On this week’s show, Austin Smotherman wins the BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greenville, South Carolina, and we hear from the winner in an interview with Brendan Sweeney. Brendan and Ryan Ballengee recap the event, as well as spin forward to the US Open at Oakmont, which will feature eight recent and current Korn Ferry Tour players. We introduce you to two of those US Open contestants in Bobby Diaz and Zach Bauchou.
Watch SEASON 2 of The Road to French Lick:
Episode 1: https://youtu.be/ve4JrpinpwM
Episode 2: https://youtu.be/nfjjIuESZQM
Episode 3: https://youtu.be/BhPgJF9WWZQ
Episode 4: https://youtu.be/-U08B2NfBAQ
Episode 5: https://youtu.be/j_PDV5hrNZM
Episode 6: https://youtu.be/KQes6MTJ1Is
Episode 7: https://youtu.be/sA7hMYNw7PE
Episode 8: https://youtu.be/a0sG7IPCn_E
Episode 9: https://youtu.be/GjTdSfypbQM
Episode 10: https://youtu.be/6NL4eYN6LeA
Watch SEASON 1 of The Road to French Lick:
Episode 1: https://youtu.be/i3HVE6sF_YQ
Episode 2: https://youtu.be/g-cpXXmWnR4
Episode 3: https://youtu.be/Ofli2Lwfvi4
Episode 4: https://youtu.be/vlxUJlgvo_A
Episode 5: https://youtu.be/_zk-4Xqv1wM
Episode 6: https://youtu.be/iKaplacB-dw
Episode 7: https://youtu.be/qLofLnLfAiA
Episode 8: https://youtu.be/G_MF7T8rZ54
Episode 9: https://youtu.be/LquQZfZLLTA
Episode 10: https://youtu.be/cLgBCanqOvs
Episode 11: https://youtu.be/oyH-suXFFp8
Episode 12: https://youtu.be/vPBBiYt7IBc
Episode 13: https://youtu.be/-39IJTl-o4w
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we’ve got a new winner of the BMW charity ProAm and we take a quick stop at Oakmont on the road to French Lake [Music] [Music] [Music] hi I’m Ryan Bali welcome once again to the Road to French Lick show chronicling the corn fairy tour this week we are on the road in North Carolina getting ready for the remainder of the season in the meantime our Brendan Sweeney was just a state to the south in South Carolina home to the BMW charity program he’ll check in with an interview with Austin Smotherman last week’s winner at the BMW Charity Program we’ll recap the event down there in Greenville South Carolina and we’ll get you ready for the US Open which is played this week at Oakmont Country Club in Western Pennsylvania but first let’s catch you up on the BMW charity prom played once again hosted by Thorn Blade Club and hosted for two of the rounds of the tournament at Carolina Country Club in Greenville South Carolina one of the best tournaments on the schedule every year with 160 ProAm teams taking on the first two days of the tournament with a cut in the ProAm for the third day of the championship and then all pros on the final day turns out Austin Smotherman was your winner he shot 25 under 260 to win by three shots over once again a trio of players who finished tied for second place including Sebastian Kaplan Pearson Cudy and Carl Yuan who was the 54hole leader after shooting 61 on Saturday at Thornblade Club in the end though it was a mark of consistency for Smotherman that earned him the win going 65 and 62 in the opening two rounds and then 66 and 67 on the weekend to allow him to overcome that third round deficit and be a winner by three he wins $180,000 from the $1 million purse and he earns $500 Tour points moving him up from 18th position to fourth position in the standings now let’s hear right after the tournament from the winner of the BMW charity program Austin Smotherman austin what’s going on buddy how how’s uh how’s it treating you so far yeah doing pretty well here at the uh Lecon Classic so having a good week so far how’s the how’s the year been shaping up for you uh nice start for the season inside the top 20 right now points-wise so uh you know couple top 10s some good weeks miscut here or there but uh you know a lot of golf left so so next week uh or next couple weeks you guys are heading back to Dallas so you’re an SMU guy yep what’s it like going back to the hometown uh nice i mean I still live there so you know I’m staying in my own bed that week uh 35 minutes or so from the golf course and um yeah a little a little weird to you know still have a tournament in your backyard just cuz you know your nightly routine something you do on you know you do every week when you’re home and now it’s a tournament week so Dallas has become sort of like a incubator of of content creators good good golf and and a lot going on no no shortage of golf courses people decent weather um so yeah all that combined makes for some good golf content how uh you know the the good guys pretty well a little bit i mean I play I’ve played professionally with Sean Walsh and then uh a little bit of Brad Doy Luke Quan and then I’ve met um what’s his name the uh the old Grant Horvat that used to be a part of it i don’t know all the connections cuz I don’t follow it as close as some guys but we had the Midwestern Open uh last year up at French Lick it was absolutely insanity it was guys came out and I think what 3,000 people showed up in a town of 2500 people it’s just rockstar stuff that’s awesome cool well we wish you the best of luck uh you have a a fun proam group today okay i know a couple of the guys that you’re playing with so uh man we wish you the best out there we’re pulling for you thank you see you eventually we now update you on the Cornferry Tour point standings after the BMW charity program johnny Kefir who played in the RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour remains your leader in the point standings now more than halfway through the season at 1,375 total points sh Kim a winner this year and a runner up multiple times remains in second place at 1,31 points hankly Viota remains in third at 1,289 points and we now have our fourth player of the year in four digits in points that is Austin Smotherman who moved up 14 places on the points list to 1,073 points in fourth place and rounding out the top five is Davis Chapfield who was one of the runners up in Raleigh he is at 852 points 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 RWS 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 brenda Sweeney joins me uh we’re here to talk about the BMW charity program which is where he was last week a last edition of the show talked to a number of players talked to Ryan French from Monday Q Info got the whole lowdown on a great tournament in Greenville South Carolina first before we get into the actual results with Austin Smother winning what were your impressions of the tournament and the time you got to spend there i tell you what uh my daughter was a Clemson so I’m a I’m a big Greenville fan it’s it’s a great place to be the people are dynamite um the the facilities that they have there are top-notch um and you can see that it’s a well seasoned event i mean with all the with the proam celebrity aspect of it all um it was just a welloiled machine uh from the time I pulled in to the time I I left I felt like a like a welcome guest and I was just in the background um yeah uh the staff was great the players are great um there’s Greenville’s a killer place to be uh and to top it off you know a lot of the players and contestants had the opportunity to go over to the BMW uh performance center um I stopped over there real quick said hi to Brian Kendrick from XM Radio um I was trying to get out of town um and the commute to from the from the Greenville airport to Charlotte to uh to Orlando was challenging but effective so I I finally made it home and uh that’s just the challenges of traveling at at that time of the day so shame on me i I should have known better so yeah it was a great event uh they have a a a great sponsor in TD Senate they have a great charity uh and you could really tell that the community like turns out for it their their infrastructure around 18 uh had to go for like 40 yards i mean they they did it upright they have some great corporate sponsors and then you know with a great champion with Austin and and the way that he finished you know finished in three you know three holes in a row and taking a bomb on 18 that’s just crazy and after I guess we’ll just jump into it now his story with his caddy his caddy went down early and uh he had to pick up a local college kid to carry his bag for a couple days i I didn’t see how the uh how the split went afterwards but I’m sure he is quite generous with the kid i sure hope so i mean either either way that’s that’s a big week for the kid uh he he obviously is going to be compensated and then for Austin he moves up with a three shot win by shot 25 under 260 which uh good luck if you’re trying to be a professional golfer at this level and that’s what you got to shoot for but wins by i think the record the record in the course is 27 under that was hit twice so yeah they’re shooting darts out there big wide fairways big greens just go to town 18’s a great finishing hole though i got to give it credit for that being 490 a big ask off the tea uh and like you said with all that corporate hospitality up the left side especially but it I mean it’s a big camber big sidehill hole uh for Austin to finish it the way that he did was awesome uh wins by three over Sebastian Kaplan for Pearson Cudi Carly Juan both those guys have been on the PGA Tour pearson Cudi is trying to get back there and we’ll talk about Austin first moves up from 18th in the points to fourth and now we’re kind of at that point in the year where if you’ve been having a good enough year to to get into that top 20 with a win a win is pretty much locking up your card for next year it’s it’s going to be pretty tough at this point for Austin Smotherman not to be in the top 20 at the end of this year absolutely he’s he’s having a lights out year he was doing well i think he’s what fourth on a tour or fourth on list sound about right yeah fourth now so I mean he’s he’s he’s ready to go i mean at this point I feel like if you’re in the top five with less than half the season left you’re you’re almost certain to get through and get to the PGA Tour next year yeah and now you’re starting to see some guys really start to shift gears as well um you you look at some of the veterans that are out there spencer Lavine he’s starting to show a little life out there and then uh you know Scott Piery you know they they both shot up significantly on the on the points list but they still have a long way to go to push that rock up the hill to get to the playoffs to get to you know the the four different stages of it what it takes to become a a a PJ professional and PGA champion to get on tour so um a couple guys that we’re looking at uh from the French lick point of view Joe Wiler he’s currently 54th on the list tyler Duncan is is 49th and uh Chandler Bashette who’s actually playing in the US Open this week he’s 32nd so they all got logos of of French Lick somewhere on them and uh we just like that a lot so it it it helps to have bumper stickers on the road to French Lick a little bit of a road map too as well some uh yeah some proletizers for the resort as well um speaking of we we just talked about this just before we started recording but seven guys that are currently on the Cornfairy Tour full-time are going to be in the US Open this week that’s a big deal for this tour i think kind of goes and shows just how competitive these guys really are how fine the line is between being on the PGA Tour and on the Cornferry Tour and then that other fine line of being in a major championship and not yeah and I I think you know the guys they have to look out for in that group you know got you got James Nichols got Zach Bashau got Bobby Diaz um everybody’s you know we’ve spoke to in the past um you know Alio Gonzalez and uh of Rto Ortiz you know they’re all I mean these guys are all scrappers they’re all going to do it and it’ll be something I mean I was looking at at your betting line on Golf Newset and and uh you know throw a buck on each one of the guys and if they come in the top 20 you make your money back real quick and I and I think every once in a while in the US Open you get a guy that you never really heard of that shows up on the top 10 leaderboard and and hopefully it’s one of our cornfairy guys that show up and do it it would be really exciting i mean it’ be great for us it’d be great for uh for the Cornferry and it’ be great for everybody involved with golf yeah i mean the style of golf they’re going to play at Oakmont this week is a little bit different than 25 under winning that they played last week in Greenville however a lot of these guys on this tour hit the ball so far and they have so much power which is exactly what Oakmont requires so if you can just kind of find enough fairways and avoid the bad damage when you miss the fairways they might have a chance to surprise some people this weekend get on a leaderboard well if you look at a Cornferry graduate that won this year you know from the University of Illinois Brian Campbell I mean he’s a short hitter but he’s deadly accurate so that could be like a Cory Paven flashback you know of him coming up so any anything could happen in US Open and if I think if you avoid the big oopses and you just play maintain golf and uh get lucky you know it’s it’s what it takes and it’s a grind if you don’t mentally burn yourself out i mean we’ve been around enough US Opens to see guys just you know come out of the shoot quick and all a sudden implode over like one one hole and they’re done so hopefully uh none of that happens to our guys and and everybody has a great week after this week we’ve got Witchah Witchah Kansas one of the longest running corn Tour events back in the days when it was the Ben Hogan Tour uh one of the great events on the schedule so we’ve got that to look forward to and then that kicks off Tom tom Layman yeah Tom Layman and David Deval are best past champions there so that’s how far it goes back wild that is absolutely wild so we’ve got that to look forward to then we kick off a long run of events then before you know it we’re looking into September and we’re looking at that part of the schedule where you get to the Coring Fairy Tour finals but like you said earlier now we got to start thinking about not that big number of top 20 we got to start thinking about getting in that top 144 top 125 top 100 top 70 those are the big numbers guys got to start thinking about if they want to extend their season beyond the 22 events in the regular season it’s it’s the corn ferry man and then especially with the cards being reduced from 30 to 20 we’ve been talking about it all year and then also with the PGA Tour going from 125 to 100 i mean that’s going to make 20 you know 26 so much harder um than it is this year and so much harder than it was last year so hopefully these guys have a have a big push in their tank and just just get it done man just grind it out and do it that’s all you have to do well we’ve got a lot to buckle up for we’re now officially in the second half of the season lots of excitement uh we’ll be here to cover it all with you and Brendan will be on the road for a bunch and then we get to meet up uh at French Lick and kind of celebrate a great year once again at the end of the year but until then we’ll keep it coming for you on the road to French Lick and Brendon thanks for being out on the road as always cool Ryan thanks buddy we’ll talk to you soon at this week’s US Open at Oakmont Country Club in Western Pennsylvania it’ll be hosting for a record 10th time at the National Championship and the Cornferry Tour will be well represented in the 156 player field eight players who have some recent corn fairy Tour experience will be participating in the national championship and wanted to introduce you to a couple of them who we’ve gotten to know through the show so first let’s start with Roberto Diaz or as everybody knows him on the corner tour Bobby Diaz bobby how you doing man great man thanks for having me how was uh how wrap up last year on where you were coming up to the the the cornfair championship at French Lick what were your thoughts and impressions about number one the resort and how you played yeah um last year was a odd all year for me i I played really really well and I started getting good results till the end of the year i luckily I made it to the tour championship and yeah the tour championship was great i think the golf course was it was a very good test it was long it was demanding it was a very good setup um I think it was awesome so and obviously the facilities and everything around French Lake were great you know the uh the hotel the casino the restaurants you know the all the all the things that you guys did around town were awesome for that week excellent now coming in from October now we’re in December what have you been working on since then and how you trying to get through this week yeah just uh I mean just trying to decompress after the year and just trying to get ready for this you know a couple changes technique and just trying to stay sharp got it uh your sponsors you want to give a shout out to those guys who’s Wait put it this way who’s the first person you’re going to call after you get your card at the end of the week uh probably my family first and then uh John Roman and uh Barry Cox from the Cox Group they’re great people and they sponsor the tournament there in French league and they’re from Evansville Indiana they’re awesome guys awesome well we wish you the best of luck and have a great holiday thank you very much appreciate it we also got to know Zack Bushau last year at the Cornfair Tour Championship presented by United Leasing and Finance out at the French Lake Resort he had an opportunity even late on the last day of the championship to earn a PGA Tour card for 2025 ultimately was unsuccessful in that task and has gone out of his way to play around the world including on the Corin Ferry Tour in an attempt to get the best status possible and the most opportunities possible he’s going to be in the field this week at the US Open and we talked to him at French Lick last year zach this is it the road to French Lick finally came to here um what what are your thoughts so far about the golf course it’s amazing piece of property uh there’s definitely a lot going on on the course so you want to get out here and play some practice rounds so you can know where you’re going but it’s it’s beautiful and the course is very hard so you’ll have to play really well to post a good number this week can you sum up your year just in a quick little little blurb of from the beginning and starting in in you know from Q school on yeah so I started with conditional status from last year and uh had a couple decent starts early on in the year to secure my starts for the rest of the year and um have played well but been on the bubble for a while so trying to get off the bubble and inside the top 30 does it start is the grinding starting to go on now does it remind you of of any college days of okay you got to strap up and Yeah uh for sure uh I think in college you more competing with your team and stuff but this is the same thing like you’re competing against the same guys every week and um trying to beat people well we wish you the best of luck and we hope we don’t see you back here again thank you appreciate it that’s going to do it for us this week on the road to French Lake thanks so much for watching we appreciate it this week is the United States Open presented by the United States Golf Association at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont Pennsylvania just outside of Pittsburgh when we return to the corny tour schedule after this week we’ll be in Witchah Kansas for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Witchah Open we will have a new show for you after that tournament as we continue a long stretch toward the Cornferry Tour finals and the season ending Cornferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing and Finance at the French Lake Resort for Brendan Sweeney and everybody at the French Lake Resort I’m Ryan Balanche for everybody at Golf Newset thanks so much for watching we’ll see you next time on the road to French Lake you’ve arrived at French Lit 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
