By Frank Pingue
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) -Austria’s Sepp Straka enjoys flying under the radar but may find that harder to do at this week’s PGA Championship given he is fresh off the biggest win of his career that moved him into the top 10 of the world rankings.
Straka, whose triumph last week at the PGA Tour Signature Event in Philadelphia put him alongside Rory McIlroy as the only multiple winners in 2025 on the U.S.-based circuit, may have no choice but to start coming out of his shell.
“I’m not very outgoing. I’m not a big people person. I’m a little bit shy. So I definitely enjoy being under the radar a little more,” Straka said at Quail Hollow on Wednesday.
“It makes it maybe a little bit easier to prepare for tournaments because you don’t have all the eyeballs on you.”
By the time he tees off early on Thursday, Straka will have had little time to prepare for the year’s second major given he arrived in Charlotte on Monday evening.
Straka, who in 2022 became the first Austrian-born player to win on the PGA Tour, acknowledged the challenges of trying to regroup after the physical and emotional fatigue that comes with a big win.
“It’s definitely tough. I’ve had a lot of off weeks after my wins recently, which definitely helps to decompress, take it all in, get your energy back. But when it’s a quick turnaround like this, it’s hard,” said Straka.
“The big thing is getting energy back. You get kind of drained. There’s a lot of pressure. You’re wrestling a lot of things, and then obviously after you win, there’s a lot of adrenaline still going.”
Straka, who lived in Vienna until age 14 when his family moved to the United States, said golf had grown a lot in Austria and he was enjoying the support he was getting from his home country.
“It’s definitely not one of the major sports in Austria. Pretty limited with the seasons. But they’re definitely golf crazy, and it’s awesome to see the support that I get from Austria,” said Straka.
“Every week there’s somebody from Austria in the crowd that’s rooting me on, or I get messages from friends. It’s really cool to see kind of the support from Austria.”
Straka will tee off on Thursday from the 10th tee at 7:27 a.m. ET (1127 GMT) alongside Max McGreevy and Sahith Theegala.
(Reporting by Frank PingueEditing by Toby Davis)
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