Weekly Recap: Sepp-arate From the Pack

There have already been four first-time winners on the PGA Tour in 2022. First came Luke List, then Tom Hoge, then Scottie Scheffler and now Sepp Straka, who captured The Honda Classic in a stunner -- or rather a series of stunners -- on Sunday at PGA National.

The first stunner came when steady-as-they-go Daniel Berger blew a five-stroke lead to start the final round, and did so rather quickly. The second came when Shane Lowry lost his own two-shot lead despite playing a near-perfect round of bogey-free golf on one of the hardest tracks out there. The third stunner came when Straka played what was likely the best 10-hole stretch of his young career, birdieing the final hole for a 10-under score to edge Lowry by a shot.

Straka made four birdies over the final 10 holes, one on the famed Bear Trap and another on the par-5 18th that was the ultimate decider. After he hit a booming 334-yard drive, a teeming downpour ensued. Straka was able to easily birdie the hole while the final twosome of Lowry and Berger was forced to tee off in the rain. Lowry's drive went way left, he had to lay up and couldn't make his long birdie try.

Straka thus became the first Austrian to win a PGA Tour event, though his accent is surely more reflective of his days attending the University of Georgia. Yes, Straka is the latest golfer from the Bulldog pipeline to break through.

As for all the first-time winners this year, Scheffler's win in Phoenix was of course just a matter of time for the top-20 player. List winning the Farmers Insurance Open was not expected, but he at least was a great ball striker who had had some close calls through the years. Hoge taking the title at Pebble Beach was a big surprise, but he was coming off a runner-up just a couple of weeks earlier and was ranked top-70 in the world. There really was little to suggest that Straka, 28, was ready to win his 95th career start -- but in retrospect there was a sliver of an indication.

Straka had never so much as cracked the top 125 in the world rankings, having entered the week at 176th. He ended 2021 in a horrible slump, having missed 12 of his final 17 cuts. But once the calendar flipped, he turned a corner, making all five cuts heading into The Honda Classic, including strong showings at two tough tracks that resulted in a T16 at Torrey Pines and a T15 last week at Riviera.

If you look at Straka's season-long stats, there wasn't one metric to offer even a glimmer of hope. In years past, he had been a long hitter, but even his distance was down this season. He had a great driving week at the Honda -- mandatory at PGA National -- ranking 17th in distance and, much more importantly, first in accuracy. He ranked fourth in both Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Putting to put things all together at just the right time.

Straka did have two bogeys Sunday, but they were on the front nine, and he shot over par on just seven holes all week -- six bogeys and a double early on Thursday.

Now up to by-far-career-best 83rd in the world, Straka will get into the Masters and PGA Championship, and perhaps more. Plus, his card is secure through the 2023-24 campaign.

We don't know how far Straka will go in his career, or even the rest of this season, but we do know that winning at a hard golf course where only one player reached double digits is far more encouraging than winning a 25-under birdie-fest.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Shane Lowry
Lowry did enough to win --  he had one bogey all weekend and shot 1-under on the back nine Sunday -- yet it obviously wasn't enough. He is still seeking his first win since the 2019 Open Championship and had fallen to 50th in the world, but he is now back up to 35th. He has shown a propensity to play well on tough tracks like PGA National, with top-10s last season at THE PLAYERS, Masters, PGA and Memorial. Some of those tournaments are coming up soon.

Kurt Kitayama
Kitayama is a native Californian but had played only 17 previous events on the PGA Tour before this season, having spent much of his time internationally. He just got his card for this season via the Korn Ferry playoffs but had done next to nothing, with six missed cuts in eight starts. After never finishing better than 17th in a Tour event, this solo third was huge moment for Kitayama and goes a long way in securing his card for next season. He also jumped from 289th OWGR to 172nd, though that's still far from his best of 66th.

Daniel Berger
Berger was handed the trophy by Golf Twitter on Friday. Oh well. He even had a five-shot lead coming into Sunday, and one of the more conservative of the top players was one of the last guys you'd think would cede that. But he putted worse than anyone else on the course in the final round and didn't make a putt longer than just over two feet. It was a remarkable collapse, all the way to solo fourth place.

Gary Woodland
Woodland had plummeted to 142nd in the world rankings and remains winless since capturing the 2018 U.S. Open. Injuries have been a big contributing factor. He missed 11 cuts in 2021, far more than in any other year of his career. He used to be one of the straightest of the long drivers. He's still long but entered the week ranked 195th in fairways hit. So with all that has gone wrong, a solo fifth in a mediocre field is no cause to think that Woodland is, um, out of the woods. But he had to start somewhere.

Alex Noren
Noren's next birthday will be his 40th, but he continues to shine, tying for fifth at the Honda. He was also sixth at Phoenix and now stands at 63rd in the world rankings.

Matthias Schwab
Schwab tied for seventh, yet he was only the No. 2 Austrian in the field. The 27-year-old gained his PGA Tour card via the Korn Ferry Tour, and he has made five of six cuts in limited play this season.

Chris Kirk
Kirk hung around all week until finding the water for a fatal double on 15. He wound up tied for seventh. His game is really sharp right about now, especially tee-to-green, and he ranked 15th at the Honda. He also was 21st in Putting.

Keith Mitchell
Mitchell tied for ninth – that's four top-12s already in 2022. He's up to 73rd in the world rankings entering another week where the course, Bay Hill, should fit his game.

Adam Svensson
Svensson has been an interesting development the past couple of months, as the Korn Ferry grad has made all five cuts in 2022, including a top-10 at the Sony. And he was in the mix again this week by leading the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He really was more than in the mix, he was in contention until three bogeys and a double on the back nine relegated him into a tie for ninth. Svensson is definitely someone to keep an eye on.

Cameron Young
Last week's Riviera runner-up did not let up, tying for 16th to move to the brink of the top-50 in the world at No. 51.

Brooks Koepka
Koepka barely made a peep all week but he wound up in a tie for 16th. Hey, at least he beat his brother Chase, who missed the cut on the number. Seriously, it bodes well for Koepka heading into THE PLAYERS in two weeks and soon after, the Masters.

Martin Contini
The 27-year-old Argentine Monday-qualified into the first PGA Tour event of his career and it was quite a debut. Contini, who also had played only five Korn Ferry tournaments, stunningly tied for 16th.  He hadn't made even $30,000 total on the Korn Ferry and LatinoAmerica Tours yet pocketed a cool $106,533 for his week at the Honda.

Rick Lamb
Lamb was also a Monday qualifier and tied for 30th. He was the guy who got the last of the four qualifying spots when he eagled to win an amazing 16-for-1 playoff.

Rickie Fowler
Fowler tied for 42nd – hey, it's another made cut. But the real news is that he tied for eighth in the field in putting. That's been his big trouble spot this season.

Sungjae Im
This was a shocker and, no sugarcoating, a huge miss. We touted Im very highly wherever we spoke and picked him in the RotoWire one-and-done pool. We don't know how many times Im would miss the cut on this course in this field (one or two out of 10?) but he surely missed it this week. Brutal.

Tommy Fleetwood
Another PGA Tour start, another poor performance with a missed cut. Fleetwood continues to fall in the world rankings, now 50th, and he would be far lower without his DP World Tour results. He had all of four top-25s on Tour last season, including one in the Match Play and another in the Olympics, neither of which really counts. He also had one at the Masters, which certainly counts, and also at Bay Hill, which is coming this week. Let's see how Fleetwood does this time around. We're not expecting much.

Joaquin Niemann
Niemann came out of the gate on Thursday morning just like he ended last week's win at Riviera. But he quickly faded and missed the cut. It's to be expected after such a big win. The next step for Niemann is consistency. He still has too many really bad weeks, which the best players almost always avoid.

Aaron Wise
Wise now has three missed cuts and a T67 in four starts in 2022. He missed the cut on the number at the Honda and it was perhaps the best part of his game – iron play – that let him down. He ranked 123rd in the 144-man field in SG: Approach. Wise had a great start to the season during the Fall Swing but that's the easiest portion of the PGA Tour schedule. We expected vast improvement from Wise this season, but it has yet to materialize.

Patrick Reed
Reed absolutely collapsed on the back nine on Friday, shooting a 9-over 44 en route to a trunk-slamming 79. He had three double-bogeys within a seven-hole span. It's hard to know what's up with Reed, other than his game has been off for more than six months now. He needs an elite short game to compete, and now it's about as far from elite as possible: He ranked 128th in the field in SG: Around-the-Green and 57th in Putting.

Matthew Wolff
Wolff had been playing pretty well this season but the showing at PGA National was out-of-this-world awful. He tied for last in the 144-man field, five clear of the next worst golfer. Every part of his game was off (to say the least). We'll see how he responds this week at Bay Hill.

Nicolai Hojgaard
The 20-year-old Danish star on the DP World Tour made his PGA Tour debut, and it was a bad missed cut. In fairness, PGA National is not where you want to play for the first time on the hardest tour in the world. It doesn't get any easier for the No. 76-ranked Hojgaard this week at almost-as-hard Bay Hill.