Séamus Power – who lost his full PGA Tour card this past season – will get an immediate opportunity to make the most of limited playing opportunities on the full tour for the 2019/’20 season when he plays in this week’s season-opening Military Tribute at The Greenbrier tournament.
Although the Waterford native finished outside the top-125 players to retained their PGA Tour cards and then failed to salvage it in the Korn Ferry Tour playoffs, Power – who finished 143rd in the regular season FedEx Cup standings – retains Category 32a membership for those who finish between 126th and 150th on the standings.
With so many players taking a break stateside at this time of the year, Power’s category has enabled him to earn a spot in the field at The Greenbrier which signals the start of the new PGA Tour season. Most of the tour’s headline players are absent, which gives an early-season opportunity for young players – among them Viktor Hovland, the Norwegian who impressed through those Korn Ferry playoffs – to make an immediate impact.
On the European Tour, four Irish players – Paul Dunne, Pádraig Harrington, Gavin Moynihan and Michael Hoey – are in action in the KLM Open in Amsterdam, while Cormac Sharvin, within touching distance of securing his full card off the Challenge Tour rankings, is one of a quintet of Irishmen teeing up in the Open de Portugal. Sharvin is joined in the field by Stuart Grehan, Paul McBride, Robin Dawson and Ruaidhrí McGee.