Growing up, Sepp Straka wasn’t even the most heavily recruited member of his family. The two sturdy brothers from Valdosta, Austria, moved to Athens, Georgia, to play for the Bulldogs because of Chris Haack’s interest in Sepp’s twin, Sam. Sepp struggled so much with the chipping yips that he had to redshirt and sit out a year after arriving.
Despite all of that, Sepp Straka is already well established among the top players in the game. Straka, who won the Truist Championship on Sunday, is now in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking and is only surpassed by Rory McIlroy in the FedExCup rankings. The only two players with multiple wins this season are McIlroy and Straka, 32.
“No matter where I went, I simply kept working on my golf game in the hopes that it would eventually be good enough to play here.” Straka said.
Yes, it is. His accomplishments are evidence of his tenacity, diligence, and adaptability. He characterizes himself as a junior golfer who was “rough around the edges,” but who continued to improve (apart from the brief struggle with the yips). Over the course of his career, he has consistently improved.
When he won his first PGA TOUR title just three years ago, he was not in the top 150 worldwide. He has now doubled his win total in 12 events after having two victories in his previous 168 starts on the PGA TOUR. The biggest of all is a victory in the Truist Championship, which is the season’s sixth Signature Event. During his third start of the year, he also won The American Express.
In his most recent victory, Straka overcame a traditional Philadelphia Cricket Club configuration that presented players with varying weather conditions over the first three days. Players equipped with contemporary gear were able to target a vulnerable design that opened over a century ago thanks to ideal weather for the first round. Straka was two strokes behind the leader after his 63 that day. On Friday, however, there was rain, and strong gusts caused the sloping greens to become crispy, necessitating extreme caution when making putts.
Major champions Shane Lowry and Justin Thomas were defeated by two shots, although Straka was the best of the group. Straka finished at 16-under 264 (63-67-66-68), and they were the only players to finish within four shots behind him.
But it wasn’t simple. Straka was bogey-free the remainder of the way after losing the lead with consecutive bogeys on 10 and 11.
“Following the bogeys on 10 and 11, I simply told myself to keep trying and to keep playing golf for what it is. Luckily, that was sufficient.” Straka said.
The difference was three pars on the difficult final three holes of the course. Three of the four hardest holes for the week were those holes, and each one played over par on the last day. Lowry ended the round with bogeys on Nos. 16 and 18, while Straka parred them all.
Three shots ahead of their closest competitors, the former Ryder Cup teammates began the final round tied at 14-under par. However, Lowry made a 13-foot birdie putt on the first hole to swiftly go ahead. After Straka made a 20-foot eagle putt on the par-5 fifth hole, they were tied once more.
He took a two-shot lead over Lowry after bogeying the next hole and then birdieing the last two of the front nine. Three back Justin Thomas.
Straka and Lowry both made pars on Nos. 12–14 after Straka bogeyed the first two holes on the back nine. They also both birdied the par-5 15th hole. However, Lowry pulled his tee shot left of the green on 16 and missed a 6-foot par putt.
Straka hammered his approach shot from a fairway bunker to 32 feet on the last hole, which he was leading by one stroke. After Lowry missed his 21-foot birdie putt and the 6-foot comebacker for par, the pressure was released, but his birdie putt went 4 feet past.
Straka has become one of this season’s most reliable performers after once being regarded as an erratic player whose next goal was more unpredictable as this week’s weather. In each of his first four seasons, he missed at least a dozen cuts, but he also managed to accumulate enough strong finishes to maintain his card every year.
The spring of 2022 is a long way off. When Straka won his first PGA TOUR title at the 2022 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, he was 176th in the world and two months away from turning 29. After two seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour, he earned his first victory in his 95th PGA TOUR start. In 2016, he made just one cut in six starts as a rookie on the PGA TOUR Canada.
He is currently on track to attend the TOUR Championship for the 4th time in a row.
In the 2023 John Deere Classic, he won his second championship after scoring enough birdies in the last round to win by two strokes with a final-hole double of 62. He was selected for his first Ryder Cup team and was second in the Open Championship that year as well.
This season, he has placed outside the top 15 in only four of his 14 games.
He has ascended 40 positions in Strokes Gained: Putting this season, significantly enhancing one of the premier iron games on TOUR.
By opting for precision above distance, he has also defied the current norm. In his debut season of 2019, Straka, who stands at 6′ 3″ and 235 pounds, finished 22nd in the Driving Distance rankings. In the next two seasons, he also finished in the top 50 in that statistic.
However, he is currently ranked 137th in 2025 and 146th in Driving Distance from the previous season. As a result, his accuracy has also increased. After averaging 104th in his first four seasons, he has finished no lower than 33rd in Driving Accuracy in the last three seasons. In terms of driving accuracy, he ranked 6th the previous year and 13th in 2025.
A few months prior to his first PGA TOUR victory, he started working with swing teacher John Tillery, which led to the change. His iron play quickly improved, and he made a commitment to hit more fairways in order to capitalize on this newfound strength. This season, he was rated second in Strokes Gained: Approach and Greens in Regulation going into the Truist Championship.
“After I began working with him, I became very proficient with the iron. I was just really focused on getting the ball on the fairway at that point so I could use my iron game to my advantage.” Straka said.
Straka is finding that the straight and narrow is the best path for him.
