The fairways of Port Royal Golf Course played host to a rather dramatic, albeit incomplete, spectacle this past weekend, as Mother Nature, apparently a keen student of dramatic tension, decided to upstage the PGA Tour. With winds achieving the sort of bluster one usually associates with a particularly grumpy sea captain or a bad hair day for the Sphinx, the final round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship was summarily abolished. We are left with a 54-hole affair, a testament to golf’s enduring struggle against the elements and, I suspect, an administrative desire to avoid Monday morning paperwork.
Thus, the championship has been reduced to a rather quaint, if inconvenient, Monday morning playoff between Seamus Power and Austin Smotherman. Both gentlemen find themselves conveniently tied at a rather respectable 16-under-par. They will commence their sudden-death joust at the par-3 16th hole, provided, of course, that the Atlantic hasn’t decided to take up extreme sports and blow the entire course out to sea.
For Power, this unexpected denouement offers a most welcome opportunity. Hovering precariously outside the top 100 in the FedExCup Fall standings, a victory would not merely grant him playing privileges for an extended period, but also a rather substantial financial windfall. I can imagine him channeling his 2022 triumph here, perhaps with less concern for the gale and more for the putting green.
Smotherman, meanwhile, is enjoying a rather pleasant spell, having recently secured his maiden Tour victory. Another win would be a rather splendid way to cap off a rather successful October, and perhaps earn him a gilded ticket to next year's U.S. Open. This peculiar end to the tournament, decided by an act of meteorological spite rather than a final-round flourish, offers a wry commentary on the human pursuit of perfection in an imperfect world, particularly when that world includes rather enthusiastic gusts.