Sepp Straka joined elite company last week in Philadelphia. Yet, he enters this week's PGA Championship behind numerous names who are being given a greater chance to lift the famous Wanamaker Trophy come Sunday afternoon in Charlotte.
But it's time to acknowledge the 32-year-old as a serious championship contender.
The Austrian comes into the year's second major championship carrying one of the most impressive resumes of the season thus far. A winner at The American Express in January, Straka added his second PGA Tour victory of the year and the fourth of his career this past week at the Truist Championship, holding off major champions Shane Lowry and Justin Thomas to secure the biggest win of his young career to date.
One could easily argue Straka's big win had been coming after a T7 finish at Pebble Beach and a top-five finish at Bay Hill in March, both Signature Events boasting elite fields. He also finished in the top 15 at both The Players Championship and the RBC Heritage.
Last week's win at the Philadelphia Cricket Club saw Sepp join Rory McIlroy as the only other player on the PGA Tour with multiple wins so far this season.
Yet, despite a win at a Signature Event in his last start, his two titles on the PGA Tour this season, and a resume littered with impressive results, which now has him in the highest position of his career in the Official World Golf Ranking at No. 9, Straka sits below far too many names when it comes to the 2025 PGA Championship betting odds.
It's time to acknowledge Sepp Straka as a serious contender
Heading into Thursday's opening round, Straka is getting +6000 odds to win and sits behind 17 players, a list that includes the likes of Joaquín Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, and yes, even Shane Lowry, the man Straka just beat at the Truist Championship.
Overall, the former Georgia Bulldog doesn't have the most impressive resume in major championships. But he does have a couple of strong results on the big stage, including a T7 at the PGA Championship two years ago at Oak Hill and a T2 finish at the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.
Straka did miss the cut at The Masters last month, but aside from one other missed cut at The Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines in late January, he has had a remarkable season so far with nine top-15 finishes in 14 starts, obviously including his two wins.
That elite play has him in second in the FedEx Cup standings behind only McIlroy.
But again, despite all of this, Sepp finds himself behind a player who has recorded just one top-20 finish in a major championship, a major champion who hasn't won an individual event in the U.S. since 2015, and another who is still searching for his first career win on this side of the Atlantic.
All of these players are great, but should they be favored over Straka to win the PGA Championship right now? Probably not.
Sepp Straka might not come close to winning the PGA Championship this week and may even miss the cut in his second major championship start of the year.
But regardless of how this week plays out, there is no denying he has leveled up in 2025, and it's truly time to consider him as a potentially serious contender in every event in which he tees it up going forward.