US Open

Straka falls far behind after a weak round

Sepp Straka(Bild: AP)

Sepp Straka is unlikely to set a new career best in his fourth appearance at the US Open.

The 31-year-old completely fluffed his third round at Pinehurst on Saturday, remaining eight strokes over par and slipping from 27th place to 61st among the 74 remaining players at the halfway stage. In 2019, he was tied 28th on the course in North Carolina, having missed the cut there in the past two years.

Highlight on Friday
Straka had already lacked consistency on Friday, but thanks to his first hole-in-one on the PGA Tour, he was also able to provide a highlight. That failed to materialize a day later in temperatures of over 30 degrees. After Friday's triple bogey on the third hole, he also missed three shots this time, albeit on the 13th. The Vienna native also made five more bogeys (2, 6, 10, 16 and 17), with not a single birdie.

After a par round of 70 at the start and a 72 on Friday, Austria's figurehead is now already ten over par. He has thus clearly lost sight of the top 20. Almost 30 players had not yet finished their third round. The battle at the top was still completely open. The winner will receive a Major Tournament record sum of 4.3 million dollars (4.02 million euros), as was announced on Saturday.