Sepp Straka's hair-raising performance wins the 2025 American Express

Sepp Straka’s hair-raising performance wins the 2025 American Express

Posted by Admin January 20, 2025 Sports

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During Sepp Straka’s junior season at the University of Georgia in 2013-14, he struggled so mightily that he failed to qualify for the men’s golf team. A bad case of the chipping yips forced him to take a redshirt season. Making the PGA Tour, let alone becoming a tournament winner, seemed a longshot at best.

“I wasn’t very good,” Straka said. “I never really thought I’d make it as a pro. It was more of a dream.”

Straka is more than cutting it on the PGA Tour. On Sunday, the golfer nicknamed Ox plowed his way to his third victory, shooting a final-round 2-under 70 at the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West, to win The American Express in La Quinta, California. Justin Thomas (66) finished second, three shots back, a stroke ahead of Jason Day (69) and Justin Lower (69), who tied for third.

“He just stayed one step ahead,” Day said. “Every time you made a birdie or you are thinking about making a birdie he would do the exact same thing, and that’s kind of what you need to do to win tournaments.”

Straka opened with a 65 and fired a pair of 64s to take his first 54-hole lead at a Tour event.

“There’s no lead that is safe, you just got to keep hitting your spots, and you really got to strike the ball well out there, so that’s really what I’m looking for tomorrow is just a good solid ball-striking round,” he said.

Straka didn’t miss a green in the final round until the 14^th hole, and didn’t make a bogey until the 70th hole of the tournament en route to posting a 72-hole total of 25-under 263.

It’s a hair-raising achievement for Straka, if only he had any hair on his head. Straka, 31, shaved his head this season before the season-opening Sentry at the recommendation of Brian Harman.

“He was actually one of the guys that kind of convinced me, Straka said. “He kept telling me for years, he said, ‘It’s going to go at some point,’ and once I realized that he was right I figured I might as well just go ahead and bite the bullet and shave it off.”

It’s still a bit of a head-scratching question how Straka has emerged as a European Ryder Cup player in 2023, who showed that he deserves to be considered for this year’s team again after collecting his third Tour title.

Straka, whose family moved from Austria to the U.S. when he was 14, was the first Austrian to win on the PGA Tour and now counts three wins since starting to work with instructor John Tillery in the fall of 2021 when he was ranked No. 213 in the world. Straka entered the week at No. 36 and should move back into the top 25. In addition to fixing some swing mechanics, Tillery gave him a confidence boost.

“I said, you need to change your perspective a little bit and realize how good you are,” Tillery recalled.

Pretty darn good as he proved with a hair-raising performance in the desert.