Even if Austria’s Sepp Straka might have looked comfortable during the final round of The American Express, he said it was no easy chore putting together the finishing touches on a championship.
“Nerves, just complete nerves,” he said. “Stomach in a knot, the whole nine. So, yeah, just really excited about the way I handled the pressure.”
Straka shot a final-round 2-under-par 70 and didn’t allow a rare blotch on the scorecard to derail him on the way to winning Sunday at the PGA West Pete Dye Stadium Course in La Quinta, Calif.
Straka finished at 25-under 263 for a two-shot victory.
“This golf course, you can’t really let up,” he said. “You still got to make really aggressive swings because you’re one swing away from a double bogey. I think that was the biggest challenge today was keeping aggressive on my targets.”
Straka, who didn’t have a bogey in the tournament until Sunday’s 16th hole, won for the third time on the PGA Tour and for the first time since the 2023 John Deere Classic.
The 31-year-old also bogeyed the last hole, but runner-up Justin Thomas (66) had finished at 23 under about an hour earlier.
Justin Lower (69) and Australia’s Jason Day (69), who was in the final group, tied for third place at 22 under.
“He just stayed one step ahead,” Day said of Straka. “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. Especially when you have a decent sizeable lead that he had.”
Straka played the first seven holes in 3 under, so that kept him firmly in control. He liked how he was able to avoid major snags throughout the tournament.
“I had a lot of chances for bogeys out there, but the putter saved me a lot of times,” Straka said.
Thomas became a serious contender by going 6 under through 11 holes before logging pars the rest of the way.
“I had a chance,” Thomas said. “It wasn’t obviously a great one on the back nine, but I was proud of myself. I did what I needed to do on the front nine today and at least be making some noise and kind of moving up the leaderboard.”
There were chances for Thomas, whose last victory came in the 2022 PGA Championship, to crank up more pressure.
“Felt like I could have birdied a lot of those holes coming in, but it just didn’t happen,” he said.
Second-round co-leader Charley Hoffman’s bid to make a charge was dampened by putting two balls into the water on No. 13. The triple-bogey sent him from second place to a tie for fifth after playing the first eight holes in 4 under followed by four pars.
Hoffman (71) tied with Patrick Cantlay (70) for fifth place at 20 under.
Straka could back off down the stretch. The 70 marked his highest round of the tournament after beginning with 65 on Thursday.
Colombia’s Camilo Villegas (66) joined Taylor Moore (68), Ben Griffin (68) and Max Greyserman (69) in seventh place at 19 under.
The best score of the round came from Alex Smalley with a 65. He placed 11th at 18 under.
Norway’s Kris Ventura had a hole-in-one on the 208-yard, par-3 13th, which was his fourth hole of the round. He posted 71, with double-bogeys on two par-3 holes. He tied for 58th place at 10 under.
–Field Level Media
