Austin Smotherman was steady enough Friday at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches after a tremendous 9-under 62 Thursday and holds a three-shot lead heading into the weekend at PGA National.

With tee-times moved up due to incoming weather in the West Palm Beach area, Smotherman will be in the final trio for moving day and won’t have to wait long – balls are in the air for that threesome at 9:40 a.m. ET.

Smotherman, who is in his tenth year as a pro, has had a curious start to his 2026 campaign, registering three missed cuts in four starts but a tie for eighth (The American Express) in the other.

Alas, he’s turned a weakness into a strength this week and has found himself on top of the board at the halfway mark at the Cognizant Classic.

“Leading a PGA TOUR event, come on,” Smotherman said, “pretty awesome.”

Here are five things you should know about Smotherman as he looks to win for the first time on the PGA TOUR.

1. Baby on the way

Smotherman, 31, and wife Katie have two children already – Adeline and Penelope – and a third is, excitedly, on the way. The life of professional golfers doesn’t really allow for too many perfect times for a baby, especially someone like Smotherman who is on the razor’s edge of having solid status.

That doesn’t take away from how thrilled they are to welcome a third to their family in late March, however.

“There's so many what-if scenarios that we've discussed over the last two weeks,” Smotherman said Thursday after his opening 62. “Her due date is Monday of the (Texas Children's Houston Open) so hopefully I’m flying from the (Valspar Championship) through Dallas to go meet a new child, or who knows what, or have a baby that week and then hopefully still play. That's kind of our goal.

“We know this is a crazy time, crazy year, where I kind of need to play everything. I'm hoping the baby doesn't come PLAYERS week and I've got to make a really hard choice there. But mind is free. I just want to go play golf, and the baby is going to come when babies come, I guess.”

2. Putter is hot

Smotherman’s 2026 campaign started with him gaining strokes with his irons but losing strokes with his putter in each of his previous four tournaments.

That is certainly not the case this week.

Smotherman made 132 feet of putts Thursday (and, for good measure, rolled in a 54-footer on No. 17 on Friday) and so far, he sits first in Strokes Gained: Putting, gaining nearly five shots on the field with the flatstick. That is quite the contrast to his season-long average, as he is 157th on the PGA TOUR in the Strokes Gained: Putting category.

He’s always been a solid iron player, however, sitting third in Greens in Regulation on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2025 and now sitting third in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green on TOUR through the early part of 2026.

Smotherman said Thursday he is putting without a line marked on his golf ball for the first time “in a while” and it seems to be working extremely well.

“Trying to just be a little bit more freeing with the stroke, be an artist on the greens, see the line and kind of let it just be external – look at the hole, see where I want it to go in, and just trust that I’m pretty good at just aiming in the general vicinity that it needs to happen,” Smotherman said. “From there, just letting good speed take over and hopefully the hole gets in the way.”

So far, so good.

3. No stranger to the winner's circle

Although Smotherman is fairly inexperienced when it comes to success on the PGA TOUR, his trophy case is far from bare.

Smotherman had some serious success as a young junior in California before playing four years at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Texas. He was an All-American Athletic Conference selection in both 2014 and 2016.

After turning pro in 2016 Smotherman won in Mexico two years later on the then-PGA TOUR Latinoamérica to earn Korn Ferry Tour status for the first time for the 2019 season.

Smotherman won on the Korn Ferry Tour for the first time in 2021 before having a breakout campaign in 2025 on the circuit.

He won twice - the BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX and the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS in a three-week span – and after notching seven top-10s, he ended up third in the Korn Ferry Tour Points List to become #TOURBound for 2026.

4. Birdie machine

This week marks Smotherman’s first-ever 36-hole lead on the PGA TOUR (82 career starts) and his 11-under 131 ties his second-lowest 36-hole score on TOUR.

As he seeks to become the TOUR’s second wire-to-wire winner so far this season, Smotherman has put himself in this position thanks to converting his birdie opportunities and eliminating mistakes.

Through 36 holes, Smotherman has made 14 birdies and leads by three. The next-best is Sudarshan Yellamaraju who has made 11 birdies – but Yellamaraju sits at 2 under and is tied for 27th.

5. Eager for more 'Austin Smotherman' golf

Despite missing three of four cuts so far this season, Smotherman said he’s had plenty of good golf shots to draw on from those weeks and he simply had to try to “figure out how to not make those mental mistakes” that cost him two extra days of TOUR golf.

He described it Friday as just playing ‘Austin Smotherman golf,’ which is, well kind of boring. But that works just fine – especially at a layout like PGA National.

“As boring and simple as it can be. That’s what I want to do out there,” Smotherman said. “I feel like if I ball-strike it good enough to have that kind of boring golf, (hit) a bunch of fairways ideally. If not, in the rough, figure out a way to get it in the proper spots to have some easy looks for up-and-downs and not force my short game too much (and) then I’ve made some putts.

“Trying to just shake it out, stay loose, and keep doing that.”