Steady Sepp: Sepp Straka wins American Express golf title by two shots

For most of the final round at The American Express PGA Tour event Sunday, there were only two questions: Could Sepp Straka reach the tournament 72-hole scoring record of 29-under par, and could Straka complete the four rounds without a single bogey.

The answer to both questions, it turned out, was no. Straka made a bogey on the par-5 16th hole Sunday, his first of the week in the desert, and then added a bogey on the par-4 18th. All that kept him from reaching the tournament scoring record set by Nick Dunlap last year. But with a final-round 2-under 70, Straka did finish at 25 under for the week to comfortably put away the chasers Sunday.

In earning his third PGA Tour title, the Austrian star took much of the drama out of the final round with a steady and almost mistake-free round until the final three holes.

Starting with a four-shot lead on the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West, Straka was never truly threatened in the final round by the likes of Justin Thomas, Jason Day and Charley Hoffman.

Straka’s lead never dropped under three shots until his final putt, and his play was so consistent and pure that he didn’t miss a green in regulation Sunday until the 14th hole, and then only by a foot. The bogey-6 on the 16th hole came when his lead had ballooned back up to four shots.

The win earned the 31-year-old Straka his first title since the 2023 John Deere Classic, 500 FedEx Cup points and the $1,584,000 first-place check, the largest check of his career. He became only the seventh international golfer to win the desert title in its 66th year.

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Straka never showed much emotion on the day and seemed in control of his nerves. But he insisted it was not a comfortable day.

“I never really felt safe with the lead all day. Charley was making birdies, Jason was making birdies, I think Justin was playing well ahead of us,” Straka said. “Yeah, it was tough. I’m glad I came out firing and made some birdies early, because if I played even par on the front, which would have been a pretty good score, I think I would have had a one-shot lead going into the back, which would have been a little bit of a different story. So those early birdies were huge.”

Thomas turned in a bogey-free 6-under 66 on Sunday and finished two shots back in second place at 23 under, but the two-time PGA Championship winner had started the day six shots behind Straka. It was Thomas’ second near-miss in the tournament in two years, having finished tied for third in 2024.

While Straka was playing solid if unspectacular golf, the contenders were missing chances to close in down the stretch. Thomas had five birdies on the front nine, but burned the edges on critical birdie opportunities on the back nine at the par-3 13th, the par-5 16th and again at the par-4 18th. Day did the same thing, unable to make putts under 20 feet on the 15th and 17th holes and three-putting the par-4 14th from 16 feet for a bogey.

“I played well. I mean, I had a chance” Thomas said. “It wasn’t obviously a great one on the back nine, but I was proud of myself. I did what I needed to do on the front nine today and at least be making some noise and kind of moving up the leaderboard.”

Day, who shot 69 to tie for third at 22 under with Justin Lower (also 69 on the day), thought Straka did more than enough to win the event.

“What did he finish, at 25? So I would have had to shoot 6, which is very doable out there,” Day said. “He just stayed one step ahead. Every time you made a birdie or you are thinking about making a birdie, he would do the exact same thing, and that’s kind of what you need to do to win tournaments.”

Hoffman, the 2007 American Express winner, trailed by three shots on the 13th tee, but he hit his tee shot on the par-3 into a lake left of the green, then found that lake again with his third shot on the way to a triple-bogey 6. Hoffman finished tied for fifth with a 71 Sunday to reach 20 under. He tied with Patrick Cantlay, who quietly moved up with a 70.

In many ways, Straka won the tournament with a stellar 8-under 64 in the second round on the Stadium Course, which played to a scoring average of 71.3 during the week. He followed that with another 64 at the easier La Quinta Country Club in the third round to build his four-shot lead.

“The 64 around there, that was one of my best rounds I’ve ever played probably,” Straka said about his second round. “I played great. I kept hitting my spots and I kept giving myself birdie looks and made a lot of those birdie looks.

“I putted really well that day, struck it really well that day, and any time you can have your low round of the tournament be at Stadium it’s a good thing,” he said. “It means you’ve done something right that day. That was definitely the biggest round of the week for me.”

Straka then made a statement early Sunday with birdies on his first and fourth holes, reaching 25 under and holding off early charges by Thomas and Hoffman. The birdie on the first from 12 feet came with Day and Hoffman looking at shorter putts for birdies, which they made.

“They both stuffed it in there, and yeah, definitely felt really good making that putt,” Straka said. “It wouldn’t have changed the way I played today if I hadn’t made it, but it did feel really good making that putt on the first hole.”

Straka said he never thought about finishing the tournament bogey free, but added that his first bogey on the 16th was some bad luck with a bad shot.

“Last thing you want to do is hit it down in the bunker down there (20-feet deep to the left of the green), so I kind of bailed out right a little bit,” Straka said. “Was unfortunate, it was in kind of a tire track right next to the cart path, I couldn’t get cart path 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.”

A final-hole bogey with a missed 18-foot par putt still gave Straka his third career win and a fresh look at the 2025 season.

“You know, it’s all a process. It’s great to get a win early,” he said. “It’s awesome to get ahead of the curve, but it’s a long year, so you just got to keep stacking good results and keep playing good golf and, yeah, that’s going to be my goal the rest of the year.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Sepp Straka wins American Express golf title by two shots