Austin Smotherman prepped for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship by playing in a member-guest last week. Arjun Atwal played in his home club’s weekly Friday game. It may not sound like the typical way to get ready for a PGA Tour event but there’s no arguing with their results. On a day when the wind off the Atlantic Ocean decided to lay down and the conditions were ripe for scoring, Smotherman shot a career-low 9-under 62 at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda, to share the first-round lead with rookie Harrison Endycott, who bogeyed his first two holes but rallied with two eagles. They are a stroke better than six golfers, including Atwal, who wasn’t even in the field when he woke up Thursday morning, and Adam Schenk, who drove to the airport without his clubs and had to re-book his flight.
“We got blessed today with a beautiful day on the island,” said Smotherman.
The 28-year-old second year pro played in the second group out in the morning and took advantage of soft, smooth greens. He needed just 23 putts and said the longest one he made was no more than 13 feet on Thursday. Last week, he played in the member-guest at his home course in Dallas, Trinity Forest, which formerly hosted the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson.
“Shout-out for The Crony,” Smotherman said of the member-guest tournament. “We had our greens rolling maybe 13 and it blew 25, 30 all weekend. I was thinking I was coming here, getting these conditions, it’s almost the opposite of what I just had. I was like, ‘Come on, where’s the wind?’ Like we were just practicing that.”
Smotherman, who has been working hard on his wedge game, said his ballstriking with his short irons was dialed in. That’s been the part of his game that has held him back.
“How do we find three shots a tournament and it’s some of these wedges,” he explained. “I was missing these wedges short-sided.”
Smotherman last made headlines when he double-bogeyed his final hole of the Wyndham Championship to miss the cut and ended up losing his Tour card for this season. But he received a reprieve when several players defected to LIV Golf, making him fully-exempt this season. How did it feel to shoot his career low?
“Good, let’s go better tomorrow, why not,” he said. “We’ve still got room.”
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