5 things to know about Austin Smotherman as he eyes Cognizant title
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Austin Smotherman is in contention to win his first PGA Tour event at the Cognizant Classic at the Palm Beaches. The 18- and 36-hole leader and 54-hole co-leader with Shane Lowry, is seeking his maiden PGA Tour title. Smotherman holds his first 54-hole lead/co-lead on Tour in his 82nd career start, topping his previous career-best 54-hole position of sixth at the 2023 VidantaWorld Mexico Open.
Smotherman, 31, has three professional wins on the Korn Ferry Tour. He claimed the 2021 Simmons Bank Open before two wins in June 2025 at the BMW Charity Pro-Am and the Memorial Health Championship. He has been working hard for a chance like this and the timing couldn’t be better to visit the winner’s circle before baby No. 3 arrives later this month for he and wife Jessica.
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Here are five things to know about Smotherman.
Snoopy club and knocking it on and then over the roof
Smotherman's first set of clubs as a kid was a set of plastic Snoopy irons. Eventually, his grandpa cut a Sam Snead 7-iron blade and persimmon head 5-wood in half and used duct tape and electrical tape for grips to provide him some "real" clubs. His earliest golf memory is hitting balls in his front yard with his dad. He was five years old when he hit one onto the roof of their one-story house, and he eventually hit a ball over it and into the backyard. Mostly a self-taught player, he estimates he had fewer than 10 lessons by his junior year of high school.
From NorCal to SMU
Smotherman was a native of Loomis, California, and grew up playing golf at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex in Sacramento, a popular public facility. He was childhood buddies with Bryson DeChambeau, first meeting when they were 14. He beat DeChambeau by one stroke, with an 18th hole birdie, at the 2011 California State Junior Amateur. Smotherman later followed DeChambeau, a year older than him, to Southern Methodist.
The Karate Kid
Smotherman is a martial arts enthusiast and big fan of Bruce Lee movies. “Just growing up it was just something my parents had put me in,” he explained after the third round at PGA National. “The discipline, what martial arts teaches you, and then my Uncle Tom is a black belt as well, and he trains with some crazy people and weapons and things like that."
Girl-dad and pet lover
Smotherman has baby No. 3 on the way, due on March 23.
Asked about being a girl-dad to Adeline and Penelope, he said, “it's pretty cool. Right now my daughter is wearing her princess dresses and that music. I know my wife better not send any or show any of my embarrassing dance videos I have with the girls. But just getting to raise them is pretty cool.”
Smotherman has a Mini Australian Shepherd, Cypress, named after Cypress Point Club, and a cat, Pebbles, named after Pebble Beach.
FedEx Cup Playoff or bust
Smotherman finished No. 3 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List to earn his way back to the PGA Tour this season. In 2022, his first season on the PGA Tour, he entered the Wyndham Championship No. 125 in the FedExCup playoffs and missed the cut by one stroke, falling outside the top 125. One year later, he failed to make the FedExCup Playoffs but moved up to No. 121 on the list after the Tour Championship. He finished 189th in the FedEx Cup standings in 2024, which meant a trip back to the Korn Ferry Tour last year.
He had a T-8 at The American Express in January but otherwise missed the cut in all three of his other starts this season, including two in a row. Through 54 holes at the Champion Course at PGA National, he leads all players with 19 total birdies this week and his game has been rock-solid statistically, ranking in the top 10 this week in four major Strokes Gained categories: SG: Off the Tee (5th); SG: Tee to Green (4th); SG: Approach (3rd); SG: Putting (8th).
"Figuring things out on the road solo this week," he said after opening with 62 on Thursday, "and the game kind of followed." How does he describe Smotherman golf? "As boring and simple as it can be," he said. "That's what I want to do out there. I feel like I ball strike it good enough to have that kind of boring golf, a bunch of fairways ideally."
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Austin Smotherman: 5 things to know about the PGA Tour golfer