Sepp Straka went on a seven-birdie run at Kapalua’s Plantation course on Friday.
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At Kapalua’s Plantation course on Friday, benign situations made the scores extremely low. In truth, of the 59 gamers within the area, solely two posted scores over par. Thirty-two gamers fired rounds of five-under (68) or higher, and a whopping eight gamers signed for 64s — that’s 9 below par!
Posting opening rounds of 69-65 (-12) would usually place you nicely within the combine on the leaderboard. However this week, Sepp Straka remains to be outdoors of the highest 10 after 36 holes, trailing Hideki Matsuyama’s lead by 4 pictures. However Straka did earn fairly a distinction on Friday, carding an unbelievable seven birdies in a row on the again 9 earlier than lastly ending his run with a par on the seventeenth.
“Properly, I really like a turkey, so I made three in a row on 12, and was fairly pleased about that,” Straka mentioned after his spherical. “Then birdied 13, 14, 15, which had been fairly gettable, so I used to be excited about six in a row, I by no means received to seven, however, yeah, I received sort of sizzling there with the irons and hit some good pictures and was in a position to make the putts.”
When the streak lastly ended with a par on the par-4 seventeenth gap, Straka mentioned his taking part in accomplice, Patton Kizzire, was extra disenchanted than he was.
“I had a putt on 17 and missed it, and he instantly instructed me that he was pissed at me,” Straka mentioned.
So what occurred?
“I hit it like 20 ft and missed the putt,” Straka mentioned.
A follow-up: Was that devastating?
“It was devastating,” he mentioned. “It was a tricky scene, however I’ll get by.
Midrange putts stumped this Tour professional. However he’s now swearing by 1 drill
“[Playing partners Kizzire and Stephan Jaegar] had been each fairly disenchanted in my end (laughing).”
Making seven birdies in a row is sort of an accomplishment (the PGA Tour report is 9 in a row), and one Straka says he can’t recall ever doing earlier than.
“I positively haven’t gotten eight so I believe seven is unquestionably my max,” he mentioned.
Though Straka needed to convert seven putts so as to hold the streak alive, he attributed the birdie barrage to stellar iron play.
“I used to be hitting my iron pictures actually shut,” he mentioned. “10 I hit it to 5 ft. 11 I hit it to 10 ft. I simply getting inside 10 ft. That may be robust with the wind out right here, it wasn’t as windy at the moment, however it’s additionally sort of arduous to determine precisely the place it’s coming from, so it’s arduous to essentially get it inside 10 ft, and I used to be in a position to try this for somewhat stretch there.”
Whereas he’s presently in a chaser’s place on the leaderboard, when the scoring is that this low, something can occur over the course of two rounds.
