THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 13, 2026

Sepp Straka

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. What was the key to your good play today?

SEPP STRAKA: A lot better off the tee today. Yesterday was pretty shaky off the tee. I hit my driver and woods terrible off the tee. Today was a lot better. So yeah, that definitely made it a lot easier today.

Q. Did you do anything after your first round?

SEPP STRAKA: Yeah, I went and hit a few balls afterwards, just to try to come up with something, and yeah, I was kind of drifting off it a little too much in my backswing, trying to stay a little more centered.

Q. When you say hit a few golf balls, how many is that for a guy like you?

SEPP STRAKA: Yesterday it was about -- it wasn't much. About 25 or so. I had a pretty good idea of what it was going to be. But, yeah, just needed to try a few on the range.

Q. If you're hitting it better off the tee, was this a more comfortable round for you?

SEPP STRAKA: A little bit, yeah. Iron play definitely was not quite as good as it was yesterday. Yesterday I felt like if I was in the fairway I would end up with a pretty good birdie putt. That was definitely not the case today.

But it played a little tricky out there. The wind was definitely up this morning, and yeah, made it play a little tougher than yesterday.

Q. Do you get a few more kids yelling at you when you're near the top of the leaderboard?

SEPP STRAKA: I don't know. I feel like they try to get everybody to come by, so probably pretty consistent.

Q. What are your early memories of this tournament?

SEPP STRAKA: I've got some good ones, yeah. Watching it obviously, growing up in Austria, but then when we moved to the States we moved to south Georgia when I was 14. Then every year in high school we came down to watch the tournament. So this was always my -- the Austrian Open was my first tournament that I ever went to, always went to that, but then this was my first PGA TOUR event growing up as a kid, and we went every year.

Q. Who would you like to follow follow?

SEPP STRAKA: Tiger. Yeah, it was always Tiger. Yeah.

Q. Can you put into words what it would mean to you to come home with a win this week after growing up watching it in person?

SEPP STRAKA: It would be great. This is obviously one of the biggest golf tournaments in the world. It would be pretty incredible. But yeah it's only Friday, just past noon, so not trying to get ahead of myself here.

Q. Nutrition, how has your opinion on that changed over the course of your career?

SEPP STRAKA: I eat more on the golf course now than I used to. I definitely think it's important to stay energized. Outside of that, I've definitely cleaned up my eating a little bit over the last year. That had more to do with general health than it did my golf game.

But definitely see a little more energy day-to-day. I definitely think it makes a big difference.

Q. Feels like a lot of guys are doing that now, cutting stuff out of their diet, so I was interested to hear if you had any experience with that.

SEPP STRAKA: Yeah, yeah, a little bit.