Alexander: The American Express is Sepp Straka’s show … so far
LA QUINTA – The last two times Sepp Straka played in The American Express, a 23-under score – somebody else’s – won the tournament.
Is it his turn this time?
Straka, 31, from Austria by way of Valdosta, Ga. – stay with us; we’ll explain – continued his consistency through Saturday’s third round of the tournament formerly known as The Bob Hope Classic. His par putt on his final hole at La Quinta Country Club – a rescue job, after he’d hit his 3-wood tee shot into the left rough – wrapped up a solid 8-under 64, following rounds of 65 on PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament layout and 64 on the Pete Dye Stadium Course.
Total through three rounds: 23-under.
It put him four shots ahead of Justin Lower, Jason Day and Charley Hoffman and five ahead of Patrick Cantlay and Mark Hubbard entering Sunday’s final round at the Stadium Course. Comfortable, but hardly a guarantee.
“So many good players out there, it … should be a fun Sunday,” Straka said.
Born in Vienna to an American mother and Austrian father, Straka moved with his family to Valdosta, Ga., when he was 14. He played college golf at the University of Georgia, as did his twin brother Sam, and he has represented his continent of birth in the European Boys Team Championship and, much later, the Ryder Cup. He represented Austria at the Paris Olympics, tying for 10th overall.
Straka hasn’t played here since 2022, when he tired for 49th at 9-under as Harrison Swafford won at 23-under. The year before, Straka missed the cut as Si Woo Kim won by a shot in … yep, 23-under. The year before that, he tied for fourth at 20-under, six shots back of winner Andrew Landry.
For what it’s worth, in five appearances in the desert including this one Straka has six under-par rounds in seven tries at the Stadium Course, including an 8-under 64 in Friday’s second round. The one outlier? A 77 in 2021 when he missed the cut.
“I think Stadium’s the type of course where no lead’s safe,” Straka said after Saturday’s round. “I think my first win I got at Honda (in 2022, a -10 under total at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.), it’s a very similar golf course, and there I think (I was) five shots back at the start of the day. So … no lead is safe, you just got to keep hitting your spots, and you really got to strike the ball well out there.
“That’s really what I’m looking for (Sunday) is just a good solid ball-striking round.”
The Stadium Course is, by some estimates, playing tougher overall this year following a restoration – an attempt to return to Pete Dye’s original vision – that included expanded and, shall we say, toughened greens. Maybe they weren’t as vicious as the ones that had a previous generation of tour pros lobbying to get the Stadium Course out of the tournament’s rotation – it was, instead, defanged a bit – but the changes have increased the challenge.
And it was challenging, Day said after his 5-under 67 on the Stadium Course Saturday, including a birdie putt on 18 that spun around the hole before dropping in.
“I find it funny, it feels I’ve been out here for a while now, and I feel like as time’s gone on that the conditions of the golf courses, especially the greens, have gotten softer and a little bit slower over time,” he said. “But I’m not sure. That could be just me thinking like, ‘Oh, back in my day we played it firmer,’ you know what I mean.
“But I feel like when I first came out the greens were a lot firmer back in the day, and that was like really the defense of most golf courses. Especially with a golf course like this where it’s not overly long, but you start to add some good firm greens into the mix, some of these lines start to get a little bit tight coming into these greens, and … you’re trying to worry about where to land things. Like 17, for instance, you land that too far beyond the pin, that’s hopping over into the water.”
Lower, in his fourth year on the tour and seeking his first victory, went from 63 at La Quinta and 66 on the Nicklaus Tournament course his first two rounds to a 68 at the Stadium Course Saturday, including bogey-birdie-birdie-on his final four holes.
Hoffman, the 48-year-old tour veteran from San Diego, is looking for a bookend victory in the desert. The first of his four previous tour triumphs was the 2007 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, when he won a playoff with John Rollins on a wind-influenced – to put it mildly – final day on the Classic Club layout, located across the 10 from where most of the desert courses are located.
There is, of course, a reason why most of the courses are on the south side of the freeway: Less wind. The Classic Club had been built specifically to host this tournament, but it was on the wrong side of the 10. After three years, 2006, ’07 and ’08, the folks who ran the Hope gave up on that experiment.
“That year I vividly remember it was cold and windy, and The Classic Club was known to get some wind,” Hoffman remembered Saturday. “But I remember playing Bermuda Dunes, it might have been my first round, the greens were pretty much frozen when I was playing. I don’t know if they knew what frost delays were back then. So the conditions were much different.
“This is more typical desert weather here in La Quinta, and guys are taking advantage of it.”
But, as Day suggested, there is the potential for lots of mischief Sunday.
jalexander@scng.com