On this week’s episode of The Road to French Lick, Austin Smotherman becomes the first two-time winner on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour at the Memorial Health Championship, earning a spot on the PGA Tour in 2026. We also catch up with PGA Tour winners Alrdich Potgieter and Brian Campbell, both 2024 Korn Ferry Tour grads who have just won in back-to-back weeks on the PGA Tour. Ryan Ballengee and Brendan Sweeney look forward to the summer push.
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
Episode 11: https://youtu.be/ObTUq3AxE6o
Episode 12: https://youtu.be/imbFUQs_nGw
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 finally have our first two-time winner of the year on the Cornferryy Tour and we’re on the road to French Lake. Welcome once again to the Road to French Lake, a show chronicling the Corn Fury Tour. I’m Ryan Bali. It’s great to have you with us. We are at Woodmont Country Club, the site of the 2025 US Adaptive Open, the fourth edition of the USGA Championship. One of the most inspiring events you’ll ever get the opportunity to see. and we’re grateful to be here to talk about the Corning Fairy Tour this week as well. We want to wrap up the last event on the schedule, the Memorial Health Championship. Then we’ll hear from the winner of that tournament, our first two-time winner this year, as well as University of Illinois product Jackson Buchanan, who just competed in his first professional event and had himself a solid top 35 showing. But first, let’s recap the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS, played at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield, Illinois. The winner is our first two-time winner of this year. It’s Austin Smotherman. He’s won for the second time in three events. He won the BMW charity ProAm in South Carolina. He wins this event as well on the back of a final round 63 to finish on 25 under 259 and win by a single shot over Mexico’s Alvo Ortiz. It was a great great final day of the tournament with a lot of moving up and down the leaderboard from a variety of players. But in the end, it was Smotherman who won for the second time this season. He now gets himself into a position where he is guaranteed one of the 20 PGA Tour cards at the end of the year through the points list. So he is heading to the PGA Tour in 2026. With his second win of the year, the Memorial Health Championship, Austin Smotherman moves into a significant lead in the Cornferry Tour point standings. He now has 1,640 points on the season with his two wins and the first place honors on the honor roll. Remembering the top 20 in the points list get PGA tour cards at the end of the season. Taking a look at the rest of the top five, Johnny Kefir is in second place at 1,392 points. Hankley Viota remains in third at 1340 points. SH Kim remains in fourth place at 1,31 points. And Pearson Cudi remains in fifth place at 1,02 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. In light of the last two winners on the PJ tour, being cornfy tour graduates and having been guests on the road to French Lake, we have two guests for you this week. The first is Brian Campbell. Now a two-time PGA Tour winner, having won in the playoff over Ameiliano Grio, a TPC deer run to win the John Deere Classic for his second win this season. We spoke with him last season about his journey to the PGA Tour, back to the Cory Trade Tour, and ultimately back to the PGA Tour as a rousing success. I’m great. How are you, man? I’m good. Well, most importantly, congratulations. What happened yesterday at the uh Seminal Pro member? Oh, man. To be honest, I felt like a walking zombie because we were just still so tired. But, you know, we had a first off with Nick Hardy. Um, played with some really good guys there. Little Illinois connection. Yeah. Shook Tom Brady’s hand. That was fun. But, um, no, that course is awesome. It’s very uh very difficult. You played it before? No. First time. That locker room is just amazing. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It’s just traditional. I think they redid part of it, but you know, it’s kept they kept it all nice. So, uh, congratulations being the first graduate of the, uh, corn ferry French lick. That’s right. To, uh, to a to a a champion in Mexico. Well, I guess uh, Matt McCarti doesn’t count cuz he exited early. But yeah, you’re the one I know. I’m I’m the one that matters. Yeah, exactly. How was it? I mean, we were we were watching, dude. We’re all pulling for you. My wife’s yelling at me. She’s like, “What’s going on?” I’m like, “Bec’s in it, man.” And then uh wind up taking it all down under uh no drama at all. No, no drama. Nothing whatsoever. No, I mean we were we were in it all day long and that’s that’s what we me and me and Cooper were focused on was just staying present, just trying to stay around, you know, and then uh towards the end we were like we can win this thing and uh you know I think that shot on 17 was huge to just get it on the green, secure the par. Um get into the playoff and then see what we could do there. Well, the playoff was not uh no drama there either. Yeah. No drama at all. What do we got here? 86. 8. Oh, they’re on the green still. We can keep talking. We keep talking. Coup, what’ you think, man? How was your heart that day? My heart was really good until we had a three-footer to win. That was a little bit of a little bit of a jump, but same I think we did a good job of kind of not letting the moment get too big until all the emotions start to flood. And it was I saw the moment where I made the putt and I saw Cooper behind me holding the flag and the second it went in just shoves the flag to the ground. So he I could tell he was pumped. It was fun. You did you unscrew the flag? You get it? I I made sure to get back to the flag 100%. That’s awesome. Well, man, we’re so proud of you guys, you know, just knowing you from U ofi days. Yeah. To where you’re at now. You know, you look back at that team back in 14. Who’ you have? Thomas Peters, Thomas Dietri, you Charlie Danielson. Charlie Danielson. Uh, Alex, Dylan Meyer. Yeah. Burge. Just Yeah. Burge is out there. Boys. Legacy man. Small does it. Well, congratulations. We wish you the best of luck. And, uh, ill. INI, baby. Earlier this year, we had the chance to catch up with Aldrick Potiter, who was one of the last players to earn their PGA Tour card last season through the Cornferry Tour and the season ending Court Fairy Tour Championship presented by United Leasing and Finance. We spoke with him at the Arnold Palmer Invitational not too long after his close call in a playoff at the Mexico Open where he lost to Brian Campbell, now a PGA Tour winner himself, having won the Rocket Classic. Congratulations. Uh had a great couple weeks. Uh you and Brian Campbell came down to it down in Mexico. How was that going for you there? It was good. It was um nice tournament for both of us. Um we played really good golf and um came down to the last and um into a playoff as well, but um yeah, it was unfortunate second place for me, but um yeah, we’ll go at the next one. How did you uh how’d you make the adjustment coming from the corner tour to the PGA Tour? Obviously took pretty well. Yeah, I feel like um my golf game would be suited a bit more on the PJ tour with a little bit of lengthy golf courses, a little bit different style of playing. So um um yeah, just needed to get through that cornfree stage and um get out here and it’s been great so far. How’d you enjoy French lick? It was great. Um it was I was really happy I had my mom and sister and my whole family there to cheer me on getting an up and down on the last to get my tour card. So it was um pretty special moment and um I’ll always remember it. We appreciate it. Good luck. Thank you very much. In our last episode, we reintroduced you to Jackson Buchanan, the recently graduated University of Illinois product, made his professional debut in this tournament, the Memorial Health Championship, thanks to a sponsor exemption, kickstarting his professional career. Not only did he make the cut in the tournament, he finished inside the top 35 in a tie for 34th place. Let’s hear from Jackson Buchanan. Hey, Jackson Buchanan. Welcome to uh the road to French Lake. Oh, yeah. uh sponsor exceptions this week at at uh at at in Springfield. Tell us how that came about. Um just funny story. I was playing around with Max Herendine, one of our freshman, now sophomore, and got a call from Kate uh Peters, and she let me know and I think we were playing a match and ended up getting a little rattled. I think I blew it at the end. But I was just so pumped about this. It’s exciting to test your game against the best and you know, you know, somewhere I might be, you know, in a year, you never know. So, it’s it’s pretty exciting. How’s your experience been at at the University of Illinois? And you’ve had you’re going into your senior year, right? Oh, yeah. And you’ve played played some serious golf. Yeah. It’s all it’s the best golf program in the country, I think. Um it’s, you know, you learn so much from coach and and we’re all so close on the team. It’s it’s something you get for four years and you really got to soak it in. Um but it just it’s super awesome. I could get emotional talking about my boys. I love them. But um I’m just learning so much really every day. So you you grinded it out through the US Open qualifiers. You made it down to Pinehurst. That that was a pretty big ballpark. Pretty big venue. Pretty cool experience. Tell us about it. Uh it was awesome. I the the Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday was or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday was pretty sick getting out playing some practice rounds. It’s crazy how many fans there are on a practice round and you’re hitting T-shots are all surrounded there on a practice round. But it was awesome. So I got out on Thursday, played terrible on the front nine and was like, “Okay, this is miserable. So let’s actually play some good golf.” Cuz I was out there just enjoying it. I was like, “Okay, now I have to play good golf.” So I played my last 27 holes, one under. So that that was solid. Missed the cup by one. But just a super great experience. Best players in the world. So your game I I played with uh in the tournament played with Thomas Dietri and Brian Campbell, Illinois group. So that was pretty cool. Um but practice round, played with a few big names. Cam Davis, he’s pretty good. Um played with Dunlap, Sergeant, few fun guys to hang out with. Right on. What a great experience it must have been. Awesome. Awesome. Uh play well this week. Uh you heading next week to John Deere. John Deere. Yep. Another exemption. I I got the call right after I qualified for the US Open. So it’s kind of all happening at once. I was like, “Okay, this is kind of crazy, but it’s awesome. It’s just just experience out here on the tour. I’m I’m a college kid. I’m I’m getting experience on the on the pro circuit. So, um really nothing better I could ask for. The guys been pretty cool to you out here. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You know, eating breakfast with the guys on tour at the US Open. You’re like, “Oh, these guys are just as normal as me. I didn’t realize that.” Walking by Scotty Shuffler saying hi. It’s just like, “Oh, these guys are normal.” So, it’s that definitely helps a lot. It’s great. It’s great. Well, good. Um, you played actually, you know, Big 10 Championships 2022 at uh at the die course. What were your What do you think of that? What What do you think of the D? I I remember the first round. It was so nice. No wind. I was a freshman. I was nervous. The It’s It’s wide open, but the fairways are kind of tight, so you got to narrow your focus. But I remember Adrian shot like 64. I was like, “Holy crap, he’s the best player in the world.” But then the final round, the wind blew and I think 73 might have been the lowest score. I shot 79 and like helped the team. It was crazy. But it it was awesome. The the views are great. It was sick. So, what do you found on social? We just had a big gig up at our place. Did you see it at all? I saw I mean I I didn’t get to watch it, but I saw it all over Instagram. I saw some of the the the big putts, the drives, the iron shots two two inches. It was It looked awesome. And it was nice to see. Of course, I played before and I knew what was going on. Um, but it was a little bit different. I was in some different spots on those holes with the wind and stuff, but it was pretty pretty cool to see. Well, we wish you the best of luck. Thank you so much for your time and uh Ill and I, baby. Brendon Sweeney joins me. I’m here at the US Adaptive Open at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland. The fourth playing of the championship. Brendan’s back at home in Orlando. And we’ve got our first two-time winner this year on the Cornferry Tour in Austin Smotherman. He won the Memorial Health Championship out in Springfield, Illinois to become a two-time winner this year. And now he’s practically locked himself up a PGA Tour card for 2026. So, let’s first talk about finally having someone who has won twice this year on this tour. How about Austin? I mean, he came out, he had uh he finished strong. He had an eagle and six birdies in the last in the last, you know, round to beat Ortiz by four, which is crazy. And he it was the sixth come from behind victory this year on the Cornfury Tour. So yeah, Austin crushed it and he’s like 650 points ahead of of the of the guy in fifth place, uh, which is Cooney on on the tour. So you you think about that six 650 point differential. I mean, if you’re I think Kyle West Morland is has 648 points and he’s tied for 21st. So that doesn’t even get you into the top 20 and that’s the the lead difference between the top five. So yeah, it’s cool. Austin’s a great guy. He uh he played well and he’s a grinder and he was on the tour before and he looks like he’s going back, man. There’s nothing uh nothing but taillights uh following him right now. And and uh I hope he wins. I hope he wins his third, gets his battlefield promotion. I wish he would come to French Lake, but if he won his third, I wouldn’t have him come to my place either. So, it’s all good. Uh just to pat ourselves on the back a little bit even though we have nothing to do with it. So far this year people who have been on this show have won seven times between the corny tour and the PGA Tour. And and the reason I bring that up is because the last two winners are in this week’s episode. Brian Campbell and Aldrick Pocketer. Uh two guys who got to the big show last year. Pater was one of the last guys to get his card. He managed to kind of pull it together in the final round. Now he’s a a PGA Tour winner. He’s been in two playoffs this year, one for one. The guy he lost to in the playoff in Mexico, Brian Campbell, has won two playoffs this year, now winning the John Deere Classic. Uh it it’s been a wild year for for some of the guys who have come off the Cornfair Tour to see that kind of success. The dude, look at this. Back-to-back weeks. We’re in the Alii gear. It’s the only uh college that I didn’t get accepted in because I went to Eastern Illinois, but I drove by on the way to school. But having having coach Mike Small on on our last episode, I tell you what, we had uh Adrian ADC shoots a 59. Uh they go last week uh uh uh Luke Guthrie uh first round leader. Uh then Austin winds up winning and then Brian Campbell wins his second on the on the PGA Tour. What a great guy, man. What a great I mean he he he finished there finished so strong at the John Deere and that is basically I mean it’s people were saying oh you U of I is like right down the road. No it’s not. It’s probably about two and a half hours away and uh but there’s a really strong presence of you know the Ali backers out there. Brian said that um he was shocked to see on Friday his academic adviser showed up and uh and gave him a big high five and he was just totally shocked by that. But the the amount of support that not only that the John Deere Classic and the people from uh the Western Illinois River area uh support that organization, but it’s it’s been a it’s been a a long long I think it’s the longest one of the longest uh uh sponsored events, continuous sponsored events on the PGA Tour. And it’s a small marketplace and you you see where guys get launched here. Jordan’s Beef gets launched there. I mean, it used to be and it still is. because they have a charter that leaves there and goes over to the pond and they get ready to go play the open over there. So, Brian’s on that plane. I hope he passed packed his passport. I’m sure sure he did in the back of his mind. And uh couldn’t be more proud of him. As I said before, I’ve known him since he’s a freshman in college. We hosted the Big 10 Championships in 12, 13, and 14, and then again in 22 at the PTI course at French Lake. And uh it’s it’s really great to see him just inconceivable. Well, he wins two and he’s the shortest guy out there and he’s just so humble and so nice and so well grounded and uh just a great family guy and the boys from Illinois do it again and you’re going to see, you know, uh Jackson Buchanan coming up out of the out of that. He just turned pro and you know Adrian is is is kicking ass out there as well. So there’s a lot of guys Thomas Dietri Thomas Peters hate to beat keep on beating on U of I but they’re definitely they’re kicking ass out there and that’s all you can say and with the Cornberry Ferry Championship presented by United Le and Financing we’re going to see these guys come back you know Adrian and and hopefully Jackson uh catches on fire this year but there’s some should be some ali presence out there um couldn’t be more proud of them. Yeah, it’s awesome. And uh the the really intriguing thing to me as someone who didn’t go to U of I but uh watches this stuff pretty diligently is that the two winners last week uh last two weeks on the PGA Tour that are Corn Fairy Tour grads, one is the longest guy on the PGA Tour, one is the shortest guy on the PGA Tour statistically. Yeah, you figure that out. There’s a lot of ways to get it done in golf. And uh we we get to see that every week on the Cornferry tour as well, which is awesome. Well, cool. Well, I tell you what, um, a quick recap of of what happened uh, last week and and the the points are really coming together and we mentioned before in in the in the show that, you know, a lot of these guys are going to start having to grind a lot out out there and every week, every putt, every every shot you take is is going to start chasing you. And it’s really going from that 30 spots to get your card like it used to be to 20 that’s really going to start kicking in. and and you got to look who’s going to be some of the hot players coming up. I like uh Ian Holt. I mean, he’s he’s been out there. He’s he finished with back-to back 63s last week uh for a second straight top 10 in the final round. He had two Eagles in and four birdies. So, uh he’s been banging out 78% of the greens in regulations. And I think, you know, we haven’t spoken to him on the show, but with our track record, he should be speaking to us because we’re kicking ass on picking winners, man. And I got I got to start watching your gambling show. Um, you know, Davis Chatfield, Notre Dame guy. I mean, we played the Warren course a couple weeks back. Josh Teter, he’s he’s there. Neil Shipley, Logan Mallister, who was on the show, who’s a winner as well. Um, you look at at Kyle West Morland and Bryson Nimmer. I think Bryson just had a baby. Congratulations to Bryson. And, uh, you know, they just dropped out of the top 20. So, you have two winners that have won this year that are not in the top 20. So, they better start getting their horses, you know, hooked up to the wagon and start playing some big time golf. Yeah. 648 points basically is 20th place right now. That’s Sudar Shanella Maraju won the second event of the year. So, I mean, right now you’re looking at 20 21 and 22 guys who won this year already and they’re not safe. They’re not sound. They’re not secure. They’ve still got a lot long ways to go. And if that kind of thousand point threshold holds up here, then you know 650 points from here, you’re going to need another second place finish equivalent and something else to make sure you get a PGA to work hard. That’s a lot of work. That’s not nothing. Well, when the playoffs kick in, they go from 500 points to 600 points. So, boom, you win there, that gives you a little leg up and everything else. But I tell you what, with this week coming up, those guys going in Colorado, you look at some of the guys that performed well in the past. Brian Campbell finished second last year out there. Uh Alistar Dockery, he he finished fourth last year. And then, you know, our guy Joe Wiler uh in the last two years, he had two top 20s out there. So, we’re looking for hopefully some of these guys coming together and and uh and put the throttle down and we’ll see what happens when they wind up in French Lake in October. Yeah, we’re getting there quickly and uh you know, we’re in into July now. July and August, that ends the regular season. Then all of a sudden, we’re into September. We’re playing the finals and before you know it, first week of October, we’re French lick. It all happened very, very quickly. And then we’re back at Q school at uh at Deer at up at Srass freezing my tail off saying, “Why am I doing here? It’s Q school. It’s raining. It’s in Florida. It’s 40°.” But hey, they got to play in it. We’re just talking about it. So, uh we’re lucky uh to have what we have and do what we do. and I wish you the best of luck this week with the USGA event in uh in Rockville and the USGA adaptive open is a really special event that really touches a lot of people’s lives and the USGA te’s up a home run out there uh with this event and just glad that uh I know that you’re out there covering it and you’re going to do a great job doing it, dude. Yeah, it’s really cool seeing this come together. It’s really cool seeing this in our our hometown, not only this year but next year. Woodmont Country Club’s been a great host. The south course is practically customuilt for adaptive golf and uh it’s really cool to see the the championship take flight the last few years. So uh we’ve got we got lots to celebrate in the world of golf including this. So Brendan, thanks as always. Appreciate it. Talk to you soon. Ill ini. Now let’s go Eastern Illinois Panthers, baby. Let’s go. That’ll do it for us this week on the road to French Lake here at the US Adaptive Open at Woodmont Country Club. Thank you so much to the USGAA and to Woodmont for their hospitality in hosting this championship this year and next year. For Brendan Sweeney, I’m Ryan Bali. For everyone at the French Lake Resort and for Golf Newset, we’ll see you next time on the Road to French Lake. 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.
