MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The highlight of Sepp Straka’s year is easy to pinpoint following his breakthrough victory in February at the Honda Classic. The lowlight is just as easy to pinpoint – a horrid stretch of six consecutive missed cuts to end the regular season.

It is what made his 64-66 start at the post-season opener both surprising and welcome.

After finishing his second round at the FedEx St. Jude Championship with birdies at four of his last five holes, Straka was asked if his regular-season finish had impacted his attitude.

“You can't afford to do that out here,” said Straka, who leads by one shot early Friday at TPC Southwind. “The margins are so small, if you miss some fairways, now you're starting to play for pars and you can't really do that out here. You've just got to remind yourself that any one thing can kind of change it the other way.”

That one thing, he explained, can be as simple and seemingly insignificant as a single shot.

“It's just really you've got to take it one shot at a time whether it's going good or bad and you've just got to try to remind yourself of that as much as you can,” he said.