Austin Smotherman stood on the 18th green at Black Desert Resort and hugged his caddie, his wife, and the man he had just held off down the stretch. On his 100th PGA Tour start, the 32-year-old from Loomis, California, had done something no one in the field had done in the first two editions of this tournament, and something he had never done anywhere on the main tour: lift the trophy.
A closing 3-under 68 on Sunday was enough. Smotherman finished at 26-under 258 in Ivins, Utah, two shots clear of Doug Ghim and three ahead of a tie between Trace Crowe and David Ford, the PGA Tour confirmed. The 72-hole total broke the tournament’s scoring record in its third edition.
Smotherman did it the hard way. His approach to the par-4 13th plugged near the lip of a bunker and he dropped a shot, cutting his lead to one. He steadied himself with a birdie on the 16th and closed with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 18th.
“It didn’t have to be pretty. I got some nice bounces. Made some poor swings, but this game doesn’t have to be perfect.”
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From Loomis to Dallas, via a long road
Smotherman turned professional in 2016 after four years at Southern Methodist University, where his college teammates included Bryson DeChambeau. The decade that followed took him through two seasons on PGA Tour Latinoamérica and multiple stints on the Korn Ferry Tour.
He had held PGA Tour status before and lost it. Sent back down to the Korn Ferry Tour, he responded by winning twice in 2025 and topping the Korn Ferry points list to reclaim his PGA Tour card for 2026.
A near miss in March that paid off in October
Smotherman arrived in Utah having already given himself a Sunday chance this season. At the Cognizant Championship in March he held the 54-hole lead for the first time in his career, only for Nico Echavarria to come through and win. In his own words, it was “my first really big pedestal.”
The lesson stuck. According to Golf.com, he treated that near miss as preparation rather than wreckage, and the composure showed as he closed out Ghim down the stretch.
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“Oh my gosh, we won on the PGA Tour. That’s insane. Gosh … we did it! Let’s go!” he told Golf Channel’s Amy Rogers moments after the final putt.
“One hundred starts out here is an incredible number, just to have 100 starts. But even more so, to play professional golf now for 10 years, travel the world, have the support I’ve had, it’s pretty unreal to lift a trophy at the highest level.”
What the win buys him
The exemption matters more than the paycheck. The victory carries a two-year PGA Tour exemption and a place in the Championship Series when the Tour’s new competitive model begins in 2028.
Smotherman started the week 79th in the FedExCup standings and jumped to 51st in the FedEx Fall after the win, putting him in position to lock down a top-60 spot and starts in next year’s signature events at Pebble Beach and Riviera. Ghim, also chasing a first Tour title, moved from 89th to 58th.
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The FedEx Fall moves to Yokohama Country Club next, where the Baycurrent Classic runs from 8 to 11 October.
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