From the early wave and beginning on 10 tee, Kevin Streelman birdied two of his final three toward a bogey-free 6-under 32-34=66 in R1 of the opposite-field Barbasol Championship to sit four adrift of leader Adam Svensson.
The 43-year-old, making his tourney debut, arrived 14-for 23 on the season with five top 25s and one top 10, a T7 at the Valspar 10 starts ago as a former winner of the event. At 109th in the FedExCup standings, he’s in jeopardy of missing the FEC Playoffs for the first time in his 15th season on TOUR, but a high finish this week could resolve that in a hurry. The Illinois native, who’s the top-ranked player in the field this week at OWGR No. 129, penciled six birdies on 12 (of 14) fairways and 13 greens in regulation, gaining 1.470 strokes tee-to-green and 2.395 on-the-green, highlighted by three scoring conversions from between 13 and 19 feet. This is event 39 of the season and there’s yet to be a winner 40 years of age or older, and Streelman is looking for a first win since the 2014 Travelers 216 starts and over eight years ago, where he was T61 after R1 (69-68-64-64). See link below to post-round comments.