PGA TOUR Studios’ “Korn Ferry Presents: Re-Bound” spotlights the journey back to the PGA TOUR via the ultimate proving ground, the Korn Ferry Tour. Whether it’s regaining “TOURBound” status after losing membership, or even maintaining it after completing a successful comeback, we explore the learnings from past successes, and even hardships, players have adapted to in order help drive them forward to a sustained career on the PGA TOUR. Featuring Hank Lebioda, Max Homa, Brian Campbell, Stephan Jaeger and more.
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I was a little shell shocked when I first got out. I was looking around everyone else saying, “Hey, what what do I need to do?” This time around, I’m much more kind of comfortable of who I am. I have to find the people that are going to push me to be my best cuz you can kind of fall into a dark hole out here of just being lonely. It’s probably even sweeter when you have to go back and then get yourself to move forward again. I’m just really proud of the whole process and the journey. I really look back on those moments and think about them all the time. Job security for us doesn’t exist hardly ever. It’s so competitive out there that you really got to be firing on all cylinders. We see the glitz and glamour of the PJ tour on a weekly basis. The stars living their childhood dreams for the world to see. New England’s very own Tony Fenel Justin Thomas. The Sheffler victory train just keeps on rolling. But the reality for most players playing at the highest level is starkly different. There are no contracts. What have you done for me lately? It’s just crazy. It was just like back all this back and forth, but I’ve always fought through those ruts and was able to come out on top. The glory isn’t for how high you get in your peaks. It’s more of like when you bounce back. There’s so few guys who have the ability right off the bat that are able to have that meteor rising. It is indeed nap time. The reality is for most of us is we got to grow. We got to develop. Make the most of what we got. And as the modern game continues to evolve, the corn ferry tour is getting even more challenging, even more competitive. So you got some people who are, you know, much older and just grinding. And then you got us that that year we’re 22. They probably hated us. the fresh young guys that are coming up. The tour is getting better, especially in golf today, now in 2025, how difficult it is to keep your car, to be out here after year with fewer and fewer spots for these great players. The grind is real. You have to prove yourself every week, every year, every day. But success on tour is not always linear. Max is like was was one of the cool stories because he was the superstar college amateur player. Got his PJ tour card very early and then struggled for a while and I mean really struggled. After turning pro in 2013, Max Homa earned his PJ tour card for the 20145 season but fell flat during his rookie year losing his card and returning to the cornfairy tour. Plus four on his round. You’re still unsure of everything. you’re a little more uncomfortable. You’re just not sure if it’s going to translate. Getting to go through that, it is a challenge. It took a lot of kind of mental fortitude and just the grind of it. I think it builds character. Home bounced back in 2016, winning for the second time on the Corn Fairy Tour and regaining his card. But his return to the PGA Tour was even more disappointing, making just two cuts in 17 events. When I had to go back the second time, like it’s tough because you never want to feel like you’re going backwards. To have that to fall back to and recind of learn how to play while having to compete against some amazing golfers. That’s a huge benefit of the Cornferry Tour. Homer rebounded yet again and the third time earning his car turned out to be the charm. Getting past that L and understanding you’re closer than you think. That’s always a big thing you hear the guys say out here. So trying to feel that in the moment is important. How fantastic. Since 2019, Homa has not just survived but thrived, racking up six wins, playing on two President’s Cup teams and a Ryder Cup team and emerging as one of the overwhelming success stories of the Cornferry Tour. He’s so humble. He gets it. So fan friendly, so competitive. He’s one of those players that just need to believe in himself a little bit more and the sky’s is the limit. He’s kind of just a winner. He gets in those big moments and when I see his name up on the leaderboard, you expect him to be there. No, I’m not surprised. The stories you hear about him and the stories you hear as him as a competitor, it’s amazing. Looking back, like it’s a grind, but we were young. Got to travel around and compete with friends at the same time. It was very cool. I’m very thankful for sure of where I have been, where I’ve come from, and all the things I’ve learned along the way. It’s been quite a fun journey. Homer’s career path resonates with many of his peers, including fellow Cornferry alum Brian Campbell. He’s been through some tough times, but I think we all go through them. The Cornferry does an amazing job of preparing us for the next level. It’s probably a blessing in disguise for me to lose my card, go through what I went through, and then have to regain it back. When you get it taken away, you realize just how special it was. Tuesday is a lot about getting used to the course. Still learning how to drive to the course correctly. I think I made a wrong turn. Oh no. Warning. Learning how to navigate back to the PGA Tour is nothing new for Campbell. Such a grind, especially days like this where it can be raining. Sometimes it’s fun to go mess around in the rain for a little bit. Cooper Wilson, big part of the journey. Wouldn’t be here without him. We discuss wind direction, carry numbers, uh where we want to be. 45 pins. 45 with down. Yep. I think that’s pretty good number we can work off of. We really like talk about a lot. Not golf. Like we talk about everything, you know, shows, sports, conspiracies. The moon landing is always fun. It’s great to uh have someone to bounce ideas off of. Yeah, just really trying to figure out where you want to be. Campbell’s strong play this season has qualified him for signature events, fulfilling the promise he showed in earning his card just over a year after turning pro. I’ve just been playing my game and then all of a sudden they’re telling me you’re tour bound, you know, and I’m like, “Wow.” Unfortunately for Campbell, he made just seven cuts in 20 events during his 201617 rookie season and finished 180th in the FedEx Cup standings, meaning a return to the Cornferry Tour. It sucks losing your card, you know, and moving backwards, but I guess I I always had the idea that I I would be back. But after just missing a return trip in 2019, poor play and lingering injuries began to sew seeds of doubt. I definitely let those thoughts kind of creep in. Those were some tough years. I was kind of battling myself more than I was battling the courses. I could see his determination, so it was only a matter of time. Hard times make strong soldiers. Everything came together last season with three runners up and seven top 10s to reclaim his spot on the PGA Tour. Congratulations, buddy. I’m proud of you. The whole program’s proud of you. Two bound. I was able to pull myself out of the the depths there. Gives you a lot of confidence moving forward. That confidence showed during the Mexico Open at Vantto World earlier this season. You’re close to the lead. Um, we started to think, okay, you know, something could happen here. Campbell birdied 18 to force a playoff with Aldrich potter, but his drive on the second extra hole seemed doomed. Campbell hitting this very low out to the right. This is dicey. The second that comes off, you’re just like, you know, it’s over. I’m done. This is going to need a good bounce. And that one is the bounce of a career right there. Okay, we’re we’re back in this. No stranger to second chances, Campbell made the most of his and finally Brian Campbell can call himself a winner. To have Kelsey there with me, I mean, just to see her reaction was just priceless. To just see it full circle and see him win, I was just so happy because I just had remembered, you know, where he came from and how hard he struggled. It’s hard to win out here, so you really got to keep putting that hard work in. Can’t let up. Which is why on a rainy Tuesday, he’s still grinding away like nothing has changed. Forever grateful for the opportunity. I got a few years here of status. Can really attack my schedule the right way. You got to really stay on top of it and take advantage of those opportunities. Even on a rained out day, walking through the slush, it’s still just amazing to be out here. Some people call you the best corn fairy Tour player of all time. How does that make you feel? It feels great. Since making his first Cornferryy Tour start back in 2012, few players, if any, embody the roller coaster ride that can be professional golf more than Steven Joerger. He just might be the poster child for cornfairy tour resilience, stick tuitiveness, and perseverance. It prepares you in a sense of knowing what feelings are going to come up. There is going to be some challenges and things are going to go a little bit haywire. Six wins on the Cornferry Tour from 2016 to 21 tied for the second most all time, including shooting a 58 in the first round of the 2016 LA Classic. For a 58, folks, he shot a 58 in round one. Yet with all that success, he could never quite find his footing on the PGA Tour. Sometimes it’s your week and nothing can go wrong and you get the bounces and you get the breaks. Sometimes you can take it and sometimes you just don’t take it. I didn’t take it. The odds were kind of in my favor and I didn’t didn’t capitalize on that. After two wins in the 2020 2021 season, Joerger earned his PJ tour card for the second time. And this time, something clicked. On the cornfair, he just killed it. Like, he just he was so good. And it took him a while to get that confidence out here. And I knew once he got it, he would just run with it. Since reearning his tour card in 2021, he has made the playoffs in all three seasons. And in 2024, he won his first PJ Tour event at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, defeating world number one Scotty Sheffller in the process. Jagger finally gets it done at the age of 34. for me to be able to feel like I can do it. Obviously, I’ve done it on a lower level and be able to kind of show myself, hey, you you’ve got what it takes to to win on tour and feel more and more confident is a big one to know for sure. There you go. Hey, Steven Joerger’s up and down journey to the PJ Tour winners circle is certainly not unique as there are literally hundreds of players that find themselves on the carousel between the cornfairy tour to the PJ tour and back for Max McGrevy and Kevin Roy. That journey can be daunting, relentless, and emotional. Yeah, it’s hard. You know, it’s a lot of travel. It’s a lot of time away from wife and kids and family. But I look at it a way it’s been a lifelong dream to play on the PGA tour. So it’s awesome, but it’s it’s tough at the same time. The mentality is is so much different out here. There’s just so much to play for, so much prestige, so much career-wise that can change so quickly out here week to week, year to year. 2025 marks both players second trip to the PGA Tour. Roy first earning his PJ tour for the 2023 season by finishing 24th on the regular season points list. McGrevy got his for the first time in the 202021 season after winning the Price Cutter Charity Championship and finishing 14th on the points list. Appreciate it. Thanks. I think mentally it took me a long time to just feel comfortable. My last name is McGrevy. Maroyy’s name is right next to me in the locker room. I feel like I’m just put in a new world that I’ve been watching these guys for so long that now I’m playing against them, still idolizing them. That was a hard mental block that took me a while to get over. At first, it was a dream fulfilled before getting my tour card. I’ve never Monday qualified into a PJ tour event. I’ve never played in a PGA Tour event. My first tournament in Napa was my first ever PGA Tour event. So, it was definitely a comfortability thing for me. [Music] For both, the mental and physical challenges were difficult, and a return trip to the Cornferryy Tour was almost inevitable. Me going back to the Cornferry Tour uh last year uh was probably a great thing for me cuz I I realized that I could play up here, but I wasn’t super ready to play up here. In the back of my mind, knowing that I graduated from the corn ferry before was a huge help. I took it as a little bit of motivation. I was like, let’s just go do it again. Unfortunately, it it took me probably one of the worst years of my life and 23 losing my card to just feel comfortable just going back to basics and regaining that trust in myself and in my golf game to feel comfortable out here and actually put some good results together and just feel like I belong. The 2025 PJ Tour season has continued the up and down paths for both players. Royy’s best finish a tie for sixth at the Puerto Rico Open. The man can’t be stopped today. And for McGrevy, a tie for fourth at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches. For now, both have an inside track for keeping their PJ tour status, but more importantly, this second time around on the PJ tour comes with experience certainly, but even more importantly, perspective. I used to, you know, live and die over every shot and every round of golf. And I’ve gotten so much better at basically not taking golf home with me, good or bad days. You know, when I leave the golf course, it’s time to go home and be a husband and a dad. And I think having my daughter has been a huge part of that as well. She doesn’t care if I shoot 76 or 66. People kept telling me how good I was when I was still failing. Sorry for getting emotional, but that’s I want to be the best possible person I can be on and off the golf course, and that’s just going to push me to be my best. I think you have weeks where you where you lose motivation, and uh you know, luckily I have a great team around me that pushes that motivation forward and I hope I have that motivation moving forward for a long period of time. [Music] There is a simple truth that highlights the best way to earn promotion from the cornfairy tour to the PGA Tour. How about it? Austin Slatherman, a winner again on the cornfair tour. Win and you very well may be in. Unbelievable. So far in the 2025 season, seven winners on the Cornferryy Tour previously held PJ Tour membership. That’s pretty awesome. Thank you all for making it possible. As the saying goes, winning solves everything. I feel the love though. Leiota secures his first ever corn tour victory. Daddy, what? How do you crack so much in there? [Music] Spend the day with Hank Leviota and you will see just a glimpse of the detailed approach that has helped guide his professional career. You going to play outside? No. This is our daily schedule. What I had come up for today ahead of time just to make sure I got what I wanted to done. Oh my goodness. Look at this. this beautiful towel. Oh, it does spell dad. Can you hit to the corner, baby? Nice shot. There you go. Whoa. 31 and on the cusp of being tour bound again, Leota finds himself in a completely different stage of his life as he hopes to embark on his second stint on the PGA Tour. Whoa, nice hit, Henry. After turning professional nearly 10 years ago, playing and winning on the PJ tour Americas in Canada and Latin America, then to the Cornferryy Tour, he found himself on the PJ tour in an instant. That’s just what you did. You know, you just got your card. You just moved on from the corner tour. Thought I was a world beater. I could do whatever I want. 24 years old and I had achieved a dream of being a PJ tour player. That dream lasted for the better part of five seasons. Keeping his tour status until 2023 when he missed 16 of 24 cuts. The highs are high and the lows are low. The day when he lost PJ tour status, you know, we’re trying to juggle newborn baby just lost status. You’re not really sure what’s going to happen the next year. You can’t ever feel comfortable where you’re sitting because it can it can go away pretty quickly. It was a reality check, you know, finishing 75th just being able to sneak into that last event and maintain full status for this 2025 season. I’m thankful I got through what I did and I’m thankful that I I barely kept my status last year cuz I thought it prepared me well for beginning of this season. The flight’s so much better. Yeah, that’s nice. Yeah, that’s nice. So still being in front of you at the top and then as you move down you’ve got space. Yeah. Part of his preparation was a change in swing coach Chan Reeves coming on board offering a different and more simple perspective. Came up with some things together, some some simple things to work on and it seemed like right off the bat it made sense to him and he saw some results pretty quick and it just kind of went on from there. It’s been fun. That change providing immediate dividends at the start of the 2025 season. Handsome Hank, a champion. Maybe it’s the start of some great long second wind of a career. Still got to put in the work. It’s not just going to happen because I say like, “Oh, yeah. Why not?” You still got to do the plan. Plan the work and then work the plan afterwards. The plan is something Leota takes pride in. For when the journey is this hard, so too must be the work. Come on. Right here. Fight it. Fight it. Fight it. Hold. It’s constantly changing. Find something that works. You build on it. And even though it might not be written down on the schedule, at the end of the day, there is time for reflection. I’m very excited. I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be an awesome opportunity to be back and competing amongst the best players in the world. And hopefully these two years I spent on the Cornferry tour and then the 5 years on PJ tour that I had before that will help me. Earning your PJ tour card through the Cornferry Tour is a monumental achievement. Yeah, the journey was long and tough. There’s no question. When I finally got to the corn ferry tour, I knew that my window of opportunity was going to be wide open from there to live out my dream. He has the game, I think, to be successful on the PGA Tour. When I made the Cornfurry Tour, if my career ended there, I could have said I I made it. That was as happy as I’ve ever been as a golfer was being able to play the Cornfurry Tour. And that was one of the proudest moments of my career. It really prepared me for the PJ tour. Playing a regular season several tournaments in a row and getting that sort of pressure on your shoulders. The stress is real. Climbing the mountain once is hard enough, but falling down and having to do it all over again can sometimes feel impossible. Well, there’s two ways to look at it, right? I think there’s a negative way and there’s a positive way. And sometimes they coingle. You can be like, “Oh man, I’m a tour player. I don’t know why I’m here.” or you can go, you know what, I get another chance to prove myself. There’s been a ton of guys who have dropped back down and then reearned their card and it’s super inspiring. You know, every year, good or bad, you can kind of take something from it. Obviously, I want to be, you know, the Scotty Shefflers and the Rories of the world that are just so consistent and always there. Unfortunately, I just don’t think that’s in my DNA. I have to take the good and I have to take the bad. just allows me to be free and allows me to play at a at a level that I know I’m capable of playing at. Securing your card is certainly no guarantee of future greatness. And keeping it requires a special determination to make the most of the opportunity. All those hours of blood, sweat, and tears of having that be your goal, it’s like, “All right, I got a sense of accomplishment, but it’s still a step. Now the fun starts.
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Let’s go Hank!!!