By Bruce Adams
badams@21st-centurymedia.com
FLOURTOWN – Sepp Straka, who won the Truist Championship Sunday at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course with some steady golf on the last seven holes, reflected on his FedExCup Signature Event victory, the fourth PGA TOUR title of his career.
“It’s huge, the biggest win of my career,” said the 32-year-old Straka, who won The American Express in January. “This year has been pretty good to me. … Yeah, I’m just so grateful for the process and the whole team that kind of makes me play as well as I do.”
Straka, who collected 700 FedExCup points with the win, and improved from No. 4 to No. 2 in the FedExCup standings, played the last seven holes at 1-under par. After Straka and Shane Lowry both birdied the 15th hole to tie for the lead at 16-under par, Lowry bogeyed both the 16th and 18th holes, the latter with a three-putt.
On the 18th hole, Straka’s drive landed in a bunker, about 212 yards from the hole. From there, he hit a 4-iron approach and finished with a par.
“My fairway bunker game has historically been pretty bad,” said Straka. “This week it’s been really good. I was able to kind of capitalize on that and make good contact. Yeah, it was one of the better shots I hit this week.”
Earlier in the week, Straka had mentioned that precision would be key in mastering the Wissahickon course.
“This is not the best ball-striking week I’ve had,” said Straka. “Off the tee the first two days I hit it terribly. I made kind of a tweak with my takeaway, and from then on, I struck it really well with the driver. My iron play was decent. The putter was just excellent this week. I didn’t miss above the hole very often and I made a lot of midrange putts.”
After playing in the second round’s wet conditions, Straka said on Friday, “I wish I carried the ball another 20 yards in the air so I could take out all these fairway bunkers that I’m having to hit around. … This is definitely a course that a lot of those bunkers, like I said, are 300 (yards) carry. If you’re carrying it over 300, you can take them out of play.”
Following his victory Sunday, Straka said, “It was nice that the weather cooperated (Saturday and Sunday). If the weather was like Friday, I wouldn’t have been able to hit it over any of these bunkers. My driver actually gained a little bit of speed over the weekend. Yesterday I got some 174, 175 (mph) ball speeds, which is pretty unusual for me. I was hitting it out of the middle of the face on just about every tee shot.
“Just knowing that that’s the case, I was able to be a little more aggressive on the tee than I was the first two days.”
On Sunday, Straka got an eagle on the par 5 fifth hole to jump into a tie for the lead at 16-under-par through five holes. Straka birdied the eighth and ninth holes to take a two-stroke lead, then bogeyed Nos. 10 and 11 to fall back into a tie at 15-under-par.
“Those two bogeys were pretty tough,” said Straka. “After that, I just told myself to keep at it, keep just trying to execute each golf shot for what it is. Fortunately, that was good enough.”
The 32-year-old Austrian paid tribute to the spirited Philadelphia fans.
“It was incredible, it was awesome,” said Straka. “You always hear about Philly sports fans, and it really is true. They get into it. You could really feel that everybody was happy to have the event here. It made it so much fun to play in front of these fans.
“I rooted for the Eagles a little bit last year because my (University of Georgia) Bulldogs had a lot of guys on defense there. Every time I heard a ‘Go Birds!’ it was kind of fun to hear that.”
Lowry, who was seeking his first individual PGA TOUR title since the 2019 British Open Championship, tied for second place at 14-under with two-time PGA Championship title-holder Justin Thomas, who finished with a 3-under-par 67 Sunday.
“Man, I don’t know if you could characterize this as full blown Northeast, but it’s enough for me,” said Thomas. “I just wish we played more tournaments up here. The golf courses are great. You get an energy in the crowd and just feels – you know, you have a lot of buzz.”
Patrick Cantlay, who started the day at 7-under-par, was red-hot on the front nine Sunday, birdieing five of the first seven holes. He cooled after that, playing par golf the rest of the way for a 65 to finish in a three-way tie for fourth with Jason Bridgeman and Tommy Fleetwood at 12-under-par.
Defending champion Rory McIlroy shot a 2-under-par 68 Sunday to finish in a four-way tie for seventh place with Cameron Young, Stephan Jaeger and first- and second-round leader Keith Mitchell at 10-under-par
McIlroy paid tribute to the local fans who had been chanting his name all week.
“They (Philadelphia fans) are very enthusiastic,” said McIlroy. “They’re loud. They’re relentless (laughs) in terms of, like I must have heard my name a million times this week.
“It’s great, actually, we’re going to come back here regularly for the next few years. Aronimink next year, Merion in 2030. It will be great to be in this part of the world.”
McIlroy, who periodically struggled with his driving accuracy this week at the Truist, said, “I sort of struggled with this in Houston as well, whenever we get these big, wide open golf courses where there’s not a ton of definition. I think I would have hit more fairways if it had been tree-lined.
“I felt like I drove it a little better on the back nine today, which is good. Hard thing this week as well is the wind on the (driving) range has been left-to-right all week, and then you get out there, and the first hole you play right-to-left. It’s like trying to adjust again. ”
Six weeks ago, Jim Smith Jr., Director of Golf at Philadelphia Cricket Club, said, “Our course record is 65 and that will be broken, and it might get broken every day – these are the best players in the world.”
Smith’s prediction turned out to be accurate — on three of the four days, the course record was broken. On Thursday, 10 players broke it; on Saturday, Hideki Matsuyama shot a 63; and Sunday, Andrew Novak shot a 64. On Friday, Lowry matched the course record.
