Need to Know<\/p>\n
<\/a>*:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]>![\"Austin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772262968_489_image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Austin Smotherman drains 7-foot birdie putt on No. 3 at Cognizant Classic<\/p>\n
*:not(style)~*:not(style){margin-top:0.5rem;-webkit-margin-end:0px;margin-inline-end:0px;margin-bottom:0px;-webkit-margin-start:0px;margin-inline-start:0px;}]]><\/p>\n
A<\/p>\n
Change Text Size<\/p>\n
Written by Adam Stanley<\/p>\n
Austin Smotherman was steady enough Friday at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches after a tremendous 9-under 62 Thursday and holds a three-shot lead heading into the weekend at PGA National.<\/p>\n
With tee-times moved up due to incoming weather in the West Palm Beach area, Smotherman will be in the final trio for moving day and won\u2019t have to wait long \u2013 balls are in the air for that threesome at 9:40 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n
Smotherman, who is in his tenth year as a pro, has had a curious start to his 2026 campaign, registering three missed cuts in four starts but a tie for eighth (The American Express) in the other.<\/p>\n
Alas, he\u2019s turned a weakness into a strength this week and has found himself on top of the board at the halfway mark at the Cognizant Classic.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeading a PGA TOUR event, come on,\u201d Smotherman said, \u201cpretty awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are five things you should know about Smotherman as he looks to win for the first time on the PGA TOUR. <\/p>\n
Smotherman, 31, and wife Katie have two children already \u2013 Adeline and Penelope \u2013 and a third is, excitedly, on the way. The life of professional golfers doesn\u2019t really allow for too many perfect times for a baby, especially someone like Smotherman who is on the razor\u2019s edge of having solid status.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t take away from how thrilled they are to welcome a third to their family in late March, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s so many what-if scenarios that we’ve discussed over the last two weeks,\u201d Smotherman said Thursday after his opening 62. \u201cHer due date is Monday of the (Texas Children’s Houston Open) so hopefully I\u2019m flying from the (Valspar Championship) through Dallas to go meet a new child, or who knows what, or have a baby that week and then hopefully still play. That’s kind of our goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know this is a crazy time, crazy year, where I kind of need to play everything. I’m hoping the baby doesn’t come PLAYERS week and I’ve got to make a really hard choice there. But mind is free. I just want to go play golf, and the baby is going to come when babies come, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smotherman\u2019s 2026 campaign started with him gaining strokes with his irons but losing strokes with his putter in each of his previous four tournaments.<\/p>\n
That is certainly not the case this week.<\/p>\n
Smotherman made 132 feet of putts Thursday (and, for good measure, rolled in a 54-footer on No. 17 on Friday) and so far, he sits first in Strokes Gained: Putting, gaining nearly five shots on the field with the flatstick. That is quite the contrast to his season-long average, as he is 157th on the PGA TOUR in the Strokes Gained: Putting category.<\/p>\n
*:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]>![\"Austin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772262969_882_image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Austin Smotherman sinks 55-foot birdie putt on No. 17 at Cognizant Classic<\/p>\n
He\u2019s always been a solid iron player, however, sitting third in Greens in Regulation on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2025 and now sitting third in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green on TOUR through the early part of 2026.<\/p>\n
Smotherman said Thursday he is putting without a line marked on his golf ball for the first time \u201cin a while\u201d and it seems to be working extremely well.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to just be a little bit more freeing with the stroke, be an artist on the greens, see the line and kind of let it just be external \u2013 look at the hole, see where I want it to go in, and just trust that I\u2019m pretty good at just aiming in the general vicinity that it needs to happen,\u201d Smotherman said. \u201cFrom there, just letting good speed take over and hopefully the hole gets in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. No stranger to the winner’s circle<\/p>\n
Although Smotherman is fairly inexperienced when it comes to success on the PGA TOUR, his trophy case is far from bare.<\/p>\n
Smotherman had some serious success as a young junior in California before playing four years at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Texas. He was an All-American Athletic Conference selection in both 2014 and 2016.<\/p>\n
After turning pro in 2016 Smotherman won in Mexico two years later on the then-PGA TOUR Latinoam\u00e9rica to earn Korn Ferry Tour status for the first time for the 2019 season.<\/p>\n
Smotherman won on the Korn Ferry Tour for the first time in 2021 before having a breakout campaign in 2025 on the circuit.<\/p>\n
He won twice – the BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX and the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS in a three-week span \u2013 and after notching seven top-10s, he ended up third in the Korn Ferry Tour Points List to become #TOURBound for 2026.<\/p>\n
This week marks Smotherman\u2019s first-ever 36-hole lead on the PGA TOUR (82 career starts) and his 11-under 131 ties his second-lowest 36-hole score on TOUR.<\/p>\n
As he seeks to become the TOUR\u2019s second wire-to-wire winner so far this season, Smotherman has put himself in this position thanks to converting his birdie opportunities and eliminating mistakes.<\/p>\n
![\"Austin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772262969_444_image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Austin Smotherman hits 150-yard approach to 8 feet, sets up birdie on No. 2 at Cognizant Classic<\/p>\n
Through 36 holes, Smotherman has made 14 birdies and leads by three. The next-best is Sudarshan Yellamaraju who has made 11 birdies \u2013 but Yellamaraju sits at 2 under and is tied for 27th.<\/p>\n
5. Eager for more ‘Austin Smotherman’ golf<\/p>\n
Despite missing three of four cuts so far this season, Smotherman said he\u2019s had plenty of good golf shots to draw on from those weeks and he simply had to try to \u201cfigure out how to not make those mental mistakes\u201d that cost him two extra days of TOUR golf.<\/p>\n
He described it Friday as just playing \u2018Austin Smotherman golf,\u2019 which is, well kind of boring. But that works just fine \u2013 especially at a layout like PGA National.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs boring and simple as it can be. That\u2019s what I want to do out there,\u201d Smotherman said. \u201cI feel like if I ball-strike it good enough to have that kind of boring golf, (hit) a bunch of fairways ideally. If not, in the rough, figure out a way to get it in the proper spots to have some easy looks for up-and-downs and not force my short game too much (and) then I\u2019ve made some putts.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to just shake it out, stay loose, and keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
*:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-11jnzpa>img,.css-11jnzpa>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-11jnzpa::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:66.66666666666666%;}]]>![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772262969_416_Smotherman_Cog.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Feb 26, 2026<\/p>\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2257646200.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"6H AGO 5 Min Read Need to Know *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]> Austin Smotherman drains 7-foot birdie putt on No. 3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-504772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}