‘I poured myself a glass of whiskey just to calm the nerves’ -  Seamus Power on earning the last available PGA Tour card

As the PGA’s top guns duke it out this weekend for the FedEx Cup riches in Atlanta, West Waterford’s Seamus Power is already gearing up for 2019, determined a close call with losing his tour card — ranked No 125, he got the last one available by right — won’t happen again.

‘I poured myself a  glass of whiskey just to calm the nerves’ -  Seamus Power on earning the last available PGA Tour card

They came to celebrate Seamus Power’s achievements a couple of weeks back at West Waterford Golf Club.

A PGA Tour card in the back pocket for another year is no small feat and the 31-year-old who learned the game in this quiet corner of the country will always be grateful to the people at West Waterford who helped nurture his talents for golf and now live every shot he plays on the other side of the Atlantic.

Yet the nerve-frying and bizarre nature of Power’s card retention, missing the cut at the Wyndham Championship and relying on the failures of others over the ensuing third and fourth rounds to allow him to scrape into the 125th and final place in the standings at the cut-off point last month, has left him preferring a rather less stressful conclusion to his third campaign on the PGA Tour in 2018-19.

For while it brought great relief and an outpouring of heartfelt congratulations, Power could frankly forego the tension and helplessness he experienced as the Wyndham carried on without him and he watched from afar as his future in the sport was decided for him.

“It was such a different experience,” Power says on his homecoming night at West Waterford.

“Like everyone was telling me ‘congratulations’ but I’d played terribly and got lucky. But you know what, you need those breaks at times.

“That’s two years in a row now. Last year in the play-offs (at the Web.com Tour Championship) I got the last card (of 25) and this year I got the last one at the Wyndham so I need to just play a little better earlier in the season and see what happens.”

Having graduated to the big show from the second-tier Web.com Tour at the end of 2016, Power’s rookie season on the PGA Tour saw him finish 130th in the FedEx standings, five places adrift of an automatic card for 2017/18. He did get a card, finishing in a tie for 48th at the aforementioned Web.com Tour Championship to secure the 25th and final place by a margin of just 487 dollars.

There was a similarly dramatic endgame this season as Power entered the final week of the regular season right on the bubble, his fate resting on his and others’ performances, most notably Sergio Garcia, in an equally precarious position at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, the state he calls home in the city of Charlotte.

“It was a weird week. I was 123rd in the rankings but I knew my game wasn’t in great shape so it was going to be a bit of a battle. I was going to have to fight and try as hard as I can but I missed the cut.”

Even in the re-telling, Power’s body deflates as those words are uttered, the stress and disappointment revisiting his slender 6ft 3ins frame.

“Once I missed the cut I basically convinced myself I was going to miss and if it happened to work that I was going to make it, then it would be fine. But that’s easier said than done. It’s hard to get away from it.

“Over that weekend, it came down to only three or four guys (whose performances affected Power’s ranking) and if any one of them did anything my phone would buzz five or six times from all over the world. It was a strange experience. I went out of town and went down to see Nick (Bradley, his new coach) for a couple of days, a three-hour drive down to Georgia but I got back to Charlotte on Sunday around lunchtime and although I tried not to watch I kind of got roped in, right around the time Sergio was turning and once I started watching I couldn’t get away from it.

“There’s a big 50-inch TV in the apartment and I was sitting probably four inches away from it at one point. Having no control… usually in golf, for the most part, it’s down to you, coming down the stretch or whatever. If you do the right stuff you’re probably going to be in good shape but this time I was relying on other guys doing the wrong stuff.

“That was weird. You don’t like rooting against anyone but it’s hard not to for those few hours. It felt so uncomfortable having zero control.

“I have a friend who works for Paddy Power and he was sending me updates of my percentage chance of finishing in the top 125.

“I started off not wanting to know and it got to the stage where I was asking him every minute. And it was fluctuating all afternoon. I was down to 22 or 21% at one point in the final round and it really didn’t look good at all.”

Power’s fortunes slowly began to turn as his phone began buzzing more furiously and his face inched closer to the television.

“This is when it got funny. There were a few guys and they started dwindling out, it was getting late and then David Hearn, who’s a buddy of mine, he eagled 15 out of nowhere. But Garcia was the main guy and as soon as Sergio finished people started calling me saying ‘congratulations, you’re in’ and I’m like ‘it’s not over yet!’

“So it wasn’t done for me until everyone’s scorecard was signed, just in case. My dad called me twice before it became official but I remembered last year that Ian Poulter’s points were miscalculated and that was in my mind as well, so I wasn’t sure until I got the text message (from the PGA Tour) with your updated FedEx Cup standing and saw 125 that it was official in my mind.

“It was a weird, weird day. But it was gas, I poured myself a glass of whiskey just to calm the nerves and it had no effect whatsoever, the adrenalin was going crazy.”

His finish in the standings meant he was into the first FedEx Cup play-off event, the Northern Trust in New Jersey. Power could have floated there, such a high he was on and he played well enough to claim a tie for 34th, taking his earnings from 28 PGA Tour events to $791,018 (€673,100).

It also lifted him to 114th in the FedEx rankings, outside the necessary top-100 To advance into week two of the play-off series which concludes tomorrow at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

While the top 30 duke it out for the $9m (€7.6m) tournament purse and the $10m (€8.5m) bonus for the highest finisher in the standings, Power will continue to prepare for next season.

Already back in the United States and working with renowned coach Nick Bradley, Power gets his 2018-19 campaign underway in 12 days at the Safeway Open in Napa, California at the Silverado Resort and Spa.

Even before he left Waterford, he was itching to get back to work, stimulated by the possibilities that await having been given this new lease of life, career-wise.

“I’m excited. There’s a little bit more stability in my schedule now after sneaking into that top 125 and that makes things a lot easier.

“I’ll be able to plan out my schedule for the year before Christmas, which will be a different feeling and kinda nice. So I’m looking forward to it. It was massive getting that top 125. You’re trying not to think about a lot when you’re playing but when you get it, it is a massive relief.

“I got my card back last year through the play-offs and then you’re back in a decent spot, not as good but still a decent spot.

“If you don’t get your card in the play-offs then you’re back into it and you can kind of get stuck between two tours.

“You see that happen to guys, they’ll play like 10 events on the Web.com Tour and 10 on the PGA Tour and it’s hard to make enough headway on either one doing it that way.”

“So it was huge in that regard and being ahead of where I was last year is a nice feeling too, that you’re progressing.

“It was such a strange way that it all happened. Like I missed the cut playing my worst tournament of the year but then two days later it turns into being such a fun week. It was a strange experience but hopefully, I’ll be a little bit further away from that line next year.”

That has to be Power’s objective, taking drama out of the equation as he bids to take another step forward in his PGA Tour career.

“You want to keep progressing. I didn’t play that well this year. My short game was strong, all aspects of it kind of kept me hanging there and a couple of weeks it was what let me scrape something of it.

“But I made a couple of changes, got myself a new coach. Nick’s coached some top players over the years and I’ve known him for a few years, we started doing some work together last month and I’m looking forward to working some more.

“The game wasn’t where I wanted it this year, that’s how you end up in a position where you’re scrapping at the end, so hopefully we can get things on the right path and I can be in a much more comfortable position next August.”

A third consecutive year on the road also brings its benefits as Power grows more accustomed to pacing himself through a week and better manage his tournament structure.

“That’s an art in itself and it’s easier the second year because a lot of tour stops go back to the same courses and practice rounds and so on, that stuff’s easier when you know where you’re going.

“But you see guys who have been on Tour for 15 years and they’re still tweaking stuff. Everyone works differently and you’ve got to find out what works for you. You’re always tweaking but it definitely gets easier as you go along.”

Power will also look to improve his consistency over the four rounds of a tournament. Two top-10 finishes is one thing but with a more solid game he would have garnered more and converted six top-25s into something stronger.

“To be honest, I’ve struggled with my long game the last couple of years. It’s been a kind of a fishing experience for me, trying to find something that works and that was a frustrating part of my year.”

“My short game was able to hold me in there and some weeks I’d be able to hit it well on certain days and have a decent couple of rounds. But I don’t think there was any tournament where I felt good about how I struck it in all four rounds.

“So that’s something I’m looking to put right before this fall (autumn) stretch if possible and over the winter, working to try and improve that.

“This year, if I didn’t make a lot of putts I was going to be a tough, tough go for me so hopefully we can turn into a situation where even if I don’t have a great putting week I can still have a good week. That’s going to be the goal moving forward, to match up my game a little better.”

And then, perhaps, having less to celebrate a year from now will be a greater indication of Power’s progression.

“Now I feel like I’m going to be much better prepared starting again in Napa in a couple of weeks.

“Last year it was so hectic. A crazy summer stretch and then the play-offs. The final play-off event got delayed so we flew straight from the play-off to Napa for the start of the new season. The clubs got lost and everything like that and so you almost had no chance going there.

“So this year, I’ll have had a couple of weeks off and a couple of weeks’ practice and I’m going to be rested and ready to go.

“It’s going to be my third year but my first time where I feel like I’m really prepared going into the start of the season. There’s no guarantees of course, it won’t mean anything unless I go out and play but I’m definitely going to have a better chance of playing well early than the last couple of years.”

=======Power has high hopes for Dawson in pro game

Seamus Power has welcomed the arrival of a fellow Waterford golfer onto the touring professional circuit as Tramore’s Robin Dawson this week left a glittering amateur career behind.

Dawson was seventh in the World Amateur Golf Rankings when he turned pro this week, making his debut in the paid ranks thanks to an invitation into the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura and Power, a pro since 2011 after graduating from a golf scholarship at East Tennessee State University, has high hopes for his fellow county man.

“I’ve followed Robin Dawson’s amateur career because of the obvious Waterford connection. He seems like he’s going to have a great shot at it. Professional golf is a different kettle of fish but he certainly looks like he’s got the game for it. It’s an exciting time for him.

“If he starts well, things could happen very quickly for him so I’d be wishing him all the best.”

For all the success achieved by Irish players on the European and PGA Tours in recent years, Power is surprised at the dearth of touring pros from his own province of Munster at present but optimistic that the likes of Dawson can change that.

“Munster have always had a very good amateur set-up, Fred Twomey running it and I always felt it was good stuff but I don’t know the answer to why there aren’t that many touring pros from here.

“There’s always been a good little line of players but it is a big jump in standard. Even if you’re a top Irish amateur, you’re only really competing against 15 guys in any given tournament. So it’s tough to adjust mentally when you get to a tournament and instead of 15 good players there’s 150 and it’s the same week in, week out.

“Some guys are late bloomers but you don’t know what’s going on in someone’s head.

“This is a funny game and there’s a lot of different ways to do it. Some guys bomb it and hit it miles, some guys never look great but are mentally extremely strong. It’s a funny sport but the transition from amateur to pro is difficult to judge.

“We’ve had some very good amateurs and those Walker Cup guys (who have turned pro), like Gary Hurley (like Power from West Waterford Golf Club) and Gavin Moynihan, they’re all still so young and they’ll be learning a lot, about themselves and their game very quickly.

“I’m sure in a couple of years with them and Robin as well, there will be a lot of names to follow.”

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