Sepp Straka Hails Pal Shane Lowry After Truist Championship Win; Talks PGA Championship Chances

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Austria’s Sepp Straka secured his second win of the season after a thrilling final day at Philadelphia Cricket Club after a two-stroke win over Shane Lowry and Justin Thomas.

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I’d like to welcome and congratulate the winner of the 2025 truest championship, Seth Straa. Seth, this is your fourth PGA Tour win, second this season, and with the win, you move to number two in the FedEx Cup. Can you just open up with some thoughts about how it feels to be back in the winner circle? Uh, yeah. Uh, it’s great. You know, uh, this year’s been been pretty good to me. Um just uh really grateful for for all the hard work from the the people that you know that don’t get to stand on that 18th screen and and celebrate you know the whole team my my wife uh this you know the stuff that that she does every day uh for me to be able to do this. Um my parents that that sacrificed pretty much every trip uh that they uh they they didn’t take trips without golf trips. So, um, you know, it was, uh, really special, uh, to get this win and, um, yeah, just really grateful for for the people in my life that allowed me to play golf this way. We’ll go ahead and open to questions. If you can raise your hand, we’ll start here in the front row. Except, you talked yesterday about managing your emotions today, knowing you were going to feel terrible while you were trying to do it. Um, what were you feeling when you stepped into that bunker on 18? First of all, what did you hit and what were you feeling? Yeah. Uh, you know, the drive was not not not a terrible drive, but the wind was a little off the right and just turned it over a little too much. Went in the bunker and I was just hoping for a good lie walking down there and I I got that. Uh, we had uh two I think about 212 hole. Uh, I can’t remember exactly, but uh hit four iron and uh my fairway bunker game has historically been pretty bad. So, uh, this week it’s been really good. uh and uh was able to kind of capitalize on that, made good contact and um yeah, it was uh one of the better shots I hit this week. Sean, I want to confirm a couple things. Your brother was more heavily recruited than you. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. Um and you’re now supposed to go in the top 10 of the world ranking, I guess. How do you go from that to becoming a top 10 player in the world? What do you credit that to? Um I would say consistency. uh consistency at working at it regardless of of where I was in my game. You know, junior golf I wasn’t all that good. Um you know, I definitely had some some talent. I could hit the golf ball fairly well uh but very rough um around the edges. And uh you know, at Georgia, I just uh felt like I kept getting better. Uh had a quick bout with the chipping yips my junior year and red shirted, but other than that, I felt like I just kept getting better. And after I graduated, same thing. I just kept trying to improve my golf game regardless of of where I was compared to other people in in my class. Uh cuz my high school class was pretty pretty stacked. Um a lot of guys finishing early and and going on to the PGA Tour and uh I was definitely not one of those. But uh yeah, regardless of where I was, I just kept trying to improve my golf game and uh hoped that at the end of it, it would be good enough to kind of play out here. And when you first came out, you were maybe a longer hitter who was kind of inconsistent and you’ve given up some distance but become very consistent. When did you kind of make the decision that giving up some distance for consistency was the way to go and how did you go about it? Um yeah, the big thing was just switching uh to John Tilly as my swing coach. Um just the stuff we worked on. Uh once I started working with him, my iron play got really good and at that point I was just very much concerned with getting the ball in the fairway. Uh so I could take take advantage of that with my iron game and um and yeah, and it just kind of naturally happened. I mean, it’s not a crazy switch. I went from like 174 ball speed to about 170 or so. Um but uh but yeah, was able to I’ve been able to hit a lot of fairways in the last couple years and uh been able to kind of take advantage of my iron play that way. We’ll come over here to Bob Sap. You had mentioned earlier in the week that that precision would be the the key to getting around here. Um were you happy with the way you handled that and can you talk a little bit about how important it was? Yeah, for sure. Um you know, it’s not the best ball striking week I’ve had. Um off the tea the first two days I hit it terrible. Uh I felt like I had the high yachts going with the driver the second round and um made a little bit of a kind of a tweak with my my takeaway. uh just a little sequence thing and uh from then on striking it really well with the driver. Um iron play was was decent. I wouldn’t say it was great, but the putter was just uh excellent this week. You know, I didn’t I didn’t miss above the hole very often. Um and was able to kind of take advantage of that with putting made a lot of mid-range putts and uh that’s something you have to do when you want to win a golf tournament. Marcus. Hey, Sup. What was your caddy situation today or this week? Did it I think it was Drew was out there with you and not How did that come about? And what was the relationship like? Yeah. Uh Dwey uh he hurt his back uh on Thursday last week. Uh my usual caddy. And um he told me on Sunday night that it was starting to get better and then it kind of locked up Sunday night. And so, uh, he just kind of made sure that I had a backup plan in case it didn’t get better. And, um, reached out to Drew, who I played golf with a lot in Birmingham. Um, and, uh, yeah, he immediately hopped on a flight and was up here ready to go. And, uh, very fortunate, uh, that that he was was able to do that, obviously. Um, you know, I’ve played a lot of golf with him, so I was very comfortable uh, being being beside him. And, uh, it was a lot of fun having him on the bag really. Um, and, you know, Dwy’s been here all week. um supporting us and uh just uh really grateful for those two guys and uh he was Dude was also there to to hug me on the 18th green and uh yeah just just really really thankful. And what is uh what was Drew do? What was his plan for this week if he wasn’t here with you? He’s uh he plays professionally. He’s on the mini tours. Uh so he didn’t have a tournament this week and uh so it was easy for him to to kind of change his plans and and come up here for the week. We’ll go right over here. Except on Friday, you’d mentioned that you wished you had another 20 yard to handle the fairway bunkers that are out there 300 yd. Obviously, you know, you handled it well. What was the key for you, you know, driving and handling those fairway bunkers? Yeah, it was uh it was nice. The the weather cooperated for sure. Uh if the weather was like Friday, I wouldn’t have been able to hit it over any of those bunkers. But, uh but yeah, my driver actually I gained a little bit of speed over the weekend. Um I saw some I didn’t haven’t looked today obviously but yesterday some 17475 ball speeds which is uh pretty unusual for me and um yeah that’s that that was nice. I was hitting it out of the middle of the face on just about every T- shot and uh just having that just knowing that that that’s the case I was able to kind of be a little more aggressive off the tea than I was the first two days. Uh hey Seb, how did you kind of bounce Oh sorry over here. How did you kind of bounce back and settle yourself after the bogeies on 10 and 11? Um, yeah. I felt like I did a really good job today of uh just taking every shot uh for what it is. Uh I didn’t really I looked at the leaderboards, but I didn’t really pay too much attention. I knew that if I executed I’ I’d have a chance. And uh you know, I made a lot of mistakes out there. Uh hit a lot of good shots, but I made a lot of mistakes. And uh fortunately uh was able to kind of keep centered and and and keep trying to just execute. And uh yeah, those two bogeies were were pretty tough. I was in a pretty good spot there going in the back nine and um uh yeah, three putt on 10 was uh it was kind of up against the the collar. So, it was kind of a tough lag putt, but uh after that I just told myself just to keep keep at it, keep just trying to execute each golf shot uh for what it is and uh fortunately that was good enough. Got a couple over here and then we’ll come to si.com. Se I saw you and Shane chatting when you’re walking off the first te. He was definitely one of the fan favorites on on the property this week. What was it like playing this final round with him as you go toe-to-toe and how did you stay in it mentally? Yeah, it was great. Uh Shane Shane’s an awesome guy. Uh he’s one of one of my favorites, too. So, uh it was uh fun to hear support for him out there. Um and uh yeah, he’s he’s one of my favorite people to play with. Uh he’s a fiery competitor, but uh really good friend as well. So, uh, it was it was really fun battling with him and, um, yeah, just just grateful for for him. Go ahead and then we’ll go to you next, Marcus. Seb, just was wondering how you kind of feel going into a major championship off of a win and how you perhaps feel about playing a big event like this the week before one of the toughest events in golf. Yeah, I uh last week I actually didn’t touch a golf club. Uh so um it was this week was kind of like a see what I got uh situation. Uh fortunately the putter cooperated early kind of kept me in it the first couple rounds and then my ball striking started feeling better and better. So really really looking forward to kind of continuing that that ball striking and just trying to keep getting better every day. Marcus next and then we’ll come into the back row. So they’ve uh they rerouted the course to make 16, 17, and 18 sort of the teeth of the course. And that’s kind of how it played out. You know, you go par par and he goes bogey par bogey. You win by two. What did you think about the setup? And did you think that it was a fair test? And what do you think about that last those three finishing holes and what what they uh what they ask of you? Yeah, it was awesome. Uh it was it was really uh you know teeing off on one was really nice cuz it honestly it felt like the as you kept going the round kept getting harder and harder um with a few easier holes sprinkled in. But it was uh I like the routing a lot. I love the way it finishes naturally uh with 10 and 11. I boed those two holes so maybe that wouldn’t have turned out too good for me. But uh um yeah, no I thought they did a really good job. Uh there’s a little more room for infrastructure out there on the 18 as well. Uh which probably helped out. And uh yeah, it is a really cool place. I think uh it was fun to play it in kind of four different conditions. Uh the first day being very benign. Um and then kind of the rain then the wind and then today it kind of felt started getting a little firmer but not quite as much wind. So really fun to play play the course in in all four different conditions and it kind of made you think a lot especially teeing off. say bye. I saw you over here. Hello. I saw Rory waiting for you at the end there. That was a nice moment. What he What did he say to you? Uh yeah, he uh he told me at least this win counts for Ryder Cup points. So, um yeah, really really happy for that. You know, I’ve been kind of behind in the points because of that that win at AMX, not counting. And uh uh but I knew that if I just kept playing good golf, uh I would I would have a chance to to be there. And uh I’m sure this will probably help me out with the rankings a lot. So uh yeah, very grateful and hopefully I can uh keep the good play going and keep getting some more points. Seb, you se hi uh you congratulations. You mentioned how hard you’ve worked to get to this point, but when you think back to a couple years ago you were outside the top 200 in the world. Now you’re a four-time winner, top 10 player in the world. What what emotions come to mind as you think about how hard you’ve worked to get to this point? Um yeah uh you know the just very grateful uh just uh because it’s not just my hard work. Um my coaches uh I switched to John Tillery right about that that time and uh Tim Yelbertton I’ve been working with him for about a year and the work that they put in uh day in day out um is is very special. Uh, and it makes me it makes makes it easier for me to go out and try to get better because I know that they’re doing everything they can to to help me out and uh, yeah, uh, I think uh, it’s just kind of a culmination of uh, of a lot of people putting in a lot of work. Uh, that’s that’s gotten me to this point. We’ll go back to Sean. Did you also change the setting on your driver before the third round? No. No setting is the same. And do you remember exactly when you started with Tillery? That would have been about it was about 3 months before the Honda Honda uh win that I had back in 2022. There we go. Perfect. And then we’re going to go over to the right left here. Can you just talk about this whole experience having this event here in Philadelphia and how would you say the the fans were this week? Uh it was incredible. Uh it was awesome. Um you know you always hear about Philly sports fans um and it really is true. I mean, they get into it. They were out there during the practice rounds uh all the way through through the end on Sunday and uh just really special. You could really feel uh that everybody was happy to have the event here. Um and it made it so much fun to to play in front of those fans. Um I, you know, I rooted for the Eagles a little bit last year cuz my Bulldogs had a lot of lot of guys on defense there. So, uh uh you know, every time I heard a go birds, it was uh kind of fun to to hear that. But um yeah, no, it was it was an awesome experience to to play in front of the Philly fans and uh I think next year maybe the PGA is coming back here. So really looking forward to that opportunity. Fantastic. If there’s no further questions, well, one more from Bob. Just a quick odd one. What were your first impressions when you saw the winners trophy? That’s a cricket bet. Yeah, that’s pretty cool. I think that’s a that’s a one and done. So uh yeah, that’s that’s uh going to be my most special trophy for sure. All right, we’ll end it there. Thank you all for your questions. Thank you. I’m actually gonna have you stay and do a few questions in German. Yeah. Right. The camera there. Um so Steph, if you could just answer a um what’s some thoughts on your final round? What was the difference maker this week to pick up your second victory of the season? for me. Can you talk about what it was like to play with Shane in the final pairing? Yeah. Yeah. and then if you could close with some early thoughts on going into the PJ Championship at Qual. Thank you. Four. All right. Ball up.