Séamus Power primed for Masters debut after achieving world rankings high

"It feels pretty good."

Séamus Power took out four top players on his way to the quarter finals of the World Golf Championship Match-Play, but ran into a man in even greater form. After defeating Sungae Im and world No.4 in the group stage of the tournament, he picked off Tyrrell Hatton with ease in the last 16. That result saw the Waterford native assure himself of at least $386,000 and a world rankings high. At the time, though, he was targeting much more than the quarter finals. He spoke with the media after beating Hatton 4&3, and while Scottie Scheffler was still out on the course, doing battle with Billy Horschel.

"Yeah, I played nicely," he told reporters. "Didn't play my best yesterday so kind of just did some work on the range and was definitely better this morning. But made some putts and especially kind of early made some birdies and in match play if you can get up and not make any mistakes, keep the pressure on." "My game feels pretty good," he added. "There's always something in golf you're working on, but everything... at least I kind of know where it's going, even if it is going to be a little off and that sometimes is more important than anything else."

Scheffler overcame Horschel in his last 16 match, and went 2-Up on Power after six holes of their quarter final. Power battled back to leave the match tied heading to the closing nine. It stayed that way to the 12th hole before a run of three birdies in five holes saw Scheffler win 3&2. [caption id="attachment_254500" align="aligncenter" width="594"] Scottie Scheffler shakes hands with Seamus Power on the 16th hole after defeating him 3&2 in their quarterfinal match. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)[/caption]

Seamus Power reaches world rankings high

Scheffler went on to defeat Dustin Johnson in the semis before seeing off Kevin Kisner in the final. He picked up a winners' cheque of $2.1million and rose to No.1 in the world for the first time. As for Power, he admitted to mixed feelings with his WGC Matchplay outing and reflected on a "disappointing" back nine that opened the door to Scheffler. The 35-year-old has risen to a career high of 41 in the world golf rankings. Also in the Top 50 are Rory McIlroy [9th] and Shane Lowry [35th]. All three men will be at the US Masters at Augusta National [April 7-10] and Power is set to spend a week in Las Vegas before he heads top Georgia for his debut at the vaunted golfing major.

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