Sepp Straka, Who Ranks 156th On The PGA Tour In Scrambling, Had A God-Tier Chip-In On The 18th At The Open Championship

KILL INTO THE HILL! KILL INTO THE HILL! KILL INTO THE HILL!

...Is a chant that sounded better when I was writing it as opposed to shouting it aloud. Nevertheless, I'm a huge appreciator of this particular play. But the balls on Sepp Straka to take this approach with a deep pot bunker staring you right in the face? At The Open Championship, no less? Holy shit. STONES. What a freaking birdie.

Seriously, it was bad enough that Straka short-sided himself by missing the par-5 18th green to the left. Turns out he didn't really have a choice, because he found the greenside bunker with his second, and had to blast out about 20 yards to that point.

Could've compounded that blunder if his fourth shot landed mere inches shorter than it actually did. There was nothing to work with from that spot. Phil would've likely taken a full-swing flop shot despite the tight lie from the fairway. Straka opted for a most unconventional bump-and-run and the result was glorious.

As mentioned in the headline, the husky Austrian ranks 156th in scrambling. Had to look at prior years upon seeing that glaring flaw in his game. The previous season he was 125th. In 2020-21? Ranked 147th. Pretty much the only guy who I'd less expect to execute such a difficult touch shot is Viktor Hovland, yet even he's improved a great deal of late in that area of weakness.

For a guy whose short game often fails him around the greens, Straka delivered the goods here. Just goes to show how damn good these professionals are. Someone who's allegedly "bad" at scrambling can still pull off beauties like this one.

Royal Liverpool is proving to be a pretty tough test for the morning wave. Winds are swirling. A couple good rounds on the board but nothing crazy. Good on Straka to get in the clubhouse at level par, especially after double bogeying the previous par 5 at No. 15. He just won the John Deere Classic earlier this month. Let's see if he can be a factor on the weekend. 

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