{"id":332833,"date":"2025-12-07T13:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T13:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332833\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T13:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T13:28:09","slug":"sepp-straka-seizes-1-shot-lead-lead-over-scottie-scheffler-in-bahamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332833\/","title":{"rendered":"Sepp Straka seizes 1-shot lead lead over Scottie Scheffler in Bahamas"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASSAU, Bahamas — Sepp Straka<\/a> made three birdies and two eagles on the par 5s for an 8-under 64 and seized on some late misses by Scottie Scheffler<\/a> to take a one-shot lead Saturday going into the final round of the Hero World Challenge.<\/p>\n

Straka chipped in for eagle on the par-5 sixth and played great golf just to keep pace with Scheffler, who had five straight 3s on his scorecard to start the third round and was 9 under for his round through 15 holes.<\/p>\n

Scheffler, going for a third straight win at Albany Golf Club, has stumbled over the final three holes every day this week – a double bogey on the 16th on Thursday, a bogey on the 16th on Friday, and then a bogey-par-bogey finish.<\/p>\n

He still had a 65 and will be in the final group with Straka on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Straka seized on the par 5s. Along with his chip-in on the sixth hole, he holed an 18-foot eagle putt on the downwind, par-5 15th. He also hit a 3-wood that landed perfectly in front of the green at the par-5 ninth that rolled out to 15 feet for a two-putt birdie.<\/p>\n

He trailed Scheffler by three shots through five holes, and by two shots with four holes left. But Straka was bogey-free on the day and finished at 18-under 198.<\/p>\n

“He definitely got it going quick,” Straka said of the world’s No. 1 player. “It didn’t look like he was going to miss a putt there for a little bit. But it’s golf, it usually evens out a lot and I just tried to focus on my own game.”<\/p>\n

The only par 4 that Straka birdied was No. 7, where the tee was moved back. That kept players from trying to drive the green and instead tested them with a wedge to a dangerous back-left pin. Straka took it on and hit it to 7 feet.<\/p>\n

Scheffler, who went left of the 16th fairway the opening two rounds – one of those leading to a penalty drop from a bush – this time found the short grass and it wasn’t much better. He had an awkward stance, tugged it left into a bunker and the ball buried in the sand, leading to bogey.<\/p>\n

He also dropped a shot on the 18th by missing the green to the right – water is left – leaving a tricky pitch up the slope.<\/p>\n

“A few unfortunate breaks, but overall did some really good stuff,” Scheffler said.<\/p>\n

Alex Noren<\/a> (67) and Hideki Matsuyama<\/a> (68) were three shots behind Straka, while J.J. Spaun<\/a> and Wyndham Clark<\/a> each shot 69 and were four behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASSAU, Bahamas — Sepp Straka made three birdies and two eagles on the par 5s for an 8-under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-332833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}