Sepp Straka Wins The American Express, Holds Off Justin Thomas in the Desert

For 69 holes, Sepp Straka did not make a single bogey at The American Express. The last three holes were a reminder that the Pete Dye Stadium Course always wants a word. It just did not get the last one.

Straka shot a 2-under 70 on the Stadium Course on Sunday to finish at 25-under 263 and win by two shots over Justin Thomas, claiming a third PGA TOUR title and the first of the Austrian's career from a 54-hole lead. Thomas closed with a bogey-free 66 to finish alone in second at 23 under. Jason Day and Justin Lower tied for third at 22 under, and Patrick Cantlay and Charley Hoffman shared fifth at 20 under.

Fast Start, No Drama

Straka started the day four clear and immediately made the cushion look bigger. A 12-foot birdie on the 1st set the tone, another birdie came at the 4th from inside 13 feet, and a third arrived at the 7th. For a player sleeping on a final-round lead on TOUR for the first time, it was about as calm as a front nine can look.

"This course kind of makes it easy (to stay focused), because you just have to hit your shots," Straka said, per the AP. "There's no safe play. You just have to hit your numbers, especially as firm as the greens are."

Straka's two earlier wins, the 2022 Honda Classic and the 2023 John Deere Classic, both came from behind. This one was a different test entirely: protect the lead on a course where, by Straka's own description, every hole carries the chance of a double.

Thomas Makes a Run

The challenge came from a few groups ahead. Thomas birdied the first two holes, added another at the 5th and then made three birdies in four holes around the turn. Six birdies in the first 11 holes trimmed the gap to three, and for a moment the tournament had a pulse.

Straka answered on the 13th. That hole had been the hardest on the course all week, according to Golf Monthly, and Straka stuck the tee shot inside 8 feet and made the putt to push the lead back to four.

Thomas never got closer. The back nine turned into seven straight pars to finish, a clean card that just could not find one more birdie.

"I had a chance," Thomas said, per the AP. "It wasn't, obviously, a great one on the back nine, but I was proud of myself."

It was the eighth runner-up finish of Thomas' career and the second in three starts, a sign that the two-time major champion's game is trending back toward the top of the board.

The Final Group Fades

Hoffman, playing in the final group, got within three at one point and briefly looked like the one who might make this interesting. Then came the par-3 13th, where Hoffman hit two tee shots into the water and made a triple bogey. Hoffman still closed with 71 and a share of fifth, but the 48-year-old's bid for a first TOUR win since 2016 ended right there.

Day, the other member of that final group, never mounted the charge. A bogey at the 15th effectively ended Day's hopes, and another at the last left Day tied for third, still the best finish for the Australian since a runner-up at The Open in 2023.

Bogeys at the Buzzer

Straka finally blinked on the par-5 16th, the 70th hole of the week. The second shot was pushed into the right rough behind a berm, the pitch came up short, and a 17-foot par putt slid by. That was Straka's first bogey of the tournament. A par at 17 followed, and then another wobble at the last, where the approach found a bunker and Straka needed a 4-foot putt for bogey to close it out.

"Nerves, just complete nerves," Straka said, per the AP. "I never thought about the no-bogey thing."

Three more pars would have made Straka the first player since 2022 to win a TOUR event without a bogey over 72 holes. Instead it goes down as a two-shot win with a couple of late dents, which spends exactly the same.

By the Numbers

Straka made 27 birdies over four days, tied with Cam Davis for the most in the field, and played the Stadium Course in a combined 10 under across two rounds in a week when its scoring average sat at 71.3, the second-highest since the event returned to the Stadium in 2016, per the PGA TOUR. The win was worth $1,584,000 and 500 FedExCup points, according to Golf News Net, and makes Straka fully exempt on TOUR through the 2027 season.

Elsewhere on the board, Taylor Moore finished tied for seventh without a single bogey all week, the first player to go 72 holes clean and not win since Joaquin Niemann at the 2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic. J.T. Poston, the first-round leader, finished tied for 12th, and defending champion Nick Dunlap closed with 68 to tie for 34th.

What It Means

Straka arrived in the desert at 36th in the world and 25th in the FedExCup standings and leaves with a statement win that came the hard way, from the front. On a restored Stadium Course built to make leaders sweat, Straka sweated, and still walked off with the trophy.

Catch up on how the week unfolded in our Round 1 recap, Round 2 recap and Round 3 recap. Final scoring is on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the TOUR's final-round recap (opens in a new tab) has more details.

Sources: PGA TOUR (final-round recap, winner story and leaderboard), AP, Golf Monthly, Golf News Net, Golf Today. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.