The Times - UK (2022-04-05)

the times | Tuesday April 5 2022 65

The MastersSport

S

eamus Power may not be the

best-known player in the

Masters field this week, but he

has arguably the best trick

and can hit the ball nigh-on

300 yards off both his right and left

sides. If that ambidextrous nugget

does not impress you then perhaps

this will: the Irishman almost quit the

game to become an accountant but

has crunched the numbers in the past

year to rise from world No 454 status

to the cusp of the top 40. The obvious

question: how?

It is 5am in the United States but

Power cuts an ebullient figure as he

talks down the phone about his

unusual passage to Augusta. “It

sounds daft but the change I made

was making less change,” he says. “I

was chasing my own tail for a while

and was always trying to make

improvements. I got away from how I

trained myself.

“Everyone is always tinkering in

golf, but if Roger Federer does not

serve well in a major tournament he

does not go and rebuild his entire

serve. I finally figured that out. I got

out of that constant state of change.”

Move over, Rory: Ireland has new star

Power, left, as a junior next to Lowry and McIlroy, right

This was the back end of 2020 and

so now Power, 35, does not have a

coach. He reasons he is old enough

and has enough battle scars from a

turbulent decade as a pro to trust

himself. It was last summer when he

started to attract more attention, with

top-ten finishes at the Rocket

Mortgage Classic and John Deere

Classic, followed by a first PGA Tour

win at the Barbasol Championship,

and he has backed it up in 2022.

When he finished ninth at the

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in

February, he broke the 36-hole

record, making it seven rounds of 65

or under from 14 attempts. He then

sealed his place in Augusta with

wins over Sungjae Im, Patrick

Cantlay and Tyrrell Hatton at

the WGC-Dell Technologies

Match Play last week. It took

the new world No 1, Scottie

Scheffler, to beat him.

“I’ll appreciate [Augusta]

because you never know in this

sport, with injuries and things, but

I’m not going to break down driving

down Magnolia Lane,” he says. “The

thrill will be playing well and being

somewhere up there.”

Some golfers have their paths

mapped out, whether by geography,

prodigy status or hand-me-down

passion. Power had none of those

things. There was no golf sap in his

family tree and his father, Ned, was a

farmer making a modest living from

cattle and sheep in the tiny village of

Tooraneena in County Waterford.

Power was only

eight when his mother,

Philomena, died of cancer, and as his

sporting aspirations grew, his father

took on an extra job to pay for a

fledgling dream. That meant mixing

farming with eight-hour shifts in a

factory, laser-welding defibrillators,

but he would admit: “I took a couple

of wrong turns in my life [and] I

would like to see my sons reach

their dreams.”

His elder twin brothers, Jack and

Willie, will be part of a vast travelling

band of friends and relatives this

week, but Ned will not be there. “I

was young and did not appreciate that

he was working so hard for us, but

when I look back he sacrificed all that

time and energy and effort for us,”

Power says. “Unfortunately my dad is

not going to be there because he’s not

the best flyer, but he will watch on

TV. We did a lot of hurling [in my

youth] and dad said I needed to be

good off both sides. That’s why I can

play left-handed.”

It was after earning a university

scholarship to East Tennessee State

that the gruelling years in the mini

tours started, with West Waterford

Golf Club staging fundraisers to help.

“They’re no joke and it can be

tough,” Power says of golf’s lower

leagues. “You could pay $1,100 [£840]

to play and if you made the cut you’d

get your money back, but play poorly

and you’d go through your money

very quickly.”

From the Charlotte-based eGolf

Tour he progressed to the Web.com

Tour, now the Korn Ferry feeder

system, but the margins were

highlighted in 2017 when he needed a

birdie to claim 25th place in the

money list and a PGA Tour card by

$287. It is why events like the Masters

matter. “Nobody mentions the money

at the Masters,” Power says. “The talk

is all about how special it is. It’s why

we all got into it.”

Rory McIlroy is playing for a career

grand slam this week. Shane Lowry,

also an Ireland old boys’ team-mate,

is another Open champion. Power

won the Barbasol in the same week

that the world was watching the

Open. The early riser and late

bloomer is happy with his low profile

but this week could blow his cover.

“I know Shane best of the players

from home and have known Rory

the longest, but he’s such a big name

now that he can’t do what normal

people do at tournaments. It’s

changed a bit for me over here, but

I’m still flying under the radar. That

suits me fine.”

Seamus Power lines up

at Augusta after rising

422 ranking places in

one year. He tells Rick

Broadbent his secret

Po

n

ng

he

PPPower

eight whe

Philomenadied of canc