ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

January 18, 2023

Seamus Power

Yas Links

Press Conference

MATTHEW JOULE: We welcome Seamus Power to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. What are your thoughts on being here at Yas Island?

SEAMUS POWER: If it's not the best conditioned course I've ever seen it's definitely close. Beautiful setting. My first I'm on Yas Island. I didn't realise what I was coming to. It's gorgeous. That whole setup is top-notch. It's been great.

MATTHEW JOULE: You spend most of your time over in the States, but how nice to spend time with guys you don't normally see?

SEAMUS POWER: Yeah, it's amazing. That's one of the things I was looking forward to the most. I would have known the names of the guys on the team last week but not actually the person, so that part was fantastic. You know, playing international and all that stuff years ago, was great fun in the team room. To get over here for two weeks and get to know some of those guys and obviously play, it's been a dream couple of weeks.

MATTHEW JOULE: You played one Rolex Series Event before back in Ireland but how nice to be playing in these events the next couple weeks?

SEAMUS POWER: Yeah, for me it's absolutely amazing. Yeah, played the Rolex, yeah, not many at all. So it's a new experience for me playing a little on both. Everything this week has been top-notch, so absolutely delighted to be here.

Q. Reflect on the year, what did you take away personally and what do you feel you've come away from thinking you've got to do to be in Rome in September?

SEAMUS POWER: Yeah, I took a lot from it. One is you don't play a lot of match play and stuff anymore, so getting reminded of the difference is the biggest to me. You realise looking back on the matches, we didn't play as well as we wanted but there's one or two massive moments in match play that can change the whole match.

In stroke play, you have the ability to kind of turn it around more. You've obviously got more time. In match play, you lose the tee box or lose momentum and things can change very, very quickly. It was just a reminder of that.

Again, from playing mostly in the US, you get things tilted that way when you're in the US and you think, you know, you just hear about how many good players are in the US, like all of a sudden last week I played against guys that were fantastic players and you see the depth of talent. When you talk about Rory, Jon, Viktor, and Fitz not being there; it was amazing to see. I played with Nicolai on Sunday, amazing player, huge, talented player. Bob MacIntyre in fourball was a joy to play with, so easygoing, lovely player.

So I think those things were my biggest takeaways. I know I have to work hard and play very well this week if I want a chance to be in Rome.

Q. Remember in 2016, Russell Knox, still based on the PGA TOUR, he felt that worked against him because he never got to know the Europeans, etc. You've sort of ticked that box. Will you balance your play between now and September?

SEAMUS POWER: That's why I lucky enough to get the win in October was very lucky and very timely, and to have the ability to play more on the DP World Tour, knowing that your job is safe for a couple of years. I'm definitely going to try to play some more.

But yeah, I remember that with Russell and obviously you know, that's something you take into account when you're choosing where to play. But after the win in -- again after November, I called Luke and I talked to Paul McGinley, just getting their input and their advice, what they would recommend, what would Luke like to see in terms of some of that stuff. Yeah, I would have come here anyway, but these two weeks were high for both those guys, and being able to get over here is fantastic.

Q. I'm showing you having bad weather back home, freezing, etc., so how is it to play here in the Middle East in this part of the world?

SEAMUS POWER: Yeah, I got here last Tuesday. On Wednesday, I said to my caddie, I'm not surprised there's so many guys basing themselves in this part of the world. You couldn't ask for anything more. It's gorgeous. You kind of forget that it's January. Obviously the scene back home, it's tough going. You're getting all the guys in the chat group, courses closed here, courses closed there. To be here, you're in shorts every day possible. It makes a world of difference as golfers. You need good weather, you need good courses, and yeah, for January, not going to be beat what we have here.

Q. Over the years, many golfers that have made the Middle East their tome. Tommy Fleetwood came over last year. Would you ever see that?

SEAMUS POWER: My kind of life is going to change. The last couple years, obviously after the last couple years, I played exclusively in the US, so it's going to kind of depend how the schedule turns. At the moment I'm happy enough in the US. But yeah I can easily see why the likes of Tommy base themselves here. I mean, you have gt everything could you possibly need to be a good professional golfer. And Tommy at the moment, he plays more of a worldwide schedule than me. Hopefully, I can continue playing good golf and maybe I can kind of lean more that way and play some more around the world, and obviously then a place like this, would open up an opportunity.

Q. I'm based in Dubai, and this course, it's like a piece of Scotland, a links course. Does it remind you of any Irish links course, and do you think it is like a true links golf?

SEAMUS POWER: It's so different, because it looks different, but it plays like a links course to me. It's much greener. We play in the summer when courses are running as fast as this one. It's burned out fairways like we saw a couple summers ago at Carnoustie and we had fairways running forever. These fairways are green and in perfect condition and running fast. It's unusual because visually it looks a little different.

In Ireland, we have like Doonbeg kind of has the holes like running out and back, that same sort of narrow pattern, is probably the closest one I have. It's very unique. Some of the holes, I have only seen the front nine so far, so some of the holes are very unique,, and just the conditioning, to be honest, I haven't seen a course, especially links courses, you normally aren't able to get them in these sort of conditions. Really, really looking forward to playing the course, kind of the full course this afternoon.

Q. I also wanted to ask you about starting from this year, the DP World Tour and the PGA TOUR, the 13-year alliance comes into affect and the top 10 players who are not exempt from the DP World Tour get membership on to the PGA TOUR. I just wanted to get your thoughts on it, because we are in a very weak position to comment, having started your professional career in the US and played all the way over there. You probably did not see an avenue have the DP World Tour at that time. Now what do you think of the chance that these ten guys have? Are you a little jealous of them?

SEAMUS POWER: No. For me, if you're a top player, which to get one of those ten spots, you're going to be an incredibly good player, I think you've earned a right to be able to play in tournaments that you want to play in. So I think for that, I think it's going to be fantastic.

You know, I assume guys are going to take it up. I don't know, I think that's the good thing about it, it's not, you have to do this. It's like you have the opportunity if you want to and stuff.

As I said, the players I've seen, they are going to be world beaters no matter what tour they are going to play on. So I think it's great. This strategic alliance, it kind of makes sense I think. But definitely no jealousy or anything. I think we all have our own journeys in life and in golf, and for some of those guys, that's going to be theirs. They are going to win some tournaments here and they are going to earn their guard and you're going to see them turning into these worldwide players, the likes of Tommy and Shane these guys are.

I think that's going to be the evolution of the way golf is going with guys playing all around the world. I think it will only be good for golf.

Q. If this thing happened in 2014, 2015 when you turned pro, would you have played more on the DP World Tour?

SEAMUS POWER: Maybe, I suppose, you would see it as an access. I think from when I turned pro first, honestly financially trying to play both Q-Schools was out of the question with. This avenue, you certainly would have looked at it maybe as the No. 1 option instead.

For me, I was playing college; I played mini-tours. So I kind of became more comfortable playing some of the courses where I would go get through Q-School, so was like, I'll take my chances there. So maybe I would have. It's tough to tell in hindsight, because anyone that's been through it, those ten spots are not going to be easy to get, and you're still going to have to play well to get through Q-School and Challenge Tour just to get on the DP World Tour for the ten spots.

I think it's going to be tough going and the players that are going to earn those cards are still going to be really good players. So it's still going to be -- no matter where you're going to play, if you're trying to play one of the top tours, you have so many good players to beat. I think you just have to worry about your own game and you'll get there eventually.

Q. Shane made some comments yesterday about the prize money situation; do you still pinch yourself?

SEAMUS POWER: Yeah, you do. It's crazy now. My caddie and I were talking about this only a couple of days ago. Some of the figures going around, it's just astronomical some of these prize funds and stuff.

I'm one of those people that I love playing the game of golf. The fact that the prize money has gone up is great, but that's never why I was in it. But it is amazing. Hopefully it leads to good things across the board obviously.

That's always the worry when you see this, like huge, dramatic spike, I know the word Shane used was sustainability. That's when you trust the guys in charge. Obviously over here, you have Keith and Guy and the PGA TOUR you've got Jay in charge, and they are much smarter guys than me, and obviously they know what they are doing.

But yeah, the strategic alliance seems like a great thing, the 13-year plan with a guarantee. Being able to guarantee things like increased prize funds every year is an amazing thing. Like that's a fantastic thing.

Yeah, anyone playing at the moment, I feel like guys are -- what age am I, 35? Guys late 40s and more must be looking at it and want to punch the lot of us. Just with the explosion of the money it seems like in the last few years, I'm looking at my own schedule and seeing purses, starting this week and going all the way through, I think my schedule is made through April, and looking at the average purse, just it doesn't even make sense.

But obviously we are very fortunate. But you know, you look at the generations before us, and I think they are always -- Palmer and Nicklaus, were always the ones that our goal shouldn't be to make money. Our goal should be to leave the game in a better place than where we found it. I think that's something that as a player I hope doesn't get lost in all these huge numbers and stuff. I think that's going to be the battle going forward is to make sure that we hold up our end of the bargain.

Obviously we have been very fortunate. Anyone who has been around golf, Tiger Woods is one of the key people that's led us to this point in the huge explosion in money. It's going to be up to us obviously without Tiger playing as much; can we leave the game in a better spot nor guys that are probably ten years old right now, in 15 years' time, where is the game of golf to go to be and hopefully it's going to be in a better place.

Q. For the amateurs coming through, aspiring to play for that amount of money is a dream for a lot of players.

SEAMUS POWER: It's a dream. I played four years of mini-tours and you're playing for nothing. You know, yeah, 2, 3 million, whatever a winning cheque -- 360 for 2 million and onwards, that's a huge life-changing amount of money. At the end of the day, we're only playing a game of golf. To be able to play for any of those figures that we are talking about, it is lucky. I hope guys realise that and just continue to remember that it's the long term.

This game has been around for a long time. There's been a lot of incredible people and a lot of incredible players that have played and really affected the game and hopefully this generation has the same amount. You know, you see like Rory, I feel like he's really taken the mantle. He's taken the bull by the horns, whatever you want to say, and seems to be the one leading that way.

For someone like that, I've known Rory a long time and he's a great guy, great guy to be on your side and long may it continue. That's going to be the key. I keep going back to it, is for us in this generation to leave golf in a better place. It's not what we can all get out of it. It's what we can kind of do for the game and give back for a game that's given everyone in this field so much already. It only seems to be increasing.

Q. Ryder Cup in the last ten, 15 years, we had a lot of stars on European side. Could you name the one, the players that impress you the most?

SEAMUS POWER: I am press the most, as I say, we've been so fortunate. We from Ireland, I never forget Paul McGinley's putt at The Belfry. That's one that hit home. I'll never forget that moment, see Sam Torrance on the side of the green crying and that.

So many of those guys: Ian Poulter, I remember in France and he was going out. I remember watching, I can't remember what he was doing but he was playing Dustin Johnson. And in my mind, there was just no way Ian Poulter was going to lose to Dustin Johnson. I don't know what their World Rankings were at the time, but I always thought that was amazing. I don't know what guys in the team room thought, I obviously wasn't there. But as an on looker, there's no way Ian Poulter is losing this game.

So a guy like that, you saw him, he turned around Ryder Cups and stuff. That Paul McGinley moment was an incredible one. Obviously Medinah in '12, you could list off 10 of the guys.

But I think Ian Poulter for me was the one that was just remarkable. He just turned into the best player in the world on those Ryder Cup weeks. Obviously he had an incredible career and won a lot anyway. But on those weeks, you just couldn't see him losing, and it was just amazing that someone could seem rise so much in some of these moments. Some of the fist-pumps, some of the looks on his face. I remember his face, I can just picture, I can't remember what years, but I think he would be the guy that was just any Ryder Cupper would have to look up to.