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. Actually, 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 underneath par!
Posting opening rounds of 69-65 (-12) would usually place you properly 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.
“Effectively, I really like a turkey, so I made three in a row on 12, and was fairly completely happy about that,” Straka stated after his spherical. “Then birdied 13, 14, 15, which have been fairly gettable, so I used to be eager about six in a row, I by no means received to seven, however, yeah, I received type of sizzling there with the irons and hit some good pictures and was capable of make the putts.”
When the streak lastly ended with a par on the par-4 seventeenth gap, Straka stated his enjoying 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 stated.
So what occurred?
“I hit it like 20 toes and missed the putt,” Straka stated.
A follow-up: Was that devastating?
“It was devastating,” he stated. “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] have 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 certainly my max,” he stated.
Though Straka needed to convert seven putts with the intention to preserve the streak alive, he attributed the birdie barrage to stellar iron play.
“I used to be hitting my iron pictures actually shut,” he stated. “10 I hit it to 5 toes. 11 I hit it to 10 toes. I simply getting inside 10 toes. That may be robust with the wind out right here, it wasn’t as windy at this time, but it surely’s additionally type of arduous to determine precisely the place it’s coming from, so it’s arduous to essentially get it inside 10 toes, and I used to be ready to do this for a bit of stretch there.”
Whereas he’s at present in a chaser’s place on the leaderboard, when the scoring is that this low, something can occur over the course of two rounds.
