Austin Smotherman he waited 100 PGA Tour events to get his first win. He needs only 57 holes to take his second, beating Seamus Power on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff on Monday at the weather-shortened Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
The win would add another year to Smotherman’s full-time exempt status for the PGA Tour. I know win at the Bank of Utah Championship It gave him job security and a spot in the PGA Tour’s Champions Series when he starts in 2028. That victory extends until 2029. The victory in windy Bermuda also moved him to No. 51 in 2029. Fall FedEx Cup Standingsputting him in a position to earn starts at the first two Signature Events of 2027.
Even Bermuda’s 40 mph gusts couldn’t extinguish the hottest player of the fall.
“I knew we were doing a lot of good things and I just wanted to go play golf,” Smotherman said of his attitude entering the FedEx Cup Fall after failing to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs. “We were excited for the fall season. We had our best FedEx Cup final ever and the fall we felt was just being a golf bonus and doing things like that, and to have it come true and live this now not once but twice in that short span of time is, I mean, I couldn’t write it. It’s a fairy tale, really.”
Smotherman’s triumph in Utah was a victory 10 years in the making. He worked his way up from the PGA Tour America (then called PGA Tour Latinoamerica) to the Korn Ferry Tour and then finally earned full-time PGA Tour status for the 2021-2022 PGA Tour season. Smotherman played three consecutive seasons on the PGA Tour before losing his card after finishing 169th in the FedEx Cup standings in 2024. But he bounced back, winning twice on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2025 to earn his card again. Smotherman played solid golf in his return to the PGA Tour in 2026, and nearly won the Cognizant Classic in March before finally slamming the door in start No. 100 in Utah.
Two weeks later, another victory came, and with it proof of what Smotherman had long believed — something that may prove invaluable as he looks to continue climbing the PGA Tour ladder.
“It could literally happen at any time,” Smotherman said. “We say it every week, everyone here is so good, anyone can win in every week. That’s what makes our sport so great. There are Scottie Schefflers of the world who know how to win much more frequently every year, but I think I had a little taste of what they feel, a top player like in terms of feeling the freedom in every week, and feeling the freedom in every week. results, but also just the immense confidence you have in the process you have devised, I am a professional now for 10 years, and I feel like I’ve put a lot of notches on my belt with different skills and things that help pay at the end of the week.
But as Smotherman explained the feeling of another victory and all that comes with it, Seamus Power was not far behind. But he didn’t seem like a man who came up short. Yes, a sloppy bogey on the third playoff hole prevented him from claiming his second Bermuda title. But Power didn’t leave Port Royal Golf Course a loser. Maybe there was no one in Bermuda on Monday.
Power won the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship and finished 41st in the FedEx Cup in 2023. He supported that with another top-60 season in 2024. But like his two-year exemption, his game slipped. In 2025, Power had only two top-10s and six top-25s. He posted a T8 at the Valspar and then a T7 at the fall RSM Classic, but in between were miss cuts and finishes outside the top 30. He finished 117th in the FedEx Fall and lost his full-time exemption. Power still played a normal schedule in 2026 out of the 111-125 category. He said the only tournament he didn’t participate in outside of the Signature Events was the WM Phoenix Open.
However, it was a season of uncertainty. One of the hope to play where you want, but not knowing if it was possible. With a second-place finish in Bermuda, Power jumped to 68th in the FedEx Fall rankings, all but securing a full-time card in 2027.
Asked earlier in the week about his goals on a rugged track where he had previously found success, Power didn’t have a trophy. The objective was only to ensure that 2027 was a smoother passage than 2026. A victory took care of that, but it was not the only elixir for what he was forced to navigate in 2026.
“I played a full schedule, but it was the unknown and not knowing where they were going to enter and when they were going to enter was the hard part,” Power said after his second round on Friday. “So, for me, I’m trying to get back into that top 100, back to the healthy state, and then I just feel that you’re in a better and more comfortable place starting from January. So that will be the big goal. Obviously, always trying to get a victory, but this time of the year, I mean, the kind of victory takes care of both of them. So it’s really great.”
More than 48 hours later, after the final round was called off due to inclement weather, Power shook Smotherman’s hand after falling just short of his third career PGA Tour win. While the standings showed Smotherman’s name above the rest of the field, the other standings that everyone looks at this time of year showed that Power had made the biggest jump of the week, moving up 35 spots to check the most important box of the fall.
He left a runner-up, but with the freedom to exhale, relax and recognize the next task at hand, knowing that his picture of 2027 will be much clearer.
“It brings me back to full fitness again, which was frustrating this year playing — not really knowing when you’re in, when you’re not,” Power said Sunday. “It’s nice. It was a big goal for the fall to get a top 100 closed. Now I’ll take a look at the list and see if I can maybe get into that top 60 or 70, whatever the cutoff is for the first couple (Signature Events). But really big steps for me ahead in the fall – three events, two almost 10 good ones here.”
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