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. The truth is, 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 effectively within the combine on the leaderboard. However this week, Sepp Straka continues to be outdoors of the highest 10 after 36 holes, trailing Hideki Matsuyama’s lead by 4 photographs. 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.
“Nicely, I like a turkey, so I made three in a row on 12, and was fairly comfortable about that,” Straka stated after his spherical. “Then birdied 13, 14, 15, which had been fairly gettable, so I used to be eager about six in a row, I by no means obtained to seven, however, yeah, I obtained sort of sizzling there with the irons and hit some good photographs and was capable of make the putts.”
When the streak lastly ended with a par on the par-4 seventeenth gap, Straka stated his taking part in associate, 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 ft 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] had been each fairly disenchanted in my end (laughing).”
Making seven birdies in a row is kind of an accomplishment (the PGA Tour document 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 feel 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 photographs actually shut,” he stated. “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 as we speak, but it surely’s additionally sort of exhausting to determine precisely the place it’s coming from, so it’s exhausting to actually get it inside 10 ft, and I used to be ready to do this for slightly 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.