VIRGINIA WATER, England — Given his fair complexion, Sepp Straka would never pass a Hollywood audition for the part of “tall dark stranger.” But there is no doubt the 30-year-old Austrian is, at least within the team room, the least known member of the European Ryder Cup side that will attempt to wrestle the trophy from American hands later this month.
While much has been made of other Ryder Cup rookies like Ludvig Aberg and Nicolai Hojgaard since captain Luke Donald added Straka and five others to the six automatic qualifiers, the University of Georgia graduate—hence the southern twang—has gone pretty much under the radar. But, as he was at pains to confirm after completing an opening two-under-par 70 at Wentworth in the BMW PGA Championship, he definitely does not feel in any way neglected.
And there is certainly nothing approaching resentment from his teammates with regard to where Straka played most of his golf. This week marks just the 20th DP World Tour start in his professional career.
“I do spend the majority of my time on the PGA Tour,” Straka acknowledged. “But if the team wanted to have the best players, I am one of those. So there has never really been any issues. To make the team, you just have to make sure you’re one of the 12 best players. And I felt like I did that.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
