Straka hoping to impress Donald for Ryder Cup spot

RYDER CUP DREAM: Austrian Sepp Straka is hoping to impress at the Tour Championship and possibly claim a Ryder Cup spot. Pic: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Luke Donald might be in Prague, losing sleep and assessing a bunch of his potential captain’s picks for next month’s Ryder Cup in Rome. But the European captain can rest assured that the bulk of his 12-man roster is faring fine across the Atlantic in Atlanta.

The Tour Championship at East Lake includes seven players – including the top three already locked-in qualifiers – who are very likely to form the bulk of Donald’s team 29 September through 1 October at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Italy. There’s a good chance one of them could steel away with the PGA Tour’s biggest prize, the FedEx Cup, by Sunday night.

Six of seven are virtual guarantees to be part of Team Europe, with the English trio of Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood all possessing top-15 Official World Golf Rankings along with already qualified Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland.

The seventh is Austrian Sepp Straka, who has been building a name for himself since contending for a medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Straka, who was born in Vienna but moved to south Georgia when he was 14 and played college golf with his twin brother, Sam, at the University of Georgia on a team that included fellow future tour pros Keith Mitchell and Greyson Sigg.

Now the seventh highest ranked European player in the world at No. 24, Straka has come a long way from when he was so convinced he didn’t have a future in golf that he’d decided to stop playing in college. He’s qualified for the Tour Championship two straight years, finishing sixth last year five shots behind McIlroy.

“Sepp was gonna quit playing. I literally had to talk him into coming back and staying for his fifth redshirt year available to him,” said University of Georgia coach Chris Haack, who has sent an assembly line of players onto the PGA Tour including Brain Harman, Bubba Watson, Harris English, Russell Henley and dozens more. 

“Sepp had decided to quit playing and try to get a job. He always had the physical tools but never had the belief in himself. He didn’t trust his swing and wouldn’t commit to it.” 

To stoke Straka’s confidence, Haack actually followed him around one tournament in college and would punch him in the arm every time Straka didn’t commit to his swing. “I said, ‘Your game is so good but you’ve got to believe in yourself more,’” Haack said. “He ended up coming back and had an all-American year (in 2016) playing. He just started believing in himself. That’s the thing he leans on now. Love watching him swing. It’s such a simple move.” 

Straka eventually became the first Austrian-born player to earn a PGA Tour card, and in 2022 the first Austrian to win on tour in 2022 when he shot a final-round 66 at PGA National to beat Shane Lowry by a shot in the Honda Classic.

In July, Straka bolstered his Ryder Cup prospects by winning the John Deere Classic before heading to Royal Liverpool to finish tied second. He stopped short of feeling secure about his Ryder Cup chances after that fortnight of success along with his T7 finish with McIlroy in the PGA Championship.

“I don't know about that, but I feel like my game is in a good place,” Straka said at Hoylake of his Ryder Cup standing. “I've got a couple more months of tournaments to take advantage of the good play, and hopefully I can do that.

“It would be huge (to make Ryder Cup). It would be amazing. It's been a huge goal. Over the last year and a half really, it's been on my radar. Really looking forward to having a chance. … I want to be on the team, and hopefully I can show that with my golf.” 

Donald told Straka he’s been on the captain’s radar as well, which is a positive sign. “Hopefully I can take advantage of some good play and make the decision easy for him,” Straka said.

Straka came into the East Lake as the 30th man in the field, but his hot finish to post an opening 66 pushed him halfway up the leaderboard. He battled to a 1-over 71 on Friday but still has a chance to make another statement to get Donald’s attention with a strong weekend.

“Obviously if I went and won East Lake, that would probably change things, but yeah, I think he's got a pretty good idea of what my game is like,” Straka said.

“I think my ball-striking has improved a lot over the last year. It's gotten a little more consistent, so I've been able to kind of show up with my best game a couple more times.” 

As it currently stands with European qualifying for the last three automatic spots ending after next week’s Omega European Masters in Switzerland, Hatton and Fleetwood (or Fitzpatrick) would get the last two World Points spots and Robert MacIntyre the final European Points spot. Donald will announce his six captain’s picks on Monday 4 September.

Assuming the captain may want to pick a couple more veterans on the team like Lowry and Justin Rose, Straka is in the mix with a group of players including Séamus Power, Victor Perez, Yannick Paul, Adrian Meronk, Rasmus and Nicolai Højgaard and even Pádraig Harringtion for potentially the last four spots on the 12-man roster.