Winfield's Streelman ready for Masters debut
Fi-nal-ly.
After all those years toiling in the lower levels of professional golf — on tours such as Dakotas, Gateway, Hooters and U.S. Pro …
After burning through three cars while criss-crossing the country, piling up more than 300,000 frequent driver miles to get to tournaments no one has ever heard of …
After being left stranded — and broke — in southern California by a sponsor and twice missing the final stage of Q School by a single stroke …
After wondering when and if this day would ever come …
Well, it finally has arrived for Winfield native Kevin Streelman, who this week will cruise down Magnolia Lane in style and play in an event like no other — the Masters.
“This is the ultimate dream come true,” said Streelman, who admitted his first drive down Magnolia Lane was slower than most, so as to soak it all in. “It's been a lot of work to get here. Ten years of pro golf, 10 years of amateur golf to get here — it's amazing.
“All my sponsors, who stepped up and helped me out 7, 8 years ago when I didn't have anything and they gave me some money to get started … I remember sitting down with them and saying this would be the ultimate, this would be our dream.”
It's a dream no more for Streelman, who along with Mark Wilson (Elmhurst) and D.A. Points (Pekin), will be representing Illinois as first-time participants in golf's first major of the year.
Streelman played a couple of 27-hole practice rounds with an experienced Augusta caddie on his bag a few weeks ago to get the lay of the luscious land at Augusta National.
“I did my best to try and get a feel for the greens and the runoff areas and where you want to miss it and where you don't want to miss it,” he said. “There's a lot to take in. It's a very well thought out golf course. You need to know where to be for each pin (placement) — where to attack from and where to play it safe.”
Consider him a fan.
“It's a course I feel very comfortable on; it fits my eye well,” said Streelman, who actually played a much different version of Augusta National years ago as a member of Duke's golf team. “It's a golf course where, if you are in control of your distances, control of your irons and you keep your tee shot somewhere in the fairway, you're going to have some good birdie chances.”
As for off the course …
“It was really cool having breakfast and lunch in the Men's Grill and in the Trophy Room there and having free run of the place to practice and check it out,” he said. “You feel like you're a member for the day when you go there to practice.
“It's just the whole experience — the golf course, the food is fantastic, the pro shop is incredible … the people there are so nice. It's really just a golfer's mecca.”
And though he struggled to open the 2011 season, the Wheaton Warrenville South alum says his game is beginning to show some positive signs.
“I'm starting to play well, which is really exciting,” he said, adding that despite it being the first time competing there he'll be “100 percent able to enjoy it.”
And the chance to watch Streelman perform on the biggest of big stages has family members converging on Augusta from far and wide.
“They're pretty excited,” he said. “I've got both my parents, my wife Courtney's parents. My brother is flying in from Mexico, where he's a missionary, and he's coming in with his wife. And my sister is coming down.”
In addition, many of his sponsors are holing up in a big rented house nearby and Streelman also expects a few of his old pals from Wheaton courses Cantigny Golf and Arrowhead Golf Club to be in attendance.
“We'll be nervous, sure, but there will be a lot of excitement,” Streelman said. “To have my whole family together and friends coming in — it's just going to be awesome, man.
“I'm really looking forward to it.”