While there are always opportunities to change your status on the PGA Tour by winning an event or making the Aon Next 10, which gives players access to Signature Events by playing well in the tournaments in between, it’s getting harder to make those elite fields.
Power closed with a two-under 70 in the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico last night, but even after finishing on 17 under, he was 12 strokes behind US Ryder Cup player Ben Griffin, who shot 63 to win his third title of the season by two strokes on 29 under par.
Power’s tie for 27th place moved him up just two spots to 133rd in the FedExCup Fall standings.
But with only the top 100 players after next week’s RSM Classic exempt into all full-field events and The Players Championship in 2026, he needs to contend seriously over the next two weeks to make the top 100.
Should he fail to move up, he will be one of the players ranked from 101st to 150th who will have conditional status and while it’s not ideal, it won’t be the end of the world.
England’s Matt Wallace was 134th last year and played 24 events this season to lie 97th in the FedExCup Fall standings.
Power has won $15m in prize money on the PGA Tour, but it wasn’t until his fifth season that he broke into the top 100 in the rankings, jumping to 72nd after his first PGA TOUR win at the Barbasol Championship in 2021.
He was 43rd in 2022 and 41st after winning the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in October 2022, before suffering a hip injury in 2023 that hampered him for more than 18 months.
He’s only now becoming comfortable with his game again and admitted in Los Cabos last week that his game was “trending” positively.
He will have high hopes at Port Royal Golf Course in Bermuda this week, where he won on 19-under-par in 2022 to move to 32nd in the world.
“This is one of my favourite places I’ve ever been,” Power said when he returned to “defend” in 2024, having missed out through injury two years ago.
“I love Bermuda, made a lot of good friends here.
“Tournament-wise, it’s an absolute blast. It’s a beautiful hotel, there’s so many great places to eat on the island and everything about the place is so easy-going.
“I find it beautiful. Some of the scenes there on 15, 16, the colour of the water and everything you see there is beautiful. I don’t think I’ve seen it anywhere else, really, in the world.
“I can’t speak highly enough of the place. They do a great job with the tournament; everything is so easy and straightforward. It’s a fun golf course.
“You’re going to play in some wind, that might turn some guys off, but I think it’s fun.”
Rory McIlroy reacts at the 18th hole during the final round of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Elsewhere, Rory McIlroy will be going for his seventh Race to Dubai title in this week’s DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, where he is joined by Tom McKibbin and Shane Lowry.
Leona Maguire is 56th in the LPGA Tour rankings and returns to action at the penultimate event, The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, looking to secure her place in the top 60 in the rankings, who will contest next week’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
On the PGA TOUR Champions, Pádraig Harrington and Darren Clarke play the season-ending, 36-man Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club.
Only the top five in the standings — Steven Alker, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Stewart Cink, Ernie Els and Thomas Bjørn — can win the season-long Charles Schwab Cup title.
