Kevin Streelman chases title with a 'vintage' putter at Bank of Utah Championship

IVINS, UT – Mark Broadie, the stats guru who invented the strokes gained measurements, long ago dispelled the saying of drive for show, putt for dough. But it still doesn’t hurt to have a deep affection for one’s putter and confidence in one’s ability to roll the rock.

Take Kevin Streelman, the veteran pro using an Odyssey Two-Ball putter that is nearly old enough to legally drink.

“The Odyssey reps, it drives ’em crazy because they can’t even find ’em to get me a backup or anything,” said Streelman, who got his in 2006 when he was playing on the mini tours. “But then you got out here and you have access to every Scotty Cameron or every custom thing you can imagine and it just was like in the back of my closet, always is, to my eye, this beautiful looking two-ball blade. So I pulled it back out last year. I had to Monday qualify at the Sony. I hadn’t done a Monday qualifier in 15 years or 16 years and I ended up Monday qualifying for the Sony last year, and used that putter. So it’s been in the bag ever since.”

Streelman has been “riding her” – his words – as well as ever this week, en route to shooting 15-under 127 and sit two strokes off the lead at the 2026 Bank of Utah Championship. He ranks third this week in Strokes Gained: Putting. Kevin Roy, 36, is alone in second, one off the pace after a bogey-free 63 on Friday. Roy, who is a ballstriking savant, is bogey free through 36 holes in large part due to a solid putting week. He ranks 10th in SG: putting.

But they’re all chasing Austin Smotherman, a 32-year-old Northern California native who carded 10 birdies on Friday and sits at 15-under 127. His game has had few holes this week but the putter has been a pleasant surprise. Smotherman, who started working with his former SMU golf coach on his putting this season, ranks fourth in SG: putting in Utah.

“This off-season I spent my third week off with having not touched a club I flew to Eugene, Oregon, to go get fit up at the L.A.B studio there, saw their headquarters where they produce every custom putter in the country, like 1,200 putters a day or something like that. It’s wild,” Smotherman recounted. “But I went through a whole putter fitting and ended up in the putter I’m playing now. I played it a week before Asheville and then this is my second week in tournament play with it. So it’s working out pretty nice.”

Indeed, it is. Smotherman and Roy are both seeking their first Tour title while Streelman has won before but not since 2014. But Streelman has good vibes here, finishing T-3 in the inaugural tournament at Black Desert Resort two years ago and is in position to make a run for his third career Tour title and set the 47-year-old up to be exempt until he’s eligible for PGA Tour Champions. Asked during a radio interview how long it had been since he’d played in the final group on a weekend, Streelman replied, “Sounds like you know the answer to that question.”

When the interviewer responded that he didn’t, Streelman shot back: “That’s a good question. Ask the PGA Tour staff. It’s been awhile.”

A Tour media official confirmed it had been since the 2024 Valspar Championship, the same year he played in the next-to-last group in Utah on Sunday.

Still a long way to go and a lot more birdies will need to be made but a hot putter may go a long way in the desert.

Adam Schupak is a Golfweek senior writer covering the PGA Tour.