Finally, Séamus Power found his mojo. The Waterford man claimed his first top-10 finish on the PGA Tour since last August with a superb final round 66 in the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, which saw him leapfrog up the leaderboard and provide some momentum to his season.
Norway’s Viktor Hovland claimed his seventh PGA Tour win, and first since the Tour Championship in 2023, with a brilliantly crafted closing round of 67 for 11-under-par 273, to fend off Justin Thomas.
Hovland became the fifth European player to win on the US circuit so far this season (joining two-time winner Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg, Sepp Straka and Thomas Detry).
Thomas had a three-stroke lead on the homeward journey only to bogey two of his final three holes and that late stumble enabled Hovland, who charmed the Snake Pit with birdies on the 16th and 17th, to edge him to the title. Even a closing bogey didn’t derail the Norwegian.
Hovland, who had missed three straight cuts before returning to the winner’s enclosure, claimed it was “unbelievable” to win. “There is a lot of insecurities, a lot of doubts ... it has been a rough year and a half but i have become stronger because of it.”
Power – who will play the next two tournaments in Texas, the Houston Open and the Valero Texas Open, in his bid to gatecrash his way into the field for next month’s Masters tournament – finished with a 66 for a total of six-under-par 278, where he was joined by Shane Lowry on that same mark.
Lowry entered the final round just two shots off the lead but had a cold putter in his hands, and the Offaly man signed for a closing 70 for 278. A birdie-birdie start offered a false dawn as Lowry failed to add another birdie to his scorecard and his frustration was only compounded with a bogey on 16th.
For Power, though, a round which featured seven birdies and a lone bogey provided hope that a corner had been turned after a period battling injuries. His last top-10 on the tour came in the FedEx St Jude last August.
“[This year] was slow coming out of the blocks with a little injury in the off-season, but I had some good little runs. Florida Swing has always been tougher for me, so to get some decent points here is going to be nice and a step in the right direction heading to Houston next week,” said Power, adding that this might provide the spark he had been seeking.
“Golf’s funny like that. You get a lot of points in only a handful of your weeks, so maybe this is a start of a good run for me. Even if it isn’t, it’s nice to see the work you’re putting in show up on the golf course, and that’s also encouraging, and can remove some of that frustration quickly.
“Right now I’m going to play the next two [in Texas] and from there obviously I don’t know. Hopefully I can play my way into Augusta, but right now I would play the Dominican the week after Augusta and then go from there. We’ll see. Things can change fast in golf, so that’s going to be the plan.”
Lowry jumped into a share of the lead with those two opening birdies but, thereafter, the putter went cold, although he still managed a third top-10 finish of the season.
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy, winner of the Players Championship last week, has added on this week’s Houston Open to his schedule ahead of next month’s Masters, where he will again seek to complete the final piece of the jig saw in his quest for a career Grand Slam.
