Seamus Power of Ireland endured four bogeys over his final six holes and hung on to win the Butterfield Bermuda Championship on Sunday in Southampton, Bermuda.
Power’s final-round, 1-under 70 at Port Royal Golf Course was enough to secure his second career PGA Tour title. He beat Belgium’s Thomas Detry (67 Sunday) by a single stroke.
“I’m absolutely over the moon,” Power said. “The first one was amazing but to be able to win again, it’s fantastic. I get whatever — it’s pretty much a three-year exemption and all the kind of cool things that come with it. It’s just — you’re kind of so proud and it’s amazing to be able to do it again.”
Power began the day tied for the lead with Ben Griffin. Three birdies over his first seven holes helped him to 21 under for the tournament, while Griffin birdied four of his first six to take a brief outright lead at 22 under.
Griffin got to 5 under through 11 holes and 23 under for the day before a disastrous stretch. He followed four straight bogeys at Nos. 12-15 with a double bogey at the par-3 16th.
That opened the door for Power, who bogeyed No. 13 but bounced back with a birdie at the par-4 14th to get to 21 under and take the outright lead for the first time all day.
Power bogeyed the next two holes, but he got up and down from the side of the green for a birdie at the par-5 17th to give himself a two-stroke lead. That meant his bogey on the final hole was still enough to lift the trophy.
“I felt great all day, played very nicely for the first — honestly, for the first 14 holes, played very, very nice golf, but it’s so tough coming in,” Power said. “I was able to hang on somewhere close to Ben there. He made quite a few birdies there through 11, but I was able to just do enough coming in. But it was tough going.
“It was a kind of day full of all sorts of emotions because, again, same as yesterday, you knew once you get to 12 tee that the next hour and a half was going to be really tough going. So I was able to make a couple birdies on the front and then kind of hang on there coming back in.”
At No. 48 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Power was the only top-50 player in the field in Bermuda.
Detry, a PGA Tour rookie with experience on the DP World Tour, finished his round birdie-birdie to narrow the gap between himself and Power just a bit, though not enough.
“I’ve been playing some really solid golf. I think a win is just around the corner,” Detry said. “The confidence is high and hopefully I can keep it going for the next years.”
Griffin wound up shooting a 1-over 72, finishing in a tie for third with Patrick Rodgers (65) and Taiwan’s Kevin Yu (70) at 17 under.
Griffin had walked away from a potential PGA Tour career in 2021 because of the financial challenge of pursuing that dream. He returned in 2022 and earned his tour card for the 2022-23 season. Despite his disappointing back nine Sunday, his T3 in Bermuda is his best tour result to date.
“You know, playing golf for a living’s just really fun,” Griffin said. “It just means the world to be able to compete out here and I can’t get mad at anything that I do because it’s so cool to be able to play on the PGA Tour.”
–Field Level Media
