The Week's Golf In-Play Blog: Smotherman sets the pace in the desert

09.30 - October 3, 2026 - Smotherman setting the pace

The wide fairways and thin air of the Black Desert Resort has once again proved to be a good fit for players who like to go low and keep going low.

The first edition of the Bank of Utah Championship was won by Matt McCarty with a -23 total and last year's champion Michael Brennan compiled a -22 score.

This year's 36 hole leader Austin Smotherman is on track to better both those efforts sitting alone on -17 with the weekend to come.

But he'll need to keep the pedal to the metal because there are seven players within five strokes of him (and nine piled up on -11).

Here's the 36 hole leaderboard with prices to back at 09.30:

Austin Smotherman -17 4.77/2
Kevin Roy -16 5.85/1
Kevin Streelman -15 18.017/1
Doug Ghim -15 5.59/2
Stephan Jaeger -14 15.014/1
Steven Fisk -13 27.026/1
Michael Brennan -12 15.014/1
Neal Shipley -12 40.039/1
-11 and 28.027/1 bar

The pattern of those first two renewals was for the pace to maintain on Saturday before the final round became a little tougher. But both winners were right in it at this stage - McCarty was fourth and Brennan already leading.

Given that we can expect more low scoring it will take something very low to get involved from outside the top eight.

The leader Smotherman, who sounds like the creepiest superhero ever, was second in the Cognizant Classic earlier this season and T13 in the Players Championship shortly after, but he lost form thereafter.

He was T17 last time out to show signs of form and he will be encouraged in the heat of battle by memories of regaining his PGA Tour card via two wins on the Korn Ferry Tour last year. He will also know, however, that he has only two top five finishes at this level.

He was the leader through 54 holes before being caught and overtaken at PGA National in March, but before then ticked off three consecutive wins in which he converted halfway leads on the second tier.

Roy and Ghim have also got just the two top fives on the main tour whilst Fisk has just three - but two of those were wins, both up against this level of field and most recently in July. Streelman is also a two-time winner but not since 2014 although he was T3 at Black Desert in 2024.

And then there is Stephan Jaeger who was actually leading at this stage back in 2024 before finishing second and last year he was T11 despite making a very slow start (T86).

It's not the German's only form on a Tom Weiskopf track (which Black Desert is) - he's been T9 and T11 at TPC Craig Ranch.

He's won when needing to go low (he carded 58-65-64-63 in his first Korn Ferry Tour victory).

And he's the most recent PGA Tour winner among the top five, holding off Scottie Scheffler to grab the Houston Open in 2024.

The big-hitting Brennan is a threat and Zach Bauchou has altitude and Weiskopf credentials, but at -11 he'll surely need at least one very low score to get involved.

Jaeger it is at 15.014/1.

I'll be back later this afternoon to update the post-cut position in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. That event, of course, has a 54 hole cut, hence the delay in the update. To pinch a term from track and field, it takes a while for the stagger to reveal itself in the Dunhill.

Steve's pre-tournament 120.0119/1 pick Casey Jarvis does lead after 36 holes so there's potential for an exciting finish for followers.

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