudi Ladies International Presented by PIF at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in Riyadh next week.