This week, at the Black Desert Championship, Kevin Streelman made PGA Tour cut No. 301, one week after making PGA Tour cut No. 300, and folks have asked him to reminisce about PGA Tour No. 1.

He’s happy to. He remembers it well.

“It was the ’05 Milwaukee Open at Brown Deer Park,” Streelman said this week. “I was on the mini-tours. I Monday-qualified. Talk about a nerve-racking Friday afternoon round because I had nothing to my name. I was living out of my mom’s car, in my parents’ basement, just crisscrossing the country, trying to play mini-tour events, and I Monday’ed there and made a cut, which I knew at the time last place was like $10,000, which would pay for my Q-school and pretty much the Dakotas Tour. It was a very meaningful thing for me.

“I think I finished 25th and made like $25,000, and I was like, this paid for the rest of my year and my entry fees, and I think it actually paid for Courtney’s engagement ring.”

Mom’s car? What kind of car was it?

“My mom had a Nissan Altima,” Streelman said. “It was a 1993 Nissan Altima. It was a little tight in the backseat.

“But those are great memories.”

How many miles were on it?

“I put about 250,000 on my mom’s,” Streelman said, “and then I got a second one and put about 200,000 miles on that one, and then I had just bought a new Camry my fifth year on the mini-tours and I got my PGA Tour card and traded that in for a Porsche 911 after I had my first year on the PGA Tour.”

Where did he shower and such?

“Yeah, Motel 6’s, Super 8’s,” Streelman said. “It was whatever I could do.”

Here, a reporter noticed Streelman was smiling as he was telling the tales. He was asked if the journey from PGA Tour cut No. 1 to PGA Tour No. 301 was difficult.

It was, he said, and, in a way, it wasn’t.

“It’s gut-wrenching, but it’s like — there’s like a beauty to it, too, where you have nowhere to go but up,” Streelman said. “I was fortunate to have a diploma from a nice university, but I wanted to get out here. There was no other option. There wasn’t a second option.

“I think when you have a second option, you don’t achieve the first option. I truly looked at it that way. Whatever I’ve got to do, if I’ve got to work at Kierland, if I’ve got to caddie at Whisper Rock, if I’ve got to substitute-teach at my high school, which I did all those things, then I’m going to do it to save money to give myself a chance. Then when I have the opportunity you’ve got to grab it, and I was fortunate to do it on my sixth try in ’07 at Q-school and I’ve been out here 17 years later.”