Sepp Straka: "It was my best year"

2023-08-29 02:04:01

In 30th place, he had just slipped into the field of participants in the Tour Championship final for PGA golf professionals. From Thursday to the final day on Sunday, he wasn’t able to work his way up into the top ten, but Sepp Straka was satisfied nonetheless . “I think my golf game improved over the course of the season. It was my best year,” said the 25-year-old from Vienna, who now lives in the United States. After all, Straka received $780,000 in prize money for the shared 14th place in Atlanta.

During his race to catch up at the Tour Championship final, the brilliantly performing Viennese had already fought his way up to eleventh place. On Sunday he stayed one under par with a round of 69 and thus missed the top ten by just one stroke. Two strokes less would have even meant sixth place. “On the whole, I actually played pretty well. From 30th to 14th place is a strong performance,” Straka was happy anyway. Due to a thunderstorm, the round on Sunday was interrupted for a long time, but that didn’t throw the Viennese out of rhythm, on the contrary. “After the rain break I took it a bit easier because it was softer.”

$18 million for the win

Victory went to Norwegian Viktor Hovland with a total of 27 under par, clearly ahead of American Xander Schauffele (-22) and his compatriot, US Open champion Wyndham Clark (-16). The 25-year-old received a bonus of 18 million US dollars from the FedExCup rating. It was Hovland’s third win on the US tour. “It’s quite unreal to be standing here now. I’ve played my best golf in the last two weeks and it couldn’t have happened at a better time,” he said after the tournament.

Last year’s winner Rory McIlroy, who has already won the Tour Championship final three times, still finished fourth, 13 strokes behind. Like Hovland, the Irishman will be active in the European selection of the Ryder Cup against the USA in Rome at the end of September. Sepp Straka also has a good chance of being called up by England captain Luke Donald for this prestigious duel. He’s never been as good as this year.