Sepp Straka and Duane Bock didn’t waste any time. In their first event together, at the 2023 John Deere Classic, Straka shot a final-round 62 to pick up his second career PGA Tour victory.
He credited his caddie Bock, too, whom he was borrowing from Kevin Kisner, who was taking some time away from the game.
“I think he does a great job of just sticking with one shot at a time,” Straka said of Bock that week at the Deere. “He’s a very professional guy and still likes to have a lot of fun out there, but whether I’m two over or playing great, he’s unchanged. He’s great at just kind of not showing any sort of emotion one way or another. He’s on [to the] next shot, no matter what.”
The success continued two weeks later, when they tied for second at the Open Championship. This year’s been good, too. In 20 starts, Straka has made 14 cuts and finished in the top 25 10 times. He’s 18th in the FedEx Cup standings and in a good position to make it to the Tour Championship.
Straka was the guest on GOLF’s Subpar podcast this week and explained how Bock got on his bag, and turns out it was Kisner’s idea to make it full-time.
“Kiz texted him and was like, ‘Hey, if you haven’t given this any thought, you should just go ahead and jump on Sepp’s bag,'” Straka said. “I was obviously very happy with that because it’s worked well since then too.”
Bock was also with Straka when Europe beat the U.S. at the 2023 Ryder Cup, although Bock had to change allegiances.
“Before I was picked he had a USA yardage book cover,” Straka said, “and the other caddies were giving him a pretty hard time.”
The duo qualified for another big-time international event this week: the 2024 Olympics, with Straka competing for Austria. You can watch the complete interview with Straka below.
As GOLF.com’s managing editor, Berhow handles the day-to-day and long-term planning of one of the sport’s most-read news and service websites. He spends most of his days writing, editing, planning and wondering if he’ll ever break 80. Before joining GOLF.com in 2015, he worked at newspapers in Minnesota and Iowa. A graduate of Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn., he resides in the Twin Cities with his wife and two kids. You can reach him at joshua_berhow@golf.com.
