Sepp Straka fired a final-round 70 to claim victory at the 2025 American Express.
Highlighted by four early birdies, Straka was able to overcome two late bogeys and finish the tournament on 25 under, two clear of Justin Thomas.
“This course kind of makes it easy because you just have to hit your shots,” said Straka. “I mean, there’s no safe play, really, you just have to hit your numbers, you have to hit your spots, especially as firm as the greens are, you just have to execute, kind of made it easy to focus on each shot.
“But it was very intimidating, obviously, because every hole you know you got a chance to make a double, a bogey, everywhere you look.
“So, yeah, very happy with the way I hit the ball today and yeah, just overall very happy with the week.”
The win at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif. was the third of Straka’s PGA Tour career.
“Yeah, it’s a very different feeling, I would say, you just have nerves a lot earlier,” said Straka when asked to compare the win to his first two victories.
“Those other ones, you play your way into contention and those nerves start kicking in. But, yeah, I love Kirby Smart’s quote about being the hunter and not the hunted regardless of where you are in the game, in the tournament.
“Yeah, I kind of felt that way, I was kind of just trying to stay aggressive to my spots, my targets were pretty conservative, but I was trying to make aggressive swings to it. Yeah, I did that really well today.”
Thomas, still in search for his first win since 2022, carded a Sunday round of 6-under 66 to jump into solo second on 23 under.
“I played well,” said Thomas. “I mean, I had a chance, it wasn’t obviously a great one on the back nine, but I was proud of myself, I did what I needed to do on the front nine today and at least be making some noise and kind of moving up the leaderboard.
“Obviously it was unfortunate to kind of stall there after 11, really, really played some great golf today, hit some really good shots, made some great putts and hit some great putts too that didn’t go in.
“No, it’s good, I was far from my best stuff this week, I feel like I managed everything really well and got it around well, only two bogeys all week, and, but, yeah, in a place like this you got to be pretty sharp all around, and I’ll just keep building.”
Jason Day (69) and Justin Lower (69) tied for third on 22 under.
The 2025 American Express
Top-5 Leaders: Final Round
1. Sepp Straka -25 (-2)
2. Justin Thomas -23 (-6)
3. Jason Day -22 (-3)
3. Justin Lower -22 (-3)
5. Patrick Cantlay -20 (-2)
5. Charley Hoffman -20 (-1)
Bill Sangster contributed to this recap.
