Austin Smotherman claims first PGA Tour victory at Bank of Utah Championship

Hanging in the pro shop of the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex is a recent addition. It is the signed caddie bib from The American Express in Palm Springs, California, of the local boy who made good. That's where Austin Smotherman met with junior golfers from the Sacramento municipal courses and told them that if they work hard, they too could someday make their dreams come true.

On Sunday, amid the red rocks and black lava of Black Desert Resort in Ivins, Utah, Smotherman's dream came true as he won for the first time on the PGA Tour, shooting 3-under 68 to win the Bank of Utah Championship by two strokes over Doug Ghim and by three over David Ford and Trace Crowe.

Smotherman, a 32-year-old pro, cut his teeth at Haggin Oaks and Ancil Hoffman and grew up playing all over Northern California and the Golden State against the likes of Cameron Champ and Bryson DeChambeau, who took a faster track to the winner's circle on Tour.

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Smotherman's journey started long ago in Loomis, California, where golf clubs were ever-present around the family house as well as his grandfather's place in Lincoln. Smotherman's first clubs as a kid was a set of plastic Snoopy irons. Eventually, his grandpa cut a Sam Snead 7-iron blade and persimmon head 5-wood down to size and used duct tape and electrical tape for grips. Smotherman still counts both as treasured possessions tucked away at his mom's house.

His earliest golf memory is hitting balls in his front yard with his dad. He was five years old when he hit one onto the roof of their one-story house, and he eventually hit a ball over it and into the backyard. Before long, he joined Little Linkers, a developmental skill building program designed to help kids develop their athleticism and learn the game, at Haggin Oaks. "That was my first real consistent go and practice and be with a junior group activity," Smotherman recalled.

Mostly a self-taught player, he estimates he had fewer than 10 lessons by his junior year of high school. During those formative years, he worked as a cart boy at Twelve Bridges (now Catta Verdera Country Club in Lincoln) to earn practice privileges.

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He beat DeChambeau by one stroke at the 2011 Cal Junior Amateur, with an 18th hole birdie, cementing his reputation as a standout Sacramento-area talent. SMU men's golf coach Josh Gregory, who has helped Smotherman with his short game and putting this season, walked that final round with DeChambeau, his star recruit, but by the end of the round he was ready to offer Smotherman a scholarship too.

"Two weeks later, I was having an official visit and six months later, I was starting college golf at SMU and Bryson and I had become teammates," Smotherman said.

The bond with DeChambeau grew in college and when Smotherman graduated he and his wife, Jessica, got a townhouse in Dallas and DeChambeau became their tenant.

"It was just a glorified storage unit for him where he knew everything was going to be safe because he was hardly ever there, and it was a way for him to help us out with paying some rent," Smotherman said. "He knew I wasn't necessarily rolling in the dough."

That first summer out of college, Smotherman was playing state Opens and the Adams mini tour. He was squeaking by but as a measure of his belief in Smotherman, DeChambeau wrote a check for $5,200 to pay his entry fee into PGA Tour Q-School. Smotherman shot a bogey-free final-round 5-under 67 with a birdie at the last and was T-8 when he finished. The top 19 and ties would advance to the final stage and lock up at least Korn Ferry Tour status. Smotherman drove home, sat on his couch enjoying a late lunch and watched in horror as he tumbled to T-21. He ended up playing two seasons on PGA Tour Latinoamerica, the equivalent of AA baseball, but it turned out to be the best thing for him as a person.

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"Going to South America was an incredible experience," he said. "If you have the opportunity and that's where your journey takes you, I always tell guys to lean into it."

Smotherman earned his PGA Tour card by finishing 25th on the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour money list, earning the final card available. But keeping it would prove tougher than he imagined. In 2022, he needed to make the cut at the Wyndham Championship, the final regular season event to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. Play was suspended due to darkness, and he had to sleep on it overnight. He missed a birdie putt and then made double bogey to fall short.

"I took it as, Hey, there's, there's a bigger plan here. We're going to come back. We're not playing seasons to just keep our card. We're going to build up to where these things are just an afterthought," he said.

He played the following season with conditional status and then had to return to the Korn Ferry Tour last season as a savvy 30-year-old veteran. He won twice to return to the big leagues, notched a T-8 at The American Express in January and held the 54-hole lead at the Cognizant Classic in late February. While he didn't get that elusive first win, settling for a runner-up finish, he proved that his game is built to last. His version of success may have taken longer to achieve but his life is full of so much more than trophies.

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"Comparison is kind of a thief of joy. I got to marry my high school sweetheart. We got to travel. We got to support each other. We got to do all these things. And now we're raising a family," said the father of daughters Adeline, Penelope, and Grace, who was born in April.

After building a one-stroke lead at Black Desert Resort and setting a 54-hole tournament record, he birdied three of the first five holes on a sun-soaked day to stretch his lead to three. But he had a hiccup at 13, making double bogey, and when Trace Crowe canned an eagle putt at 14, Smotherman's lead had been trimmed to one.

All Smotherman did was step up and rip 3-wood at the drivable 14th to 6 feet. He missed the putt but the birdie stretched his lead back to two and settled Smotherman. He rolled in another birdie at 16 and despite a 3-putt bogey at 17, he birdied the 18th and signed for 26-under 258.

Smotherman's journey to Tour winner took 100 career starts. It has not always been a straight line but he finally had his turn at hoisting a trophy and he'll forever be a Tour winner.

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

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Austin Smotherman claims first PGA Tour victory at Bank of Utah Championship