Healthy again Power looking for big fall finish
Seamus Power hits his tee shot on the 12th hole during the first round of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club on Thursday, May 15, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/PGA of America)
Séamus Power has put 30 months of injury woes behind him as he aims this week to kickstart a hot finish to a frustrating season and build towards making his Amgen Irish Open and even his Ryder Cup dreams come true.
The West Waterford man looked like a Ryder Cup player in waiting when he had back-to-back winning seasons on the PGA Tour in 2021 and 2022 and leapt into the world’s top 30.
But with a 2023 hip injury putting paid to his chances of making Luke Donald’s team in Rome and after a series of related niggles added to his problems over the last 12 months, he’s heading into the PGA Tour’s fall season battling now to leap from 130th into the top 100 in the FedEx Cup who will be fully exempt in 2026.
The good news is that he got “miracle” treatment this summer that’s made the future look considerably brighter, and a good week at The K Club this week could be just what the doctor ordered in terms of momentum and confidence, and that Ryder Cup dream.
“I've never had a sustained injury like that before, and it gets you really down and you wonder if you could ever really shake it,” admitted Power (38), who knows that getting back to his career high of 28th in the world could open the door to Adare. “I kind of have a new enthusiasm for the game going forward.”
The injury, he admitted, “wasn't bad enough to where you couldn't play, but the inconsistency was driving me up the wall… It's nice to have that behind you now and kick on from here.”
Power’s hip problems lead to back issues and he saw no end in sight until this summer
“I found a guy in Las Vegas who worked a miracle there,” he said. “It's been great to finally get some answers with the back as well.
“It was nothing serious, nothing long-term. It was just one of those I couldn't quite get figured out.”
Winning would solve all his problems.
“The goal is going to be to get a win in the fall,” he said. “I always say that. Obviously, the season hasn't been great so far, but in 12 days' time, I could be having a great season. That's the way I look at it, and that's the way I've always been able to at least trick myself into thinking like that.
“Four good rounds here and four good rounds in Napa next week, and things could be very, very different.”
Power reckons the Ryder Cup in Adare will be “huge” for golf, but he’s also relishing another Irish Open appearance.
The field is the strongest since Jon Rahm won at Lahinch in 2019, and while the big talking point is the forthcoming Ryder Cup, it remains a special event.
“Golf is actually a sport that's so popular now, and just to be part of the heritage of the tournament would be amazing,” Power said of what an Irish Open win would mean. “It would be a dream come true.”
He’s one of 11 Irishmen in the field and while Conor Purcell and Tom McKibbin are the only non-major winners with DP World Tour cards, it’s also a huge week for up-and-coming players like Robert Moran, Alex Maguire and Max Kennedy, and Cork amateur John Doyle (18), who got to play a few holes with five-time major winner Brooks Koepka yesterday.
He also got to play with Pádraig Harrington (54), who plays his 30th Irish Open without the pressure of days past.
“I'd love to play well and compete, but if that doesn't happen, I'll smile and wave at the crowds and enjoy it,” said the Dubliner, who shut down a rumour that he was considering running for President of Ireland.
“No, no, no,” he said with a grin. “I'm very busy with what I'm doing. It's an incredibly big, incredible honour, obviously, for anybody to become the President of Ireland, but a very difficult job in the sense that I don't think my Gaelic would be up to it. I'd have to improve that.
“I think being a statesman is tough. I have a lot of opinions, so not having your own opinions is not great, and not being able to leave the country wouldn't be great for me either, playing 30 golf events a year. So it's not on my radar, for sure… No, no truth in the rumour.”
The Irish Open remains world-class in Harrington’s eyes, and as rumours swirl of a possible 2026 staging in Doonbeg, neither the Dubliner nor Rory McIlroy would have any problem heading to President Donald Trump’s Co Clare links.
“I've obviously heard the rumours,” McIlroy said. “I'm not sure if it's confirmed or not or when the schedule comes out, but if it were to go there, I would have no problem.
“The Scottish Championship was played at a Trump property near Aberdeen there a few weeks ago, looked like it was great event. We're going back to Doral next year on the PGA Tour.
“If it's back on a links course, I'm not sure how Doonbeg stacks up against other links courses in the country, but I would be absolutely happy to go there.”
Harrington opened the course with designer Greg Norman in 2002 and while Martin Hawtree has since redesigned the links, he’d be happy to go back.
“I think the last shot I hit at Doonbeg was at three o'clock in the morning,” Harrington joked. “I was there at a wedding.
"Great part of the world down there… Ballybunion, Lahinch, Doonbeg… There’s great golf. From my experiences of Doonbeg, the hotel, accommodation, the whole thing, it's top class.”
