Seamus Power came to the Butterfield Bermuda Championship as the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 48 and will leave it ranked even higher. Power, who earned his first PGA Tour win last year at the Barbasol Championship at age 34, claimed his second tour title by taking advantage of rookie Ben Griffin’s back-nine implosion (four bogeys and a double on his final seven holes) to grab the win at Port Royal G.C.
Power, who finished T-12 in Bermuda a year ago, utilized a solid iron game and timely putting in his win, including a key birdie putt on the 14th hole of about 20 feet that limped in over the front edge of the cup. That along with another birdie at the par-5 17th allowed Power to withstand bogeys of his own on 13, 15, 16 and 18. Overall, Power ranked fifth in putts per green in regulation—a handy stat to have when you also rank near the top 10 in greens in regulation (Power finished 12th for the week in that stat).
Power uses a set of Ping irons where the company’s venerable iBlade model serves as his 4-iron while the more blade-like Blueprint irons fill out the rest of the set through the pitching wedge. Power uses Golf Pride’s Z-Cord midsize grips with five layers of tape underneath the bottom-hand section to keep from producing too much draw bias. The Blueprint irons have True Temper Project X 6.5 shafts.
His putter meanwhile is a prototype Ping PLD3 mallet with 3 degrees loft at 35 inches in length. Power also is using Titleist’s latest prototype version of its Pro V1x golf ball that it recently introduced.
All of which leads to a very satisfying PGA Tour win No. 2.
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Driver: Ping G430 LST (Accra TZ6 Proto 65 M5).9.5 degrees
3-wood: Ping G430 Max, 15.1 degrees
Irons (2): TaylorMade P790 UDI; (4): Ping iBlade; (5-PW): Ping Blueprint
Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 (50, 54, 58 degrees)
Putter: Ping PLD 3 prototype
WHAT IT DOES: The 17 options in this full-service line of wedges all benefit from a new face story. First, the grooves are milled differently depending on the loft. The lower lofts feature steeper sidewalls to more effectively channel debris on full shots, and the higher lofts (54 to 62 degrees) use a more angled wall for better performance on partial shots. A new emery blast to the face also creates more friction for increased grab and spin. WHY WE LIKE IT: The four grinds endeavor to match a player’s swing type and the way the club meets the ground to better take advantage of that face’s technologies. This includes the bunker benefits of the E-grind, a new take on Ping’s famous Eye2 L-wedge shape and sole—a longtime favorite of golf-equipment aficionados.
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