PGA Tour

Sepp Straka finishes fifth in Hilton Head

Sepp Straka(Bild: 2024 Getty Images)

Sepp Straka has finished the Golf PGA Tournament in Hilton Head, South Carolina, in a tie for fifth place. The 30-year-old made up four places on the last four holes of Monday's continuation of the tournament, but narrowly missed out on the podium. Due to a thunderstorm with heavy rain and late darkness, the fourth round could not be completed on Sunday. The superior winner was US world number one Scottie Scheffler.

After the first three rounds on the par-71 course, Straka was always among the absolute leaders in fourth, first and finally second place. However, things did not go according to plan for the 2023 Ryder Cup champion early on at the start of what was supposed to be the final day, with bogeys on the third, fourth and seventh holes. The brief upward trend with birdies on eight and ten was immediately halted again with a dropped shot on eleven, before the drenched players had to find their way into the clubhouse. After the restart, Straka played three times in line with the course handicap and made a small leap forward from twelfth to ninth place.

Bogey dashes hopes
The decisive phase on Monday began even better with two birdies. Second place still seemed within reach, but a bogey on the 17th dashed his hopes. As the Viennese then failed to sink a birdie putt on the final hole, the shared third place also remained out of reach. As a result, Straka also failed to record his best ever placing at the RBC Heritage in his fifth participation, where he had finished third in 2022 with 272 strokes.

This time, the University of Georgia graduate had fewer strokes on his account after a clearly weakest round of 72 to finish with 270. The 28th-ranked player in the world shared fifth place with the Americans Justin Thomas, Patrick Rodgers and J.T. Poston and secured prize money of 820,000 dollars (769,736 euros). The winner's check for Scheffler was worth 3.6 million dollars (3.38 million euros). The current figurehead triumphed once again after the Masters in Augusta. As Straka had played in the final flight with Scheffler, he was the first to be congratulated on the course.