SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 10, 2025

Sepp Straka

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Sepp, can you just recap your round for us, especially that eagle on 18?

SEPP STRAKA: Yeah, played pretty nice, especially on the front nine. Gave myself a lot of chances and made some putts, which was really nice to see.

Yeah, back nine got a little tricky. Wind got up a little bit. Was not really steady out of one direction, so hard to figure out where it was coming from exactly. Thankful I got some red numbers on the board early.

Q. What did you wrong on the back?

SEPP STRAKA: Nothing. Played nice. Hit a bad shot on 7. Made bogey there. But other than that, hit a bad shot 2 two off the tee. You know, the wind was -- it's blowing 15 and coming from either north or east, somewhere in there. It was kind of hard to figure out exactly where it was coming from. That made it tough with the small greens.

Q. Which way is it blowing on 2? Like right to left?

SEPP STRAKA: On 2 it was a into -- smidge off the left, but not really. Yeah, into maybe a hair off the left.

Q. This is not new to you, but difference between last week and this? Not your game...

SEPP STRAKA: The golf course, very big difference. Last week was a big, long golf course. I think I hit 5-irons and 6-irons into a bunch of the par-4s. It's wide open and greens are pretty big, so you really can't get in much trouble out there.

Here it's the exact opposite. Not a very long course but you got to get it in play. If you're not in the fairway it's really hard to get -- you're not going to make many birdies; hard to make pars really. You're just fighting from par from the getgo if you're not in the fairways.

Yeah, just very different style of golf course.

Q. How would you compare degree of difficulty?

SEPP STRAKA: This one is definitely a lot harder.

Q. Is it?

SEPP STRAKA: Yeah, not even really close. I know it's windy and last week it wasn't, but even without the wind it's a lot harder here.

Q. This should be a par 73.

SEPP STRAKA: This one? Yeah, exactly. No, very different. Both are fun. This one is a little more challenging I would say.

Q. What have you set for yourself from here to April?

SEPP STRAKA: Just keeping my routine, process. That hasn't really changed. Just been doing that for about two years now. Just trying to improve my golf game and let the results take care of themselves.

Q. I meant schedule.

SEPP STRAKA: Oh, schedule. I am going to take Torrey off on the west coast.

Q. And doing AMEX next week or taking two weeks off?

SEPP STRAKA: Yeah, yeah. Play next week as well, then in Florida. Definitely the first three. I might play Valspar as well.

Q. What's the appeal of Valspar?

SEPP STRAKA: Yeah, I love it. It's kind of nice. I don't really want to have three weeks off before Augusta. I might play four in Florida and have two weeks off going into Augusta or take Valspar off and play Valero the week before.

Q. What are the pros and cons there?

SEPP STRAKA: You know, still trying to figure it out. Yeah, it's nice to be competitive the week before. If you get to San Antonio and it's blowing 25, 30, that's not ideal either.

I think right now I'm leaning towards playing in Florida. I love Valspar. Great golf course. So that's where I'm leaning right now.

Q. Will you go to Augusta before you...

SEPP STRAKA: I might this year, yeah.

Q. You didn't last year?

SEPP STRAKA: I didn't last year. No, last year I spent a -- we had just had a kid in December so I was just trying to spent as much time with him as possible. Yeah, might make a road trip with the whole family and stay in Athens for a night or so and try to play Augusta.

Q. You don't do that for the other majors?

SEPP STRAKA: No, I don't really know if it's that big of an advantage for Augusta. Plays so different a month before the tournament than it does during the tournament. Different golf course. I mean, you get to go play Augusta National.

Q. Is that the difference, because no one will go to Oakmont in May, will they?

SEPP STRAKA: No. You just do it for Augusta. Big part of that is just playing Augusta.