Sepp Straka, who won his last start at the AmEx, leads the way at Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Sepp Straka is starting to get a taste for the top of leaderboards. After winning the American Express two weeks ago, the Austrian leads by two at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am through 36 holes.
Straka, 31, followed up a wonderful 7-under 65 at Spyglass Hill on Thursday with another 65 Friday, this time around Pebble Beach, and is 14 under overall. Outside of a missed four-footer on the par-4 16th that led to a bogey, Straka kept the card clean and added eight circles to it.
He's done everything well through two days, ranking fourth in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, sixth in SG: Approach and fourth in SG: Around the Green. But none of those areas are the ones he's most excited about.
"Yeah, definitely, the putting," Straka said when asked what offseason change is paying off early in the season. "Made a few setup changes in my putting and that's really helped out a lot. Palm Springs was the first time in a long time I felt that I had four really good putting rounds in a row. Yeah, I think that's definitely made a huge difference."
Through 36 holes, Straka ranks 24th in SG: Putting.
As for a post-round treat to celebrate the halfway lead, the 20th-ranked player in the world has a standing order.
"(Diet Coke)'s customary. The scoring guys always have one ready for me when I finish a round, so special treatment."
The last Tour player to win in back-to-back starts was Rory McIlroy last season at the Zurich Classic and Truist Championship (formerly known as the Wells Fargo Championship).
Russell Henley, Straka's fellow former Georgia Bulldog, and Aussie Cameron Davis are three shots back at 11 under. The end of Henley's round was a bit of a rollercoaster — he birdied Nos. 4, 5 and 7 and dropped shots on Nos. 6 and 8 — but was able to par the ninth and get into the house with a second-round 3-under 69.
"Oh, man, try to be positive," Henley said of the forecasted winds on Saturday. "Everybody's going to deal with it. So I'm just going to try to commit to my shots, make some good decisions and hopefully that works out."
With gusts up to 30 mph for the third round, we're in for some carnage on the Monterey Peninsula.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Sepp Straka leads at the 2025 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
