Austin Smotherman beats Seamus Power in playoff to win Bermuda Championship

Austin Smotherman won the Butterfield Bermuda Championship with a par at the third extra hole, beating Seamus Power in a play-off that was pushed to Monday after high winds wiped out Sunday's scheduled final round at Port Royal Golf Course, Golf Monthly reported.

Both players had finished the 54-hole event locked together at 16 under par, forcing sudden death on the par-3 16th, the hole Golf Monthly described as the course's signature test, measuring 178 yards and used repeatedly as conditions remained blustery.

The first two play-off holes were shared with pars before the deciding moment arrived at the third attempt. Power's challenge unravelled with a poor tee shot followed by a poor chip that led to a bogey.

Smotherman, by contrast, found the green with an 8-iron and needed two putts, running his first effort past the hole before holing the four-footer coming back to seal the win.

It was Smotherman's second PGA Tour title inside a month, following his victory at the Bank of Utah Championship earlier in October. "To get the win is the cherry on the top," he said. "A lot of people were asking me coming into this week, 'what are you doing? You just won,' but we're doing a lot of good things and we wanted to come to a good spot where I have great history." He added: "It's easy to enjoy this week and that's exactly what it was."

The result moves Smotherman into the 51st-to-60th bracket of the FedExCup Fall rankings, while Power rises to 68th, according to Golf Monthly.

Power's play-off record on the PGA Tour now stands at one win from two appearances, having beaten JT Poston over six extra holes at the 2021 Barbasol Championship.

The pair had set up the shootout with contrasting routes to a share of the 54-hole lead on Saturday, as reported by Yahoo Sports via the Associated Press. Power overturned a two-shot deficit down the closing holes for a 4-under 67, while Smotherman closed with a 66 capped by a 10-foot par save.

Power, who grew up playing in Irish conditions, said the Bermuda wind still caught his attention. "Today was proper wind, at least for me," he said. "It's tough because you'd like to hit a low shot but you're so elevated or you're hitting off an upslope that it's tough to judge, it's tough to get the flight that you'd like to hit. So it's a different challenge than when we play in wind at home."

Power's third round featured a hard draw off a 5-wood into the green, leaving him 40 feet for a two-putt birdie before a closing par brought him to 16-under 197, two shots clear of Taylor Moore on 66 and Canadians Corey Conners and Ben Silverman, who each shot 69.

Smotherman had made his move with a 9-foot eagle putt on the par-5 seventh to reach 5 under for the round, but the par-3 16th turned brutal in the wind during regulation play, his chip with a 7-iron to a front pin sailing into a bunker some 35 yards long. He blasted out short of the green and got up and down for a bogey, then chose not to force the issue on the par-5 17th.

"Once we turned, I felt like the wind just kept picking up," Smotherman said. "No. 11 tee shot was kind of the first one where we were really like, 'Wow, it's on another level now. These next few holes aren't going to be what we're used to seeing these last couple days.' So, super simple shots in our mind."

The win adds to a rapid rise for Smotherman, who earned a two-year PGA Tour exemption with his maiden title at the Bank of Utah Championship and is now set for a run of the circuit's signature events carrying $20 million purses. Power, ranked 103rd in the FedEx Cup standings before the week, needed a result at Port Royal to push back into the top 100.