‘Is this league-legal?’ Kevin Streelman gets ball-marker clearance, grabs lead

Tour veteran Kevin Streelman has had his fair proportion of success as a professional. He’s teed it up in 443 occasions, received twice, and completed within the high 10 a formidable 52 occasions. But it’s been a decade since his most up-to-date win, the 2014 Travelers Championship, and the previous couple of months have been a battle too.

Last yr was highlighted by a T2 end on the 3M Open in July, however after ending T56 on the Fortinet Championship in September, Streelman had a string of seven tournaments through which he missed the lower or, as was the case on the Farmers Insurance Open, withdrew after one spherical.

But issues appear to have circled significantly for Streelman at this week’s Valspar Championship. After firing rounds of 64-72, he’s not solely going to make the lower, he’s hanging round on the high of the leaderboard. The 64 particularly was powered by a red-hot putter, and, Streelman says, some additional confidence on the inexperienced, because of a singular ball marker he lately put into play.

“It’s kind of cool little new ball marker I’m using that is legal that can kind of give you some visual cues that I think is pretty helpful,” he stated on Thursday. “I used it in the pro-am and Tuesday. Kind of sticks into the ground, so it doesn’t move, obviously, from its location, but can you spin the top where the line is and then you kind of get back and you see where it looks good and then you can kind of put your line in [line] with that line and so you know it’s kind of what you were seeing from behind. So very simple.”

In case you’re questioning if the machine is authorized, Streelman stated he made positive to test earlier than placing the marker in play.

“I went to the rules guys and said, is this league-legal?” Streelman stated. “And they called USGA and said yeah, so I was like, all right. I putted well with it.”

Streelman stated he obtained the marker from somebody at Whisper Rock, his residence membership in Scottsdale, however he can’t recall who gave it to him. The solely modification he needed to make was to the spike, which he was informed couldn’t exceed an inch in size. Streelman stated the Wilson workers on website helped him grind the spike right down to an acceptable size. And then in fact, in adherence to the Rules of Golf, Streelman has to ensure he isn’t altering the place of his ball throughout his alignment course of.

“I gotta be careful of spinning and then putting it in at a different angle,” Streelman stated Friday. “As long as the bottom of the ball is in the same spot, you’re fine, but, you gotta get it to the same spot you mark it from, that’s for sure.”

As far because the precise means of utilizing the marker, Streelman stated it’s easy.

“You try and get the line down close to where you want to roll it, and then if you use the line, you try and match ’em up, and then it kind of gives you the confidence to say, well, this is pretty close to where I want to roll this ball,” he stated. “It takes maybe a step of thought out of it.”

While Streelman’s marker seems to be a customized creation, followers of alignment ball markers will likely be joyful to know that there are many related variations in the marketplace. Check out the choice from Fairway Jockey under, and right here’s hoping you share a few of Streelman’s success on the greens.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She can out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily liable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular tasks, akin to GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview sequence, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video kind on GOLF.com.