Austria’s golf sport has set another highlight on the international stage. After the prestigious successes of Markus Brier (first Austrian victory on the European tour) and Bernd Wiesberger (among others, first Austrian at the Ryder Cup), Josef “Sepp” Straka celebrated the first red-white-red at the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens on Sunday Victory on the prestigious US PGA Tour. The 28-year-old US-Austrian dual citizen won 1.44 million US dollars (1.28 million euros). But there was another reason why he could hardly put his luck into words after the win.
“It’s crazy. It was always a lifelong dream of mine, absolutely surreal. It will take me a while to process it,” said Straka, who died in Vienna on May 1, 1993 as the son of an Austrian architect and an American world came. When Sepp and his twin brother Sam, who was two minutes older, were 14, the family decided to move to Valdosta, Georgia. The brothers spent a great deal of time on the golf course, with Sam mostly outperforming his twin brother. In the slipstream of Sam, Sepp was signed by the University of Georgia, where the career of the supposedly less talented young golfer picked up speed. He first played in the USA on the second-tier Web.com tour and made his professional debut in 2016 – long since living in the USA – at his Austrian home tournament in Atzenbrugg.
In 2019, Sepp Straka was the first Austrian to make it onto the PGA Tour in the last impression. A third-place finish at the 2019 Barbasol Championship was his best result there before striking the world’s premier professional golf tour on Sunday. He started the final day five strokes behind Daniel Berger in second place and in a dramatic finish finally prevailed in front of Shane Lowry. Witnessing the success were his mother, Mary, and his wife, Paige, who flew to Florida on a last-minute flight. Another Austrian, Matthias Schwab from Styria, shared seventh place.
Masters participation fixed
Straka, who lost a medal after fourth place on the final day at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, secured his participation in the Masters in Augusta (from April 7th), the PGA Championship (May 19th) and in January next year in the exclusive Tournament of Champions, in which all PGA season winners compete in Hawaii.
This is Josef “Sepp” Straka
- Born: May 1, 1993 in Vienna
- Height Weight: 1.91m / 107kg
- Nickname: The Ox
- Place of residence in the USA: Vestavia Hills, Alabama
- Studies: Business Management from the University of Georgia
- golf pro since 2016
- Career Prize Money: $5.1 million (€4.56 million)
- Greatest successes: Victory at the Honda Classic (February 27, 2022)/first success of an Austrian on the PGA Tour; since 2018/19 first Austrian on the US PGA Tour; 3rd place at the Barbasol Championship in Kentucky 2019; 8 top ten finishes on the PGA Tour; 28th US Open 2019, Olympic tenth in Tokyo 2021
Source: Nachrichten
