Brendan Steele has played the weekend in his first two tournaments of this new 2014-15 PGA Tour season. The native Idyllwilder fired a 9-under-par 68-70-69-68 — 275 to garner a tie for 33rd place in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas last week. He added about $30,000 to his official earnings and earned 34 FedExCup points, giving him 82 points already for the season. He now stands 23rd on the FedExCup points list.

His stats suggest he played exceptionally well from tee to green, but he struggled a bit with his putter. His drives found 62.5 percent of the fairways while averaging 320 yards. He hit 73.6 percent of the greens in regulation, but he gave away nearly a stroke putting to the field.

Nevertheless, Steele did occasionally put it all together. One outstanding moment came during the first round when he cut off the slight dogleg of the 341-yard, par-4 15th hole, nailing the green with a 311-yard drive that finished 9 feet from the pin. He then canned the put for an eagle 2.

After two consecutive weeks of west coast tournaments, Steele will stay home rather than travel to Georgia for this week’s PGA Tour event.