Sepp Staka came out of the gates on fire Sunday at the John Deere Classic. But he couldn’t take it all the way to 18.
The 30-year-old needed just one more birdie for a final-round 59 at TPC Deere Run, the 13th sub-60 round on the PGA Tour.
Straka started the round hot, birding the 1st and eagling the 2nd on his way to a seven-under 28 on the outward nine. He kept up the torrid pace knocking in four-straight birdie putts of 7′, 14′, 9′ and 5′ on holes 11-14.
After a disappointing par on the par-5 17th, Straka played his tee shot into the center of the fairway on Deere Run’s 480-yard finishing par 4. That left him 184 yards to a green with a pond running along the entirety of the left side.
He took aim for the dangerous back left hole location with 7-iron and his ball started right at the target.
But then it started turning left.
The ball had too much draw and landed hole-high, but several feet into the pond, dooming any chance he had at 59. Straka looked down at his divot in disgust and groaned.
“I was really just trying to go middle of the green and let it feed down to the left towards the hole,” Straka told CBS after he finished. “That was the first bad shot I hit today.
“The 59 was nowhere in my head, really. I knew I had a chance, but in that situation, the only thing that matters is trying to win the golf tournament.”
However, Straka still had something to play for: the tournament.
Starting the day four back, his 11-under round had flipped that deficit to a four-shot lead, with his nearest chaser, overnight leader Brendon Todd, six holes behind on the 13th.
After some initial confusion on identifying Straka’s entry point to the penalty area, Straka dropped 105 yards to the hole and wedged it to 12 feet for a chance to limit the damage to just a bogey.
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As he had all day, Straka put a good roll on it, but the ball just broke low.
“I hit a good putt,” he said. “It broke a little more than I thought. And yeah, still have a chance.”
The double bogey still meant a career-low 62 for the Austrian, but his lead was down to just two with plenty of holes for Todd and Alex Smalley to catch him.
However, neither Todd nor Smalley could make the charge and Straka’s 21 under was good enough for a two-shot win.
The win is the second of his career for Straka. He won the Honda Classic a year ago and later lost in a playoff to Will Zalatoris at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He also lost in a playoff earlier this season to Mackenzie Hughes at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
