In this week’s ‘The Starter,’ Austin Smotherman follows his first PGA Tour victory with another, while Yuri Yoshida becomes an LPGA Tour winner in South Korea. Seamus Power and Hye-Jin Choi finish second, with very different consequences. October’s results are changing what these players have secured, what remains within reach and what they still have to chase.

PGA TOUR: Smotherman Wins Again as Power Climbs the Standings

Three Pars Decide the Playoff

Smotherman beat Power with a par on the third playoff hole Monday at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Both had finished 54 holes at 16-under 197 at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton. Severe weather eliminated Sunday’s play, and the PGA Tour made those three-round totals final because Monday’s forecast left the completion of another full round uncertain.

The two returned to the par-3 16th and made par twice before Smotherman’s third 3 settled it. The Tour’s Monday notes recorded southwest winds of 15-20 mph, with gusts to 35. It was Smotherman’s first PGA Tour playoff. Power had won his only previous one, needing six extra holes to beat J.T. Poston at the 2021 ISCO Championship.

Two Wins in Consecutive Starts

He now has two victories in 101 PGA Tour starts. The first came in his previous appearance, at the Bank of Utah Championship, and Bermuda made him the first player to win consecutive starts since Matt Fitzpatrick at this year’s RBC Heritage and Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Smotherman also became the season’s eighth multiple winner.

That is a substantial change for a player who earned his way back through the Korn Ferry Tour. Smotherman won twice there in 2025 and finished third on its points list to secure his 2026 PGA Tour membership. He has now matched that victory total on the bigger tour, with both wins arriving during the fall.

His season still contains plenty of uneven golf: 15 made cuts in 24 starts, with four top-10 finishes. Those four include the two victories and a tie for second at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. The late wins belong in that fuller record, which shows how much a player can accomplish without being near the top of a leaderboard every week.

The 500 points from Bermuda moved Smotherman from No. 52 to No. 51 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings. Players finishing Nos. 51-60 receive places in the 2027 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational. He occupies the best position in that group for now, though the fall standings are still being decided.

Power Gains 35 Places

Power made the larger move, climbing from No. 103 to No. 68. The 2022 Bermuda champion missed a chance to become the event’s first repeat winner, but his first runner-up finish in 237 PGA Tour starts considerably improved his standing. His fourth top-10 of the season was worth much more than another line on a results page.

The shortened tournament also made Saturday’s work final for everyone behind them. Taylor Moore, Corey Conners and Ben Silverman shared third at 14 under. Moore’s 66 had brought him within two, while Conners and Silverman each shot 69. All three left with high finishes, but none had an opportunity to play the leaders’ advantage down over a fourth round.

Bermuda was the PGA Tour’s first 54-hole tournament since the 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and its first 54-hole event decided by a playoff since Brian Stuard won the 2016 Zurich Classic. The distinction matters when reading the result: Smotherman won a three-round tournament followed by sudden death. There was no final-round score to add to his 65-66-66.

LPGA Tour: Yoshida Claims Her First Title in Korea

Four Shots Back to One Shot Ahead

At Pine Beach Golf Links in Haenam, South Korea, a full Sunday changed the outcome of the BMW Ladies Championship. Yoshida began four strokes behind Haeran Ryu and closed with a 4-under 68 to win at 17-under 271. Ryu’s 73 left her tied with Choi, who shot 69, one stroke behind.

Yoshida put herself into the lead with an eagle at the second and three consecutive birdies on the front nine, which she played in 31. Ryu made 15 straight pars before finishing bogey-birdie-bogey. A lead built with rounds of 67, 64 and 68 had disappeared even before Ryu began dropping shots.

The finish remained uncomfortable for Yoshida. She bogeyed the 15th, birdied the 17th and bogeyed the last, leaving Ryu and Choi a chance to catch her. Neither did. The 26-year-old from Japan had her first LPGA title, earned in a rainy final round that required far more scoring than the winner’s last hole suggested.

Another Near Miss for Choi

For Choi, Korea followed a one-stroke runner-up finish to Ruoning Yin in Shanghai the previous week. This was her third second-place finish of 2026, including the Dow Championship alongside Hyo Joo Kim, and her sixth top-10. She has repeatedly put herself in contention, although an individual LPGA victory remains missing. She has made 125 LPGA starts as a member, a measure of how long she has been working toward the result Yoshida secured Sunday.

Ryu’s Two-Major Season Continues

Ryu’s disappointment came within a season that already includes victories at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and Amundi Evian Championship. Korea was her 11th top-10 of 2026. Her result and Choi’s occupy the same place on the leaderboard, but one player was trying to add to a two-major year and the other was still pursuing a first LPGA win.

The LPGA’s next stop is the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Oct. 29-Nov. 1. It is the third of four events on the late-season Asian swing. Choi has finished one shot behind the winner at each of the first two.

The Closing Thought

Power lost the playoff, but the week moved him 35 places. That is an important distinction at this stage of the season, when the value of a finish depends so heavily on where a player started. He cannot take the Bermuda trophy home. He can take a much better position into the remaining fall events, and that deserves more than a passing mention beneath the winner’s name.