Every time Kevin Streelman returns to Torrey Pines, as he did in January for the Farmers Insurance Open, the memories come flooding back.
He remembers being stranded in San Diego in 2004 after missing, by a shot, qualifying for the Buick Invitational. That’s when the sponsors in Chicago who had pledged to back him financially stopped answering his phone calls.
At the time, he was struggling to launch his pro career and says he had only $400 in his bank account. He was the ultimate golf vagabond, earning gas money by cleaning clubs and caddying at a private club in Scottsdale so he could drive thousands of miles to scrape out a living on golf’s mini-tours.
One year he didn’t make a cut on the Gateway Tour in Arizona. One year he applied to be the assistant golf coach at Duke, his alma mater, but didn’t get the job. And the day he was stranded in San Diego, he didn’t know what to do, so he pulled a business card out of his wallet and called an Orange County man he met in Phoenix the previous month.
The man’s name was Graham Gaines, a member at Coto de Caza Golf & Racquet Club, to whom he explained his plight. Shortly thereafter, Gaines introduced him to Tim St. John, another Coto member, and they gave Streelman $5,000 “to get going again.”
The next week Streelman drove from Orange County to Arkansas for a Hooters Tour event and earned $11,000 for finishing second. The journey continued.
Thanks to Gaines and St. John and “friends of friends,” Streelman’s consortium of sponsors grew to about a dozen, and Streelman continued his drive across America while burning out engines on two Nissan Altimas and one Toyota Camry. Only the steel rod in the back seat carrying hangars of golf shirts and slacks remained the same.
“I wanted to at least give it a shot,” he said, “and see how far I could make it.”
It was a long journey, covering an estimated 300,000 auto miles over six years on four mini-tours, but Kevin Streelman finally arrived. In 2007 he won four events on the Gateway and Hooters tours and advanced through three stages of Q-School to earn his PGA Tour card for 2008, at age 29.
This time, San Diego was ready to welcome him back.
As fate would have it, the tour rookie got into the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines as the last alternate and shot himself into the spotlight with rounds of 67 and 69 to grab second place behind Tiger Woods heading into the third round. Thousands of spectators lined the fairways as Tiger and The Rookie teed off on Saturday. This was the destination Streelman had driven 300,000 miles to reach.
“For a rookie, I couldn’t have had a better learning experience, to get into that circus,” Streelman said at Torrey Pines at this year’s Farmers Insurance Open. “It’s something I’ll never forget.”
Though he stumbled over the weekend and finished 29th, his $33,063 paycheck was worthy of framing. That Woods ran away from the field only made it more special. His memories in San Diego got even better that summer when he was tied for first after the first round of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, also won by some guy named Tiger.
The unforgettable journey was only starting, as Streelman posted four top-10 finishes in 2008 and pocketed $1.35 million. First thing he did that winter? He repaid Gaines, St. John and the consortium for helping restart his career.
“I gave them all their money back – and doubled it, even though it wasn’t in the contract,” Streelman said. “It was a thank you; it was the right thing to do.”
In 2009 he topped $1 million in earnings again and won a $1 million bonus for capturing the season-long Kodak Challenge. And the best was yet to come.
In 2013, at 34, Streelman won the Tampa Bay Championship for his first PGA Tour title – in 153 starts – on the way to earning a career-high $3.1 million. In 2014 he won the Travelers Championship by one stroke. All he had to do was birdie the last seven holes, breaking a tour record for most closing birdies by a winner.
When he returned to Torrey Pines in January there were more great memories before earning a $442,000 fourth-place check. Fittingly, St. John and a few Coto de Caza friends were in the gallery, as they are every year.
“They took me in when I had nothing,” said Streelman, who went from $400 in his bank account in 2004 to approaching top 100 on the PGA Tour’s career money list with $13.5 million in earnings.
“Yeah, that’s amazing,” he said. “It’s been a dream come true. It just shows what a lot of hard work, dedication and continued resolve can accomplish.”
Reach the writer at SouthlandGolfRY@aol.com
