The first song he learned to play on his guitar was “Ants Marching,” the Dave Matthews Band anthem released in 1995. Kevin Streelman was 17, and he was teaching himself to play after dalliances with the trombone and drums that had landed him in the jazz band starting in the seventh grade. He came by his interest in music honestly. His mother directed the adult, junior and bell choirs at their suburban Chicago church “so I was kind of born and raised in it,” Streelman said. And she wanted her three children to learn to play a musical instrument while they were in school. His sister quickly settled on the piano and his brother the drums. Streelman didn’t find the right fit, though, until his fingers settled against the frets on the neck of a guitar, not unlike when his hands first wrapped around the grip of a golf club. “I wish I had started earlier, because it came to me pretty quickly,” Streelman said. “I got average at it quickly. I wouldn’t say I got really good at it. But I just loved it, I just loved learning songs.” Now, Streelman says, fledgling guitar players who are so inclined can learn a song in three minutes by watching YouTube videos. When he started playing, though, that website didn’t exist so he concentrated on learning the various chords and then the melody. “You callous your fingers really bad,” Streelman said. “It hurts a lot. But once you push through that … if you learn the basic nine, ten chords, you can play a lot of songs.” In fact, Streelman discovered that when he figured out the chord progressions, he was more likely to remember the song than when he simply read music. “It’s funny how the mind works,” he said. The guitar went with Streelman to Duke University, where he got a degree in sociology in 2001. He stashed it in his mom’a Altima – and the other two cars he went through – while logging more than 300,000 miles on the mini-tours. But there were also those evenings when he decided to play. “We just would just kind of sit around and have a beer or two, and if we were at like a fire pit in the Dakotas … we would be out there playing some stuff,” Streelman recalled. “Just whenever the time was right. “But I always had it in the back of my car.” Those opportunities are fewer and farther between now that Streelman is a father of two. “But hopefully, I’ll teach them someday, if they want to,” he said. Still, he’s jammed with the likes of Russell Henley and Geoff Ogilvy, fellow TOUR pros who are both talented guitarists in their own rights. “And Jason Gore,” Streelman said. “Jason has the best voice out here.” Streelman has played for the TOUR Bible study quite a few times. And the guitar has come in handy more than a few times at family holiday gatherings. Over the years, Streelman has gotten to know hip-hop artist tobyMac – the two have twice played together at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, as well as guys in the Christian rock band, 10th Avenue North. They met through friends of friends nearly a decade ago. “What I found is everyone loves golf and everyone loves golfers and just through Twitter, Facebook stuff, just reaching out,” Streelman said. “The 10th Avenue North guys had a show in Phoenix (near where he lives), I reached out to them and offered to pick them up and hit balls with me at the TPC Scottsdale. … “Took me up on it and just been really good friends ever since. In fact, Streelman and the group co-host a charity event in Raleigh, N.C., each year.. And even though he says he’s a “mediocre” singer, Streelman has been known to share the stage with his buddies after the golf tournament is over. At Pebble Beach, Streelman was up there playing his guitar while tobyMac was singing his hit, “Steal my Show.” The two-time PGA TOUR champ also does double duty at the charity event hosted by Needtobreathe, a Christian band based in Seneca, S.C. “I love good music, and good live music especially,” Streelman said. Streelman admits he gets a little nervous when he’s standing in front of a crowd with his guitar – and not his driver – in hand. But his friends in the music business offer the same advice he gives them before they tee off. “Just go for it and have fun,” Streelman said. And that he has.
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