“Se me estaba cayendo el pelo y decidí cortar por lo sano”, explains Sepp Straka (-23) about his radical change of look in 2025. What the Austrian golfer hasn’t changed is his golf. He is hitting fairways, finding greens, and making very few mistakes. He is a reliable golfer if ever there was one, and he is proving it at the American Express in California. With 18 holes to go, he has taken the lead with a four-shot advantage over Charley Hoffman (-19), Jason Day (-19), and Justin Lower (-19). One shot further back are Patrick Cantlay (-18) and Mark Hubbard (-18), while Justin Thomas (-17) still hopes to make a final push.
It won’t be easy to knock Straka off the top of the leaderboard. His numbers this week are impressive. He hasn’t made a single bogey in 54 holes, he’s the best from the tee, and he’s barely missed nine greens in three days. His three scorecards on three different courses have been 65, 64, and 64. A little machine. He is chasing his third victory on the PGA Tour after the John Deere in 2022 and the Honda Classic in 2023.
The final round of the American Express will be decided on the Stadium course by the genius Pete Dye, by far the most difficult of the three. The numbers are unequivocal. The total on the Nicklaus course is -575, at La Quinta it is -521, and at the Stadium, it is -47. The problem for those aspiring to dethrone Straka is that the European golfer has played equally well on all three. Just yesterday, he shot eight under at the Stadium. One-sixth of the under-par scored on the main resort course belongs to him.
In the meantime, with this lead and especially if he wins this Sunday, Straka raises his hand and reminds everyone that he was on the winning team of the Ryder Cup in Italy in 2023 and wants to repeat at Bethpage this year. Let no one forget him, even if he wasn’t in the Team Cup. However, his silent claim includes a contradiction, or a lack of opportunity. The American Express is one of the few PGA Tour tournaments of the year that does not count towards the European Ryder Cup qualification, as it takes place in the same week as a Rolex Series. The only exception is the ISCO Championship, which does count and shares the week with the Scottish Open. That it doesn’t count for qualification, which is a blow for Straka, doesn’t mean that a possible victory tonight wouldn’t have undeniable value. Remember that this year the Ryder Cup qualification system in Europe changed.
As every year, the American Express is a festival of low scores. Beyond the lead, already at -23 and we’ll see where it ends, the top 10 is at -15 and the cut was made at -9. Matteo Manassero, Rikuya Hoshino, and Nick Dunlap made it. Among those who missed the cut are Tony Finau, Francesco Molinari, Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, Jesper Svensson, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, and Antoine Rozner.
Also missing the cut was 17-year-old Blades Brown, who was playing his first tournament as a professional. He finished three shots off the target. Still, he was satisfied with the experience. On the other hand, William Mouw also missed the cut, the young player who scored 13 shots on the 16th hole of the Stadium. If he had made a birdie on that hole, a par 5, he would have made the cut. The best part is how he took it. “You have to laugh, there’s no other way. You have to laugh. We know what that hole is like and what that bunker is like. It’s golf. It can happen. Accept it and move on,” he concluded.
