On this week’s show, Ryan Ballengee and Brendan Sweeney look back on the start of the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Finals, with Zach Bauchou winning the Simmons Bank Open in Tennessee. Brendan catches up with Zach in Colubmus, site of this week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, along with 2025 winner Josh Teater and Andrew Kozan, who looks to move on to the third stage in Oklahoma.
The Cornferry Tour finals are underway. We’re in Columbus after a redemption story in Nashville on the road to French Lake. [Music] [Music] [Music] Hello and welcome once again to the Road to French Lake, a show chronicling the Cornferryy Tour. I’m Ryan Bingy. On this week’s episode, we’re going to look back on the Simmons Bank Open benefiting the Senker Foundation down in Tennessee with a big win from a player who had a lot of heartbreak in the season finale last year at French Lick. We’ll hear from the winner, Zack Bucho. We’ll talk about his win, what it means for the season with Brendan Sweeney, who is out in Columbus, Ohio, talking to players for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, the second of four legs in the Cornferry Tour finals. But first, let’s talk about the initial leg of the Cornferry Tour finals. Simmons Bank Open at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. This tournament was reserved for the top 156 players in the points list at the end of the regular season, which concluded with the Albertson’s Boise Open. We had a field of 139 in the end. 17 players chose not to compete. Most of those that were outside of the cutoff to get into this week’s event, which is the top 144 in the point standings for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. So they effectively self-excluded themselves from the remainder of the finals. But once the competition got going, there was a rain delay on day one that really kind of spilled over into day two and forced quite a bit of play for a number of players on that Friday. But they got themselves caught up, got into the weekend and had themselves a classic. In the end, it became a two-player duel on the back nine on Sunday between Zack Bushau and Austin Hit. Both players have been in great position heading into the final round and they kept up with one another throughout the entire day. In the end, it was Zack Bushau who wound up shooting his third consecutive 664. That gave him a two-shot win on a tournament record 23 under 257 by two shots over Austin hit who had threatened to shoot a sub60 round on that second round of play. He wound up shooting 61 and frankly breaking 60 or not was the difference between going to a playoff in this event. So Zack Bushau wins 600 Corin Fairy Tour points by winning the Simmons Bank Open. That’s an increase over 500 points that you get for winning regular season event. Purses are also 50% higher in the Cornferry Tour final. So $1.5 million instead of the standardized $1 million during the regular season. Meaning Zack Bushau got $270,000 for winning this event instead of the standard $180,000 for winning a regular season fairy tour event. All great things for Zack Bucho who had a PGA Tour card in his hands heading into the final round last year at the corner Tour Championship presented by United Leasing and Finance at the French Lake Resort. On the die course of the final day, the weather kicked up, conditions became extremely difficult, and ultimately that caused Zach Bushau a chance at a PGA tour card for 2025. Now he’s moved up to seventh in the point standings, practically assuring himself of a PGA Tour card for 2026. Let’s catch up with Zack Bush, who spoke with Brendan Sweeney in Columbus, Ohio after the win in Tennessee. Congrats. Thank you. How was it? It was awesome. Uh really cool to to get a win. I had a couple close chances this year. Um but it was it was nice having the lead going into Sunday and playing really well on Sunday and winning. So that was that was really cool. And uh we were watching at home and just to see that the glow of your face when it went in. It was just it was really cool. Not only because we know you, but we’re pulling for you all year, too. But congratulations. I think it’s dynamite. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, it was a exciting moment for me and u you know something I’ve wanted to do out here for a while. So, that was really cool to get it done. So, what did you celebrate last night? Um, I went to a steak place with a couple buddies and we actually ended up driving up here. So, Oh, no. I I didn’t drink at all cuz I drove. Um, but we had a good time. So, Oh, that’s amazing. Shut the a little bit in the on the car ride up. Yeah, that had to be a good thing. They had an opportunity to hold the trophy for a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, the guitar trophy was really cool. I I wish I was taking it home with me. Um, but it’s cool. Well, good. Well, we wish you the best of luck. Congratulations and uh we’ll see you in French lick and we’ll see you see you on tour next year, man. Yeah, sounds good. Thank you. Congrats. Thank you. Appreciate it. With his win in the Simmons Bank Open, Zach Bashau moves up 23 spots on the Corn Tour points list from number 30 to number seven, effectively giving him a really good chance, probably more than a 95% chance of having a PGA Tour card through the points list at the end of the season. The top five players in the points list, however, remains unchanged after the Simmons Bank open with Johnny Kefir remaining in the top spot in the standings at 2206 points. Austin Smotherman remains second on the points list at 1,844 points. Neil Shipley remains third in the points list at 1,627 points. Emilio Gonzalez remains in fourth place at 1,562 points. And Hank Leviota is in fifth position at 1,444 points. Jeremy Gandon is currently the number 20 player on the points list. He won earlier this year at the club card championship in Savannah. He holds that 20th spot heading into the second leg of the Cornferry Tour finals at 861.7 points. We have been saying throughout the entire course of the season, the Cornferry Tour projects that about a thousand points is what’s needed to finish the season inside the top 20 and graduate to the PGA Tour. Again, Don would be short of that right mo right this moment. However, things can change and things are fluid and really depends on who performs at what stages of the season. So, we’ll see what happens and we’ll continue to monitor that as we move along through these finals. French Lick, Indiana, our little corner of the world has big things waiting. It’s where legends were made on the court and on the course. Walter Hagen, Colin Montgomery, Betsy RS, and Mickey Wright. It’s where life is lived to the fullest and where unexpected adventures are around every corner. Big things are waiting. Are you in? Visit frenchlick.com and start your escape here in Indiana. We have two more guests for you this week on the road to French Lake. First is Josh Teter, the winner in Panama earlier this year. It’s been a career saving season for the Kentucky native as he now buys for one of those 20 PGA Tour cards through the 2025 corn ferry tour points list. Spoke with Brendan Sweeney about where he is at this stage of the finals and getting ready for those last couple of legs of the season. Josh, we’re in the playoffs. How does how does the uh the mindset shift at this time of year? Yeah, I mean I think you try to keep it the same. I mean, obviously these tournaments are we’re getting down to the end and uh you know, they’re worth a little bit more, but hey, it’s uh still golf and um you know, we’re just trying to make a plan on each shot and uh try to execute, see where we end up. What the first day of practice out here, mostly working on the short game. just how you in this time of year are you looking more to preserve your strength in the uh I mean we’re not spring chickens anymore so yeah I mean you know I’ve been here numerous times and uh I don’t think there’s been a whole lot of change on the course so uh you know I’ll see it during the program on Wednesday and see it again tomorrow and today just hitting some balls and maybe going out and catching a few checking a few of the greens to putt to some of the whole locations but nothing too strenuous and uh try to be full of energy come uh the How about UK? How are they looking this year? SEC. Yeah. Well, I mean, we’re up in the air. We we uh you know, was in there against Old Miss, had a chance to win, but uh you know, didn’t do some things down the end, and then uh it’s a tough schedule, so we’ll see. Uh maybe a young quarterback that maybe give us a little little new energy to get us going forward for the future. Would it be something to see Florida go like one and nine? It’s possible. It’s possible. Anybody can in that conference. I feel like you never know. I think Kentucky and Old Miss are the only two ranked teams that they don’t play. Yeah, probably. So, get waxed. Yeah, they got they come to Kentucky in November, I think. So, they’re not used to that. Could be cold, snow, who knows? Same with French in October. You never know. Hey, we wish you the best of luck this week. Thanks for stopping by. That’s right. Appreciate it. Sweeney also spoke with Andrew Kosen who is 119th in the points list coming into this week. the cuto off to get into the compliance solutions championship, the third leg of the Cornferry Tour finals, is the top 120 players in the points list after this week’s tournament. So, not quite the bubble boy, but he’s pretty close. He spoke with Brendan about that position as he tries to continue on in these finals. How’s it going, Andrew? Great. Great to be here. What’s Tell us about the a little bit about your season going on. What’s uh you know, one of the fun points. I had a kid, so that’s congratulations most fun part of the season. Boy, girl, little boy, Charlie. Um, so it was great. uh was born between the first second week of the year. So missed the first few events, a little rocky getting back into it. Um but you know, we’re we were kind of treading water for a little bit, kind of swimming upstream, but we had some had some good starts in the middle of the season and just kind of battling our way back now now with the playoffs in in full swing. I mean, what how does your mind switch? I mean, what what gears do you like shift into? Yeah, it’s nice cuz we’re still in a good position where one week can kind of just change everything. So, it’s kind of a you know, it’s kind of a positive thing about the playoffs. You get extra points. um smaller fields, there’s a better opportunity. Um and yeah, like I said, one week can we can change everything. So that’s kind of what we’re going with right now. Well, we wish you the best of luck. Thanks for stopping by. Thank you. Breny Sweeney joins me from Orlando. Comes back from the Columbus, Ohio area from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. Talked to a bunch of guys. We’ve highlighted them in the show at kind of different stages, but basically different cut offs, right? Josh Teter is kind of trying to hang on into the top 20, get back to the PGA Tour. Andrew Kosen’s 119 on the points list. Not quite the bubble boy, but pretty much. And then you had Zack Bushau who was 30th. Now he’s seventh. He’s practically got a card. Yaried for 2026. What’s kind of the different vibe? Obviously Zach’s his own guy. He just won. He’s really happy. But what’s the kind of vibe of the players who are at these different cut off points that are important numbers on the corner tour? Well, first off, uh it’s great to catch up with you. Um, but seeing Zach after playing with him last year in a prom at at French Lick at the United Leasing and Finance uh Cornferry Championships and just following his career, not only through through college and whatnot, but to see his journey wind up and and he’s seventh on the list now and chances are he’s getting his his tour card. Yeah. But when he won uh last Sunday, you see all the press pictures out there, he didn’t get to keep the guitar. They gave him a guitar like just for like a prop and he’s out there like I’m like, “Dude, where’s your guitar at?” He’s like, “I had to give it back.” I’m like, “Can they give you a knockoff or something, like a ukulele to bring on a plane or whatever?” But they uh they they stood him up, which I thought was, you know, here. Welcome to Augusta. You just won the Masters. Hold this beautiful replica of our clubhouse and give it back. No, it doesn’t happen that way. So, no, it’s not a Cornferry tour, so we’ll see what happens. Um, yeah, I I spoke to Zach. I spoke to Andrew Kosen who’s um right on the in the 119 list. So, we’re looking at at different cutoffs of players, you know, 144, 120 uh and then uh work your way down the line till you get the French look at 75, but once you get 75, you’re guaranteed cornfury status, you know, for for the following year. Um, each guy has a different different uh mojo about him. Zach is obviously elated that he he got his victory. And chances are he’s got his card. Uh Josh Teter, you know, the wiry old veteran. He’s like, “One day at a time. I’ve been here. I’ve done that. I’ve been to this course before. Um and I know what to do to get it done.” And he does. I mean, he’s he’s he’s old school, man. He he he is the uh the old dog in the yard. Um someone like Andrew Kosen, who just had a child, a different stage of life. Um obviously uh he he has different priorities. And then I met uh uh Sam Anderson. Uh young guy. Uh he’s right around 72 on the list. Uh he needs to know what he he went to the University of Wisconsin. This is his uh first year out there. Uh and and it’s a different mindset for him, too. Everything’s new. I mean talking within a half hour I spoke to Sam and I spoke to Josh and it was two totally different conversations on where these guys not only are in life but in their golf game and what they need to do. So yeah, it’s uh it’s pretty cool. Uh Columbus is you know the this the Scarlet course is dripping with his history. It’s a McKenzie track. Um all the players totally love it and respect it and uh they do a great job up there. uh top-notch their proams and the facilities that they have and it should be an exciting week and people are going to come out of the woodwork and people are going to fall off the side of the boat. So, this is sort of like where the the the you know rubber meets the road in the next couple weeks here and with Oklahoma coming up after that, you’re really going to see some some some guys playing out of their comfort zone to put it in a better way. Yeah, we have 24 guys this week who could get knocked out, right? They’re going from 144 to 120 after this week for Oklahoma. They love a week break, but that that’s the cut off after this week. We only had two guys play their way in, two guys play their way out from Nashville. It’s going to be different this time around because the field for Nashville had a lot of guys who had some form of PGA Tour status. So, they felt like they could skip and just try to press on that for 2026. This is not the case really. Now, you’re going to have guys who have some PJ tour status like Taylor Montgomery who are trying to get a full card back. You’ve got guys who are playing the Cornferry tour all season now. Basically, at this point, this is the full-time roster. This is what’s left. So, this week’s going to have a lot more heartbreak associated with it, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And and the good news is um it’s going to be on TV, too. I mean, how tough is it to go against the NFL? But if you’re obviously if you’re watching this show for some reason, you’ll probably be watching it on Golf Channel. So, we’re kind of an acquired taste during football season. So, uh yeah, or you can do what I did and just had the quad box working on on the on the thing and figured out. So, just keep our eye on it and then like I said, we got a we got a week off after this week. We go to Oklahoma for a new venue and we’ll talk about that when the time is right. And then then that’s the big cut off. So, little bit of a relatively mild week this week. Still a big big cut. I mean 24 is not nothing, but then we cut by 45 and that that’s that’s the big one. That that’s the tough one. So that’s the gut check. I that that’s deciding what you’re doing next year or the rest of your life. Or the rest of your life. Yeah, exactly. Which which is great. I mean, this tour has so many different storylines, and that’s what I I I like about it. It’s it’s uh you know, granted the guys in the PGA tour are the best of the best, but these guys are working. They’re they’re they’re going through the injuries. They’re using these days off for recovery and just trying to find that one thing. Um and if you haven’t found it by now, you’re you’re kind of just watching the traffic go by. So, yeah. Um Joe Wiler, uh he he’s another guy. He’s he’s sitting there right at like mid70s. He goes seven. Yeah. and uh saw him and and oddly enough they they did like a caravan over from Nashville and it was Davis Chatfield who’s another guy who’s probably gonna get his card u and the first Notre Dame graduate to make it on the PJ tour. So that’s a pretty pretty cool little fun fact. So um he is definitely playing better than the fight in Irish in football. That’s for damn sure. Yeah, that’s unfortunate. Well, what are you gonna do? We’re a golf show. So, uh, good luck to the Irish. Go Aggies, whatever. Uh, whatever. And we’ll we’ll have a great week in Columbus with the number one Ohio State Buckeyes raining everything in college football. They get to host Big Bitcoin Fair Tour event this week and uh, we get we get to talk about it, which is pretty awesome. And you got to see some of the guys their finest and maybe not some of their finest moments. So, it’s a pretty cool journey we get to do with them. And the great thing about going to Ohio, you know, Columbus and seeing Ohio State, uh, is talking to people from there and they remind you that you are in Columbus and they are the home of Ohio, the Ohio State University. And I did see a cool garbage can um, while I was up there. It it was a picture of this Buckeye guy just flatten it, you know, pancaking this dude from Michigan and and they goes, “This is how we take out the trash down here.” Oh god. So, all right, cool, Ryan, man. Thanks. Uh, let’s and go get it. All right, sounds good. See you soon. That’ll do it for us this week on the road to French Lake. We appreciate you watching. Next Corin Fairy Tour event is the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, the second leg of the Corfairy Tour finals in Columbus, Ohio on the Scarlet course at the Ohio State University. After that event, there will be a oneweek break in the schedule before the Compliance Solutions Championship out in Oklahoma. We’ll have a show for you after this Columbus tournament. For Brandon Sweeney and everyone at the French Lick Resort, I’m Ryan Balanchy for everyone at Golf News Net. Thanks again for watching. We’ll see you next time on the road to French Lick. You’ve arrived at French Lick Resort here in Indiana. Two hotels you have to see to believe. Legendary Golf by Pete Dye and Donald Ross. Our little corner of the world is like nowhere else. Your French lick getaway starts now at frenchlick.com.
