Seamus Power ran out of road in his bid to extend his FedEx Cup journey as his first top 10 of the season was not enough to clinch a spot in this week’s BMW Championship.
The West Waterford man needed a top-five finish in the FedEx St Jude Championship to move from 66th into the top 50, who will contest the second Playoff event in Denver this week.
The Tooraneena man needed a hot final round to advance. But while he closed with a three-under 67 to finish tenth on 10-under, he moved up just nine spots to 56th in the standings.
Power passed up some early mid-range chances but after birdies at the fifth and ninth, he bogeyed the par-three 14th and birdies at the 15th and 16th came too late.
Despite an excellent week, he wasn’t the only man wondering what might have been.
Viktor Hovland, the reigning FedEx Cup champion, missed a nine-footer for a closing birdie that could have forced a playoff with Hideki Matsuyama, who turned what looked like a runaway ninth PGA Tour victory into a heart-stopper before finishing birdie-birdie to win by two.
Five clear overnight, the Japanese star suffered a back nine meltdown, losing a five-shot lead with four dropped shots in four holes only to birdie the 17th and par the 18th to win by two shots from Hovland and Xander Schauffele on 17-under after a 70.
The Olympic bronze medalist led by five shots when he birdied the eighth and 11th to get to 19-under par.
But he was not the same after he was questioned by a rules official over an incident at the seventh, where he walked on the pitch make he’d left on the green before getting up and down for par.
The official was satisfied the pitch mark was not in Matsuyama’s line and there was no penalty.
But the 2020 Masters champion was not the same after that exchange and after missing a short par putt at the 12th and dropping another shot at the short 14th, where he put his tee shot in a lake, he ran up a double bogey six at the 15th by taking four to find the green.
He was suddenly a shot behind Hovland, who promptly bogeyed the 17th to make it a three-way tie for the lead with Schauffele, who shot 63, on 15-under.
But Matsuyama regrouped and brushed in a 26-footer for birdie at the 17th to regain the lead.
He then avoided the water with his tee shot at the last and hit his approach to six feet before rolling in the putt to win by two shots on 17-under.
Scottie Scheffler finished fourth on 14-under to remain at No 1 in the FedEx Cup standings ahead of Schauffele, Matsuyama and Collin Morikawa.
Rory McIlroy fell from third to fifth after a 74 left him tied 68th in the 70-man field on nine-over.
Shane Lowry shot 71 to tie for 50th on one-under and fall from 10th to 11th in the standings heading to Castle Pines this week.
Hovland jumped from 57th to 16th while Eric Cole and Nick Dunlap, who tied for fifth with Sam Burns, jumped into the top 50 as Tom Kim, Mackenzie Hughes and Jake Knapp dropped out.
On the DP World Tour, David Ravetto claimed his maiden victory with a four-stroke win in the D+D REAL Czech Masters.
Trailing Jesper Svensson by a shot overnight, the Frenchman closed with a sensational eight-under 64 to win on 24-under at PGA National OAKS Prague as the Swede shot 69.
“It’s indescribable; I’m just super happy,” Ravetto said.
On the Challenge Tour, Mornington’s Daniel Mulligan (19) clinched a career-best finish when he tied for 27th with Naas’ Conor O’Rourke in the Vierumäki Finnish Challenge.
Mulligan made an eagle and two birdies in a two-under 70 to share 27th on 12-under par as O’Rourke also shot two-under.
Sweden’s Christofer Blomstrand closed with a seven-under 65 to secure his first Challenge Tour title by a shot from compatriot Mikael Lindberg and France’s Alexander Levy on 20-under as first-round leader Mark Power shot 72 to finish 42nd on nine-under.
Meanwhile, Leona Maguire closed with a 74 to finish 61st on nine-over in the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links,
American Lauren Coughlin made it two wins in three starts after she rattled in three birdies in her last five holes en route to a three-under 69 for a four-shot win over Germany’s Olympic silver medalist Esther Henseleit on 15-under.
