By Jon Levy - Staff Writer

March 31, 2010

Proudly said from The Gateway Tour’s standpoint, it’s been amazing to watch the PGA TOUR career of Kevin Streelman -- a.k.a. “Streels,” as he’s affectionately now known on TOUR -- take the form it has in just a couple short years since playing on The Gateway Tour. It was just in 2007, when after winning three times on The Gateway Tour and placing runner-up at The Gateway Tour Championship, Kevin Streelman birdied four out of his last five holes at First Stage of PGA TOUR Qualifying to make it through on the number. He then made it through the second and final stages of q-school to earn his PGA TOUR card and, fast forward through his ’08 and ’09 seasons on TOUR during which he won over $1 million each season along with last year’s inaugural Kodak Challenge (which netted him a $1 million winner-take-all prize), it’s easy to see how Streelman has become a quick and popular staple on the PGA TOUR.

So, what’s the story in 2010?

If six-of-eight cuts made, $530,081 in earnings and three top-10 finishes make for any indication, the story is a pretty darn good one. In fact, coming off of a T3 at the Puerto Rico Open -- a tournament during which he led through three rounds before faltering with a final-round 73 -- Streelman’s bounce-back with a T7 last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational is downright impressive. Not only did he manage a five-under par weekend on a difficult golf course to move up in the standings, but he managed to earn his ninth-career top-10 on the PGA TOUR, third check in 2010 over $100,000 and a bump past $2.9 million in PGA TOUR earnings, which doesn’t even include the $1 million Kodak Challenge bonus.

Pretty darn good, indeed. Especially considering Streelman is one of the true nice guys out there to make it on the PGA TOUR, The Gateway Tour continues to root for one of its more successful alumni. As does the Tour for all of its Nationwide Tour alumni, such as former player, Fabian Gomez, who won last week’s Chitimacha Louisana Open.

Gomez’ $99,000 win not only came as a first on the Nationwide Tour after finishing 27th on the 2009 Nationwide Tour money list (to just barely miss out on earning a 2010 PGA TOUR card), but it comes in a big way as the Argentine took a six-stroke victory over fellow alum, Brian Vranesh (and Kyle Reifers & Scott Gutschewski). Currently standing third in The 25, it looks like Gomez is on his way to righting last year’s near-miss-ship towards a 2011 PGA TOUR card.

As it were for Vranesh, who joined James Hahn (T5) and Mark D. Anderson (T8) as the three other former Gateway Tour players to place within the top-10 at the Nationwide Tour’s first 2010 home-soil event, last week’s T2 could likewise go a long way to righting a wayward ship, of sorts.

A PGA TOUR member in ’09 who stormed onto the scene from a 2008 q-school campaign that introduced him to the world as a “Joe the Plumber” type to make it to the big show (click here from the article Helen Ross of pgatour.com wrote on the subject), Vranesh was in serious need of good shot in the arm after a mostly forgettable ’09 TOUR year and four-straight missed cuts on the Nationwide circuit to date this season.

And a good shot in the arm, or perhaps a shot of memory from last year’s playoff loss in the Chitimacha Louisiana Open, is exactly what he got as the California native broke par in every round to earn a redemptive $41,066.67 paycheck and solid momentum swing in the right direction.

Stay tuned to see if Vranesh, and the rest of the former Gateway Tour players now playing on the Nationwide and PGA Tours, can continue with the “mo” swinging their way as the Nationwide circuit returns April 15-18 with the Fresh Express Classic at TPC Stonebrae, and the PGA TOUR resumes again this week with the Shell Houston Open.


Click here for full field results of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and here for full field results of the Chitimacha Louisana Open, from pgatour.com…