Almost five months after his last walk down a fairway, Seamus Power returns to action today at the Sentry Tournament in Hawaii.
Power started showing signs that something was not right with his play when withdrawing from the Scottish Open in July before battling against injury to tee it up at The Open where he would miss the cut in large part thanks to the hip problem he was minding.
After those two events, Power continued to try to make it work at the Fedex St. Jude and the BMW Championship, but T66 and 48th place finishes only served to confirm that the injury was not going to be something he could play around.
The Tooraneena native counted himself lucky that surgery was not needed to fix the hip problem, having been advised by doctors that rest was the order of the day. We have previously seen Power in this same spot. His 2020 elbow surgery kick-started his most fruitful period as a professional when his return to tournament golf saw him shooting up the world rankings, eventually winning his first event on the PGA Tour at the Barbasol Championship.
Power's return comes at a time when change has been wide-ranging across the tour. The seemingly never-ending forward and back between the PGA and Saudi Arabia's PIF is still looming large. World number three Jon Rahm now plies his trade for LIV while the overall direction that professional golf is heading in is yet to be decided.
For this weekend in Hawaii - where he has tended to start his season over the past number of years - Power will rub elbows with an impressively stocked field. While some names like Rory McIlroy and Rahm will not be on the list, there are 59 of the world's best in attendance marking the biggest field ever seen at this tournament.
Thankfully for Power, who now finds himself having dropped to 82nd in the world, he will not be under the pump from the first tee. He retains his starting place in the four majors owing to his top 50 finish in the FedEx Cup standings in 2023 where he took 41st. He should be able to find his game once again without the added pressure of playing for a place at one of the big four.
On Thursday he tees off in the company of Adam Schenk and Lee Hodges at ten past six Irish time.
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