[PHOTO: Joe Scarnici]
Sepp Straka did what he needed to do, which was not great for those watching at home. This is no offence to the affable, sweet-swinging Austrian-turned-Alabamian. But most viewers want drama, theatre, for the issue to be in doubt. With Straka entering the final day with a four-stroke lead, that meant some combination of the Stadium course at PGA West leaning into its reputation as one of the meanest set-ups on tour or one of Straka’s competitors making a push. Instead, Straka ran… well, not ran away, because there was nothing swift or quick about the pace of play, which even by professional-golf standards was slow. But Straka stayed steady and survived the briefest of scares to capture the American Express.
“Yeah, just, this golf course, you can’t really let up, 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 said after his two-under 70. “Nerves, just complete nerves. Stomach in a knot, the whole nine. So, yeah, just really excited about the way I handed the pressure today.”
Straka has quietly become one of the better European players on the PGA Tour during the past few seasons. After a middling start to his tour career where he fought to keep his card, he won in back-to-back years beginning in 2022 and made his Ryder Cup debut in 2023, and though his overall profile looked so-so in 2024 (91st in strokes gained, 145th in scoring average), three top 10s at signature events helped Straka reach the Tour Championship last season. Still, a decent showing in the Hawaiian Swing (a T-15 at the Sentry and T-30 at the Sony Open) did not portend Straka’s early performance in Palm Springs, where he opened with a 65 at the Nicklaus course before stringing together consecutive 64s at the Stadium and La Quinta to open a wide advantage over the likes of Jason Day, Justin Lower and Charley Hoffman.
Conversely, PGA West can be a fickle squirrel. Modern technology has somewhat subdued its bark, although the course can still bite, and to that look no further than poor William Mouw, who made a 13 on Friday at the Stadium’s 16th hole. Straka’s previous wins were of the come-behind variety, and those chasing him – including Justin Thomas – possess plenty of requisite firepower to keep Straka on the hot seat.
The heat never came, not truly. The closest the final round came to heating up was at the 11th hole, after Straka missed a 15-footer for birdie and Hoffman had a six-footer to bring the deficit down to two. But Hoffman missed, and two holes later proceeded to fire two tee shots at the par-3 13th into a greenside pond to fall out of the mix. Straka countered with a birdie, moving his lead to four. Straka had a lone mistake, a bogey at the 16th after failing to get up-and-down, for his first bogey in 70 holes, but after his tee shot at the par-3 17th safely found the green whatever questions remained were answered.
Back in the winner's circle 🏆
@SeppStraka wins by two @TheAmExGolf. pic.twitter.com/KSCZotZ4zI— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 20, 2025
“Yeah, 16, last thing you want to do is hit it down in the bunker down there, so I kind of bailed out right a little bit,” Straka explained. “Was unfortunate, it was in kind of a tyre track right next to the cartpath, I couldn’t get cartpath relief, and it was real grainy down there. I wanted to get it up closer to the green where I could kind of putt it on, but kind of came out real slow. And, yeah, from there, again, you just don’t want to make a mistake of going long, got a little cute with it and spun it too much. Overall, I hit a good putt, tried to make it, and, but, yeah, overall pretty happy with it.”
Thomas continued his revival with a final-round 66, although a failed birdie opportunity at the 18th took the last vestiges of pressure off the eventual champion. Straka’s play, coupled with his competitors mostly staying where they were, created a bit of a sleepy atmosphere to the final proceedings. Not helping was the speed, or lack thereof. Pace of play is far from a new complaint, and bringing up the subject tends to elicit eyerolls from many corners of the game. In that same breath, the final group took roughly four hours to play 12 holes. The tour asserted the changes coming to the circuit in 2026 – smaller field sizes, fewer tour cards – was in response to alleviating this problem, although today was proof of concept the issues are more systemic than the number of competitors teeing it up.
But that’s a debate for another day. This day belonged to Straka, whose ensuing world-ranking boost puts him on the inside track to return to the European team for this September’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. It was the type of clean-cut, lights-out performance the Europeans will need to win just their second cup on American soil in the past two decades. Speaking of clean cut, Straka has a new hairdo for 2025 – a completely shaven dome. It was a look inspired by Straka’s friend and fellow University of Georgia alum, Brian Harman.
“I was kind of losing my hair, so I figured I would get in front of it,” Straka said earlier in the week, “so yeah, just went ahead and shaved it off… [Harman] kept telling me for years, he said, ‘It’s going to go at some point,’ and once I realised that he was right I figured I might as well just go ahead and bite the bullet and shave it off.”
At 31, he’s not just hitting his stride; he’s accelerating into his prime, transforming from a reliable tour presence into an emerging European force. His dismantling of PGA West’s challenges – methodical pace and all – revealed a player operating with surgical precision and unshakeable composure. With three PGA Tour victories now stamped on his passport, Straka has evolved beyond mere survival into the realm of Sunday front-runner, capable of the dominance we witnessed this week. The new look suits Straka perfectly – both the clean-shaven head, and the quiet confidence of a champion who knows exactly where he’s headed.
