Having missed out on the opening major at Augusta National last weekend, Waterford's Seamus Power is back on the fairways this evening for the RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour.
The Touraneena man last lined out at the Valero Texas Open two weeks ago, missing the cut for a shortened weekend in the Lone Star State.
A Texas native will draw all the eyes this weekend, with World Number One and now back-to-back Masters Champion Scottie Scheffler due to open his challenge on Friday afternoon.
Eight of the world's top ten tee it up in South Carolina with Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Zander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig Aberg, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Brian Harman all in action for what is the fifth signature event on the tour in 2024.
A prize pot of $20 million is on offer this weekend, with the winner taking home $3.6 million for their efforts.
Seamus tees off at 5.25 pm this evening, Shane Lowry is out earlier from 4.45 pm, while Rory Mcilroy gets going at 6.40 pm.
For Power, who is yet to break a T20 finish in 2024, the RBC poses a challenge to make inroads on his ever-sliding world ranking. His best place of 28th is now a distant memory following his absence through injury in 2023, with the West Waterford native sitting in 114th ahead of the weekend.
In his ten events this season, Power's best finish was a T21 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational back at the start of March. His next best was tying for 26th at the Valspar, having gone into the final round in contention for a third-ever win on the PGA Tour.
The Harbour Town Golf Links plays as a par-71 over 7,213 yards, with no cut for players to deal with as this is a listed event on the tour and while there are 8 of the top 10, 28 of the world's top 30 will play in support.
Water will be in play on all 18 holes with precariously small greens rewarding clever iron play, and punishing bad approaches while the rough has been reduced from what the field will have seen in 2023.
With $20 million on offer and the obligatory nature of the listed event, the wealth of the Masters field is in South Carolina which will make for a unique challenge when it comes to closing out holes. The wide and expansive greens are swapped for the second smallest total putting area on the tour.
Two-time Masters Champion Scheffler is all too aware of the risks at Harbour Town, noting “Yeah, it's very different. I think sometimes when you're coming from Augusta — we were talking about it today, the green at No. 14 just looked so small," said Scheffler.
"I'm sitting there with a 6-iron looking at this small green, and Augusta everything is really big at times and then you come here and everything is really, really small it seems like.”
