Austin Smotherman captures his second Korn Ferry Tour title in just three starts!
In this post-round interview, Smotherman reflects on what made the difference—his mental approach, a key eagle from 77 yards, and switching to a LAB putter. He also shares what it means to bounce back after returning from the PGA TOUR and how staying present helped him win again.
🗣 “Let’s see how much fun we can have—it’s our world right now.”
Don’t miss the story behind one of the hottest players on the Korn Ferry Tour.
austin winner this season what are the emotions like right now
i pretty high i mean emotions are all day i felt like i handled my emotions well that’s kind of what i what i wanted to do today was have fun hit golf shots and just play as relaxed golf as i could to see what could happen especially because of the position we’ve been in where we we could do that and i wanted to see what i how i could play what i could do when i had that kind of mentality and that that patience all day and i mean i’m happy with the result and i i feel like i learned something else today that i want to take with me as far as how to approach you know these final rounds and getting a little bit more comfortable second win and three starts now i i think just coming into our own as far as time of year i mean we’ve been playing good golf really since january starting in the bahamas and so
you know courses eb and flow stay patient do a lot of the same things and then you know i i kind of have to give a shout out to uh to uh sam han the lab golf ceo for getting me into a uh lab putter literally switched in uh kansas city this year and since that run i don’t know how many birdies i’ve made but enough so
were you leader watching today i i really didn’t i didn’t really see a leaderboard for the right page until um really kind of the the turn doesn’t have a ton 11 12 13 i mean there really wasn’t just i felt like a lot of leaderboards to look at seven 17 green was where i saw with knowing 17’s a tough birdie hole that i still had a one shot lead and they announced me as the leader when i approached the green so i kind of figured um but with alvaro just one back i don’t know where anybody else was really and those are two two tough holes to finish with with birdies so i was pleased with with where i was at and the four iron on 17 today was probably a highlight
what mentality did you have to 17 the hardest i played at two under for the week i mean missed that green yesterday and still just had a two putt which i mean probably a pretty pivotal hole for just being comfortable with my long irons this week i mean just good numbers you know fortunate how they all worked out today and then another highlight probably the uh the wedge shot on 12 from 77 yards one hopping hitting the bottom of the flag six right straight in the bottom of the cup um that was that was pretty sick yeah what are you aiming for the rest of the season
see how much fun we can have i mean it’s kind of our our word right now i mean this is fun to be out here doing this and so blessed to be able to have these opportunities every week i mean we’re you don’t get to you don’t get to win very often in this sport and the fact that i’ve done it twice in three weeks i mean is a pinch me moment i mean you know just a lot of god’s blessing looking down on me right now that victory absolutely i mean i i want to go get in contention and see see how much fun we can have win another time um close it out great if not you know just there’s still so many tournaments left and a lot of a lot of ways to go um and happen to be another off week next week so i get to go home and enjoy this one yeah uh we talked this morning just finalizing her plans making sure she wasn’t going to surprise me or anything out here today and maybe throw me off um and so we discussed yesterday and this this morning that she was going to stay home i’m flying home anyways tomorrow morning and uh win or lose get home to them and spend a couple days with with no golf in mind but uh but a new trophy in the trophy case
my last question here yeah this these two weeks you know with winning kind of sums up a lot of hard work and whether they you know the work i put in with my coach cameron mccormick my work with zach my caddyy right now i mean we’re we’re vibing out there and having so much fun and he’s been great and he’s he’s been on the big show a bunch so his uh his wisdom was was used a little bit today you know i i saw i was had a long walk on up 15 fairway i was by myself and he was ahead of me probably just thinking everything’s fine i felt a little nerves i mean a good t- ball on 15 and so he uh he slows up and looks at me i go i said i said just tell me something let’s we need to talk right now i need to not be silent and uh just little things like that um and the right moments can make the big difference
i was going to say yesterday you told me you weren’t quite finding the flow you didn’t quite get the shot that you needed what was that difference what allowed you to do that
uh honestly a little bit of range work last night just trying to just figure out where driver and threewood were going um i needed to uh have a little bit of stronger face coming back you know all the technical stuff i won’t bore you with but as far as figuring it out i felt like i figured it out last night to where i could show up today and warm up it was really nice the t-ball on one second shot on one shot on two it was just kind of like i got those big shots early enough to where there was no no questioning if i had it or not it was just a matter of of being present enough to make the right choice shot selection and then just execute to my best ability
how about that e
yeah that was pretty sweet little one hop and and and disappear i mean there was probably i don’t know a few dozen people around i mean maybe a few more walk watching that hole and uh they they all went up i’m high-fiving everybody and it was fun to celebrate and then step up and and make birdie on the next and have another eagle look which was would have been pretty sweet but
last one i have is just the crowd the entire week especially today but just what is the support for someone who isn’t necessarily from the area no kind of a really large crowd that’s that’s one thing i feel like coming here and springfield in general and panther creek hosts hosts all of us players and caddies in their homes i mean they open up their homes all week to us to be able to have just an easy week i mean i’m staying hundreds of yards away from from where we’re doing this interview and uh my host probably back there hooting and hollering still you know figuring things out but just that um that support from the community getting to know i mean i got to know a bunch of kids on tuesday doing an fca little golf nine-hole walk and talk saw those kids today high-fiving giving them balls gloves you name it one of them brought a buddy up said “hey austin do you know me?” and i was like “yeah what’s up reagan?” he goes “see i told you so.” like they were i mean it was just something like that every everywhere it was so fun it was so fun
wag 70 77 yards just middle of the fairway one hop that was probably 10 steps short of the flag and i it was a little lower one i mean would it have probably stopped before it got to the back edge yes if it didn’t go in and i would have been happy with that shot and make a fivefooter or something but the fact that it disappeared was just all right let’s go
yeah he had no idea that was to get the share of the lead there birdie for the lead
yeah and i don’t know what alvo was doing behind me too much like i said not a ton of leaderboards other than knowing that if he’s making similar birdies with how it was playing today that i was probably just keeping pace with today and then you know making a two there’s stealing one um and then just hitting a lot of the proper shots coming in i mean hitting the hitting both par fives and two and having very easy easy two putt birdies um can’t change that thank you
