What a year 2026 has been for Austin Smotherman.
He welcomed his third daughter into the world after contending at the Cognizant Classic earlier in the year. He made his first major championship start at Aronimink a few months later.
Not discouraged from the missed cut at the PGA Championship, the 32-year-old Smotherman won for the first time in his 100th start on Tour at the Bank of Utah Championship.
He didn’t let the time between career win No. 1 and No. 2 last very long. Three weeks later in Bermuda, Smotherman stood in the winner’s circle again after ousting Seamus Power in a two-man playoff after weather cut the tournament short to 54 holes.
With all that, his playing status secured through 2029.
And now, one more mountain to climb: Finish inside the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking.
If he clinches that before the end of the season, the No. 51-ranked Smotherman will get his first-ever invite to Augusta National.
There’s some risk involved — two missed cuts could theoretically send him down, outside the top 60 in the FedExCup fall points and lose his spot in the first two signature events of 2027. It’s a bet Smotherman is willing to take considering the possible reward.
“Do our best to put up good weeks and earn some more World Ranking points and cap off the fall hopefully on a high note,” he said at his press conference at this week’s Austin Championship when asked about his plan for the next couple of weeks.
“Can’t take away what we did,” Smotherman added. “If we miss two cuts coming up, still doing a lot well and it was the best decision I think to go give it a run. The world ranking points system, I don’t understand it perfectly, that’s for my team to tell me what’s going on. I’m just going to go play golf.”
Smotherman, who turned pro in 2016 and played in Latin America the following year, credited the experience from traveling the world for helping him land where he is ahead of the season-finale tournament in Georgia next week.
“I feel like my good’s been good enough to have a chance to win out here for a long time,” the back-to-back winner said.
“I made a bunch of cuts, I’ve had stretches of a lot of missed cuts, I feel like I’ve done everything in between,” he added. “So to cap off wins now is a different feeling kind of getting that under my belt.”
This week the SMU grad will be playing in front of friends and family in Austin, not too far from where he lives in Dallas.
“These last two weeks everybody’s kind of questioning, oh, ‘Why are you playing, what have you got going on?’ But like you said, home state event, playing down here in Austin, easy, easy week staying right here at the Omni [Barton Creek] on top of that,” said Smotherman, confirming he’s committed to be in the field for the RSM Classic next week.
At least for now.
“Just ride this high we’re on,” he told reporters. “Expectations are there to win three times in a row. To even have the chance is pretty awesome, but we’ll see.”
