PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2023

Sepp Straka

Oak Hill Country Club

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We welcome Sepp Straka joining us at the 105th PGA Championship, a 5-under of 65 for you.

What did you do well out there today?

SEPP STRAKA: The putter got hot which is something I've been waiting on for a few weeks now. Seems like I made just about everything but I three-putted one hole but other than that, no real issues with the putter. It was very scorable today. Greens are soft. Fairways are soft so you could actually hit some fairways, which is nice.

Q. You're the second-highest European on the board this week and considering it's a major and Captain Donald is here, does any of that matter to you?

SEPP STRAKA: Absolutely, yeah. I'm not thinking about it while I'm playing but no, definitely think about it as a goal haven't really done that lately. It's nice to get a good Sunday here.

Q. Did you get a chance to talk to him at all this week?

SEPP STRAKA: I don't think I ran into him this week but I've known Luke for a little while now and he's a great guy.

Q. When you were playing this place on Tuesday and Wednesday, would you ever have thought there were eight birdies out there?

SEPP STRAKA: No, definitely not. The way it was playing early in the week, definitely not eight birdies out there. But like I said, I mean, the rain yesterday made it brutal yesterday but today was very scorable. The rough dried up a little bit which was nice, too, and you could really take advantage.

Q. What were the highlights of the birdies you made?

SEPP STRAKA: Oh, man, the three in a row, I love a good turkey, three in a row on the back nine was nice, so that's definitely the highlight.

Q. Thursday was kind of your best Thursday of a major. Fried was kind of your best Friday of a major and then it's been a crescendo, you finish like this. Can you talk about the sensations, the emotions going through the week?

SEPP STRAKA: Yeah, it's nice. Thursday I hit the ball, it's probably one of the best ball-striking rounds I've ever had but the putter was not there. It was nice to get a major start off that way. It's tough to really, especially on courses like this, to come-from-behind, unless something happens like today where it's scorable conditions. So it was nice to get off to a good start and yeah, just to finish it off here on Sunday, it feels pretty good.

Q. Over these days, can you tell us about the support or messages you've been getting from home in Austria?

SEPP STRAKA: Yeah, I'm always getting support, social media, text message, whatever, they are always rooting me on. It's awesome to see. Austria is a small country but to see golf grow as much as it has over there.

Q. You've played in a couple majors now, so the question is, what do you take from such a good start here, what do you do with that and build on it for the next couple weeks or the next couple months?

SEPP STRAKA: Yeah, it's definitely the best result. But I think the main thing is just keep improving the golf game. My golf game was pretty sharp going into the week. I felt like I've had some good practice the last few weeks. Didn't really show at Quail but definitely showed up today. So I think just staying on top of that and trying to keep improving your golf game.

Q. Did you work with anybody on the short game?

SEPP STRAKA: Yeah, Tim Yelverton.

Q. Is there anything you've been working on in your putting?

SEPP STRAKA: We actually worked on it a lot early in the week and then Thursday was one of my worst putting rounds that I've had in a while, so kind of went back to just try to make putts but yeah, I think the main thing that he's taught me is just stay consistent with practice and make sure it doesn't get too far off ever.

Q. You're such a good ball-striker. How much does the putting unlock you and just free you up?

SEPP STRAKA: It's nice. Normally the putter is one of my strengths, especially since I've been working with Tim. It's gotten a lot better, just the consistency has been there and it just has not been there the last few months. To have a good putting round like I did today has been huge, especially in these conditions, being able to take advantage of them.