Sepp Straka wins 2023 John Deere Classic

Sepp Straka (YouTube)

Sepp Straka of Vienna, Austria is the winner of the 2023 John Deere Classic. The 30-year-old shot a four-round score of -21, and beat Americans Brendon Todd of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Alex Smalley of Rochester, New York by two strokes, along with American Adam Schenk of Vincennes, New Jersey and rising Swedish star Ludvig Aberg by three strokes. Todd and Smalley finished at -19, while Schenk and Aberg finished at -18.

Straka won the tournament despite not getting off to a good start. He shot an opening round of two over par 73, and was actually was endangered of missing the cut, which was at -4. However, in the second round, Straka had a score of eight-under-par 63 to improve to -6. Then in the third round, Straka shot a score of six-under-par 65, followed by a fourth round score of nine-under-par 62.

On Sunday in the fourth round, Straka recorded an eagle. It came on the par five fifth hole where he posted a score of three.

Straka becomes the first European player to ever win the John Deere Classic. Eight players born outside of the United States have won the John Deere Classic in the past, but none from Europe. They have been John Lister of New Zealand (1976), Victor Regalado of Mexico (1978), Dave Barr of Canada (1981), David Frost of South Africa (1992 and 1993), three-time major champion Vijay Singh of Fiji (2003), Mark Hensby of Melbourne, Australia (2004), John Senden of Brisbane, Australia (2006), and Dylan Frittelli of South Africa (2019). Singh won the 1998 and 2004 PGA Championship, and 2000 Masters.

This was Straka’s second career PGA title. He became the first Austrian to win on the PGA Tour a year ago when he won the Honda Classic.

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