Home Away From Home
Tags: PGA, Cdga, Golf, Chicago, Kevin Streelman

Home Away From Home

Wheaton native, former caddie still thriving on the PGA Tour CDGA Apr 1·8 min read

By Tom Mackin

Photographs by Dennis Murphy

This article appeared in the April 2021 edition of Chicago District Golfer.

Kevin Streelman adjusts his Wilson golf hat and confidently steps up to the tee. He surveys his options and zeros in on the target. One deep breath, and he’s ready to go.

“I’ll have one Italian beef dry with hot peppers, and a jumbo dog with ketchup, mustard and American cheese,” he says. “And large fries with cheese sauce. Plus a small Diet Coke, please.”

Streelman places that order at a Portillo’s in his adopted hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona, and he looks just as comfortable there as he is on the first tee of a PGA Tour event. He’s played in nearly 400 of those since his rookie year in 2008, winning twice (in 2013 and 2014, plus the 2015 Masters Par 3 Contest on the third playoff hole) during that span. Those stats make him one of the most successful professional golfers from Illinois ever.

But it’s his consistency — staying on Tour and qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs for the past 13 years — that’s even more admirable. Equally impressive is his love of Portillo’s, a relationship that dates back to his childhood in Wheaton.

“There was a Portillo’s on Route 59 down the street from where I grew up and we’d always stop in on the way home from basketball practice or from the golf course,” he said. “My mom loved the cake shakes, and we’d get hot dogs and Italian beef. Great memories.”

It was an idyllic childhood for the now 42-year-old Streelman, whose parents would drop him off at Cantigny Golf or Arrowhead Golf Club on many summer mornings. Both are highly-regarded public courses in Wheaton.

With two victories and nearly 400 PGA Tour starts in his career, Kevin Streelman can stake a claim as one of the most successful professional players from Illinois.

“There used to be a swim club across from Arrowhead, so I’d swim in the morning, throw my golf clothes on, and run across Butterfield Road,” he recalled. “Billy Klemz was an assistant pro there (they remain good friends to this day) and the assistant pros at Cantigny took me under their wing when I was 10 years old. I’d wait until they got off work at 5 p.m. and then play with them until dark. They’d call my mom and tell her when she could pick me up. She’d have dinner waiting for me. It was such a blessing and so much fun.”

After playing at Duke University, Streelman missed qualifying for the final stage of PGA Tour Q School by a single shot in 2001. He spent that winter working as a substitute teacher at middle schools he had attended in Wheaton. “I would make $63 a day, go work out, and then head to the [White Pines] Golf Dome in Bensenville to hit balls until 9 p.m.,” he said. “I was very inspired to do whatever it took to get out of there.”

Mike Munro, who owned and operated the now-defunct White Pines Golf Dome, remembers Streelman practicing late into the winter nights.

“I remember him spending a lot of time at the Dome,” Munro said. “He would come in all the time. He obviously was very driven because it would take him a half hour to drive to the Dome from Wheaton. He was a very humble, down-to-earth kind of guy.”

Bankrolled by some friends, Streelman spent the next five years grinding away on mini-Tours, caddying at Chicago Golf Club and eventually moving to Scottsdale. Once there, he sold clubs at The Westin Kierland Golf Club and caddied at Whisper Rock, an ultra-private golf club home to many Tour pros (Streelman is a member there now). In late 2007, during his sixth trip to Q School, he finally earned his PGA Tour card. He’s never looked back since, with 46 Top 10 finishes and more than $22 million in career earnings.

His welcome-to-the-big-time moment came during the 2008 Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, just his third PGA Tour event that year. As the first alternate that Thursday morning, he wasn’t even officially in the field. Just before play began, he got a tap on his shoulder from a tournament official.

“I was told I had eight minutes to get to the 10th tee of the South Course,” he said. “My caddie and I ran out there and got to the tee huffing and puffing. I played great the first two rounds (shooting 67 and 69) and led the tournament.”

Early that Friday he noticed Tiger Woods rising up the leaderboard. The two were paired together during the third round.

“Tiger was №1 in the world then and that day was surreal. There must have been 25,000 people on every hole. I shot a 75, Tiger shot 66 and he went on to win by eight strokes.” Streelman finished tied for 29th.

“I was in the biggest arena in my sport and I hung in there,” he said. “Everything since then has seemed smaller in scale, whether it was winning in Tampa (2013) or Hartford (2014), or playing in majors (his best finish is a tie for 12th in both the 2013 PGA Championship and 2014 Masters). Everything. To get that experience for free as a rookie on Tour was a huge stepping stone for me.”

What stands out most for Streelman, No. 59 in the Official World Golf Rankings as of The Players Championship, is the manner in which he won the 2014 Travelers Championship.

“What I did to win at Hartford (he birdied the last seven holes during the final round to set a PGA Tour record) will probably go down as my favorite story and memory.”

He, his wife Courtney, and their two children are making their own family memories now in Scottsdale.

“I love it here, even when it’s 115 degrees in the summer,” said Streelman. “Now it’s home. I did 21 Chicago winters and it will always be home for me. Arrowhead, Cantigny, and Chicago Golf Club are dear places in my heart, but this has turned into home where we’re raising our kids.”

Despite teaming up with Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald to win the pro-am portion of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro–Am in 2018 and 2020, Streelman remains a devoted Chicago sports fan. “Sitting in Wrigley during the summer with my buddies out in the bleachers having a beer is my happy place,” he said.

He doesn’t get back to the area as much as he would like, but is looking forward to bringing his kids to the Cantigny Youth Links course someday.

“As I’ve traveled the world, my dad would always tell me, ‘You will appreciate where you came from, the childhood, the community and the friends you had.’ He’s right. That’s what I miss the most now. The people and that sense of community.”

But Scottsdale does have Portillo’s, and a Lou Malnati’s opened up two years ago even closer to his home.

“I’m within their delivery zone, which is not good for my waistline, but whenever I’m home we get that probably once a week.”

It’s all a far cry from hitting balls at targets late into the night at the White Pines Golf Dome.

“I couldn’t have dreamed all of this,” he said. “The journey has been incredible, beyond my wildest expectations. I have more than 360 starts on Tour and I’ve played on six continents. The fact that Courtney was with me both when we were dead broke and with the blessings we have now, that means a lot. I wouldn’t change a thing.” ●

Tom Mackin is a former Senior Editor at GOLF Magazine who writes frequently for regional golf publications as well as the USGA’s Golf Journal. A New Jersey native who moved to Arizona in 2013, he has yet to try deep dish pizza.

Where it Started

Kevin Streelman never hesitates to acknowledge how the valuable experience of competing in Illinois Junior Golf Association (IJGA) tournaments played a key role in his development as a golfer. But it wasn’t without some awkward moments.

“I remember I had Tour Edge clubs that were great and my dad had these Ping Eye 2s that I just thought were amazing,” he recalled. “He’s always been meticulous with his possessions, so he had iron covers. He told me, ‘Kevin, you can use my Ping Eye 2s, but you have to use iron covers.’ So I’ll never forget showing up to an IJGA event with a pull cart, my bag, and my Dad’s clubs with the iron covers. All the kids made fun of me for using those and for the pull cart. So I went back to my Tour Edge clubs shortly after that and I carried my own Ping Hoofer bag.”

Streelman’s mother would drive him all over the state during the summer to play IJGA events. “It was kind of fun not being a member anywhere and growing up as a public course kid because it seems I played darn near three quarters of the public courses in Illinois. It was quite a blessing.”

He eventually rewarded his mom for logging all those miles behind the wheel. “My first year on Tour I told her with all the driving she did for me you can pick out any car you want and I’ll buy it,” recalled Streelman. “She had wanted a VW Bug since she was 16 years old. So I bought her one back in 2008. It has like 30,000 miles on it and she still babys it.”

Streelman has conducted a number of junior golf clinics over the years at Cantigny Golf in Wheaton. “Our first event I think was in the summer of 2009 before the John Deere Classic,” he said. “We must have had 300–400 kids show up. I remember them walking down the fairways with me and I was just sharing a little bit of what went into getting me to where I was on Tour.”

One of those participants is now a fellow PGA Tour pro: 24-year-old Doug Ghim from Arlington Heights. “I don’t remember him from that day, but during his rookie year on Tour he came up and told me, ‘Dude, I was at that deal at Cantigny back in 2009,’” said Streelman. “I felt great about that and also like a dinosaur at the same time. It was pretty neat.” — Tom Mackin