This week, at the Black Desert Championship, Kevin Streelman made PGA Tour cut No. 301, one week after making PGA Tour cut No. 300, and folks have asked him to reminisce about PGA Tour No. 1. 

He’s happy to. He remembers it well. 

“It was the ’05 Milwaukee Open at Brown Deer Park,” Streelman said this week. “I was on the mini-tours. I Monday-qualified. Talk about a nerve-racking Friday afternoon round because I had nothing to my name. I was living out of my mom’s car, in my parents’ basement, just crisscrossing the country, trying to play mini-tour events, and I Monday’ed there and made a cut, which I knew at the time last place was like $10,000, which would pay for my Q-school and pretty much the Dakotas Tour. It was a very meaningful thing for me.

“I think I finished 25th and made like $25,000, and I was like, this paid for the rest of my year and my entry fees, and I think it actually paid for Courtney’s engagement ring.”

Mom’s car? What kind of car was it?  

“My mom had a Nissan Altima,” Streelman said. “It was a 1993 Nissan Altima. It was a little tight in the backseat.

“But those are great memories.”

How many miles were on it?

“I put about 250,000 on my mom’s,” Streelman said, “and then I got a second one and put about 200,000 miles on that one, and then I had just bought a new Camry my fifth year on the mini-tours and I got my PGA Tour card and traded that in for a Porsche 911 after I had my first year on the PGA Tour.”

Where did he shower and such?

“Yeah, Motel 6’s, Super 8’s,” Streelman said. “It was whatever I could do.”

Here, a reporter noticed Streelman was smiling as he was telling the tales. He was asked if the journey from PGA Tour cut No. 1 to PGA Tour No. 301 was difficult.

It was, he said, and, in a way, it wasn’t. 

“It’s gut-wrenching, but it’s like — there’s like a beauty to it, too, where you have nowhere to go but up,” Streelman said. “I was fortunate to have a diploma from a nice university, but I wanted to get out here. There was no other option. There wasn’t a second option.

“I think when you have a second option, you don’t achieve the first option. I truly looked at it that way. Whatever I’ve got to do, if I’ve got to work at Kierland, if I’ve got to caddie at Whisper Rock, if I’ve got to substitute-teach at my high school, which I did all those things, then I’m going to do it to save money to give myself a chance. Then when I have the opportunity you’ve got to grab it, and I was fortunate to do it on my sixth try in ’07 at Q-school and I’ve been out here 17 years later.”

With that, below is the complete payout breakdown for this week’s Black Desert Championship, played at Black Desert Resort. The total purse is $7.5 million. 

How much every player made at the 2024 Black Desert Championship  

1. Matt McCarty $1.35 million

2. Stephan Jaeger $817,500

T3. Lucas Glover $442,500
Kevin Streelman $442,500

5. Matti Schmid $307,500

T6. Harris English $262,500
Joe Highsmith $262,500

T8. Nick Hardy $219,375
Lee Hodges $219,375
Henrik Norlander $219,375

T11. Patrick Rodgers $137,675
Seamus Power $137,675
Tom Whitney $137,675
Greyson Sigg $137,675
Ben Griffin $137,675
Carson Young $137,675
Nico Echavarria $137,675
Carl Yuan $137,675
Beau Hossler $137,675
Max McGreevy $137,675

T21. Wesley Bryan $81,750
Rico Hoey $81,750
Joseph Bramlett $81,750
Chad Ramey $81,750

T25. Tyler Duncan $52,912.50
Mac Meissner $52,912.50
Ryo Hisatsune $52,912.50
Trey Mullinax $52,912.50
J.J. Spaun $52,912.50
Alex Smalley $52,912.50
Nick Taylor $52,912.50
Doug Ghim $52,912.50
Adam Svensson $52,912.50
Kurt Kitayama $52,912.50

T35. Will Gordon $37,350
Chris Kirk $37,350
Daniel Berger $37,350
Kevin Tway $37,350
Harry Hall $37,350

T40. Sam Ryder $31,125
Philip Knowles $31,125
Joel Dahmen $31,125

T43. Patton Kizzire $26,625
Alejandro Tosti $26,625
Erik van Rooyen $26,625

T46. Wilson Furr $20,137.50
K.H. Lee $20,137.50
Justin Suh $20,137.50
Ryan Fox $20,137.50
Cameron Champ $20,137.50
Jacob Bridgeman $20,137.50
Chan Kim $20,137.50
Ben Knowles $20,137.50

T54. Lanto Griffin $17,400
Scott Piercy $17,400
Tyson Alexander $17,400
Raul Pereda $17,400
Chez Reavie $17,400
Trace Crowe $17,400

60. Erik Barnes $16,875

T61. Nate Lashley $16,650
Roger Sloan $16,650

63. Norman Xiong $16,425

T64. Chesson Hadley $16,200
S.H. Kim $16,200

66. Zac Blair $15,975

67. Vince Whaley $15,825

68. Alexander Bjork $15,675

69. Dylan Wu $15,525

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.