We continue down the Road to French Lick for the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season at the LECOM Suncoast Classic, as Tim Widing wins and we talk to 15-year-old Miles Russell and Rob Oppenheim.
MORE The Road to French Lick:
Episode 1: https://youtu.be/i3HVE6sF_YQ
Miles Russell interview: https://youtu.be/JQq57mg2Dfo
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a 15-year-old stole the show while we
got our eighth firsttime winner of the
season in as many events played on the
corn fairy tour I’m Ryan bingie and
we’re on the road to French
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Lick hi everyone I’m Ryan balie welcome
once again to the road to French Lick a
show chronicling the 2024 corn fairy
tour season which culminates in in the
corn fairy TOUR Championship presented
by United Leasing and finance played on
the die course at French L Resort in
French Lake Indiana this past weekend on
the corn fairy tour we had a thrilling
tournament and our eighth firsttime
winner of the year at the leom Sun Coast
Classic played at Lakewood National Golf
club’s Commander course in Lakewood
Ranch Florida the tournament was
compelling for a variety of reasons but
the biggest stand out of the week was a
15-year-old named Miles Russell the
world number one Amer boy on the
American junior golf Association ranking
earned a sponsor exemption into the
event this week and made the absolute
most of it he became the youngest player
to make the cut in the history of the
Corn faery tour and then on the back of
a Sunday 66 managed to finish tied for
20th Place becoming the youngest player
to finish inside the top 25 ever on the
corn fery Tour by virtue of his finish
he earned another start in this week’s
event the veritex B championship at
Texas Rangers Golf Club in Arlington
Texas we caught up with Miles Russell
ahead of the tournament this past
weekend and we spoke with him about the
opportunity in front of him hopefully I
I play well and my game kind of see how
it Stacks up against some of the best
good I mean I think I I finished second
in a big gam event and then didn’t play
great at another one but know it’s been
it’s been good where do you play up up
in Jacksonville Atlantic Beach it’s good
I mean Jacksonville you got the players
you got TPC so there’s a lot of good
players and every once in a while you
can find yourself a good game how’s your
summer get a shape up with you playing
in ajga St at all or yeah I played a
couple AJ a lot of a lot of am events
this summer but be a busy summer be fun
summer congratulations to Miles Russell
on an incredible week what a great
showing for the 15-year-old we’ll see
him again at the veritex bank
championship and we will get to see him
on the PGA tour in November at the
Butterfield Bermuda Championship as for
the rest of the tournament the Fate was
decided once again on the corn fairy
tour in a playoff this time a
three-person playoff after three players
tied at 72 holes on 20 under two 64 last
week’s winner Steven Fisk found himself
in the playoff once again with Patrick
cover and Tim Ving of Sweden after
Patrick cover was eliminated on the
first playoff hole the par 4 18th with a
bogey Ving and fist continued on and
with a par on the second playoff hole
Tim Ving became the eighth consecutive
firsttime winner this year on the corn
fairy tour with a tour record for the
start of a season being 10 events from
22 years ago this is a remarkable
opportunity for Ving who now moves to
number one in the standings on the corn
fairy tour points list number one on our
list is Tim Ving who comes in at 761
points Mason Anderson is now second on
the list at 756 points Steven Fisk with
a win and a playoff second place in his
last two tournaments is in third at 755
points Kevin vo moves down to fourth
place at 666 points and Isaiah celinda
rounds out the top five this week at 588
points a Le comp Sun Coast Classic we
had an opportunity to catch up with Rob
oppenheim who was the playoff runner up
at the club card championship in
Savannah Georgia our Brendan Sweeney
talked to him ahead of the week about
the season so far and the challenges to
come yeah had a good week in Savannah uh
it’s nice to be back in the US playing
events we this first six events were’re
International so we’re kind of just
getting back in the US playing some good
terms we’re in uh Lakeland Lakewood
branch Florida and I’m in Orlando so
kind of close to home nice to uh you
know we had two week week then we kind
two weeks off then we really start going
so uh it’s got off to a decent start and
hopefully can keep it going you know the
keys again that top 30 but the end of
the year and uh top 75 make the the Tour
Championship at French Li and you know
looking forward to hopefully getting
there what’s it like to have like one of
the younger players look up to you guys
and play have playing with miles to day
how cool is that yeah it’s fun you know
it’s good to see these young kids coming
up they’re so talented and um yeah you
know I’m learning every day I’m learning
from these guys some of the stuff that
they do and you know some of the ways
they attack the game and the power game
that these young kids on the corn fairy
tour have uh it’s fun to see in all the
upcoming talents it’s there’s a lot of
guys coming up that lot of game now as
we do during each episode of the road to
French Lick it’s time to check in with
my co-host Brendon Sweeney from the
French Lick Resort who was at tournament
site for us this past week at the Lee
com Sun Coast Classic to recap the
tournament and look forward to the next
event the veritex bank Championship BR
Sweeney joins me he is at cabit Citrus
farms in Brooksville Florida he was on
site last week for the Le Sun Coast
Classic in Lakewood Ranch Florida and
Brendan I wanted to get a sense from you
of how impressed you were by the players
in the coin fairy tour that you get to
see up close in person for the first
time this season this past week well I
tell you what thanks Ryan for having me
back on uh I think last last week was a
tremendous success for the corn Fury
tour in their stop in Lakewood Ranch
Florida uh I showed up on Monday um just
to get a general sight and part part of
the goal that we have with this show of
road to the French Lick Resort Road to
French Lick um is to sort of meet
players introduce ourselves to players
give them a general sense of hey man
we’re part of your team type thing so I
got there on Monday and um went around
saw some familiar faces Randon Rob
opheim uh he he was coming off a great
week in Savannah where he uh he was in a
playoff with Fisk and his spirits were
up and then you know spoke a little bit
and then ran into a nice little Southern
Indiana gentleman uh uh Chris Baker from
Browntown Indiana who’s a journeyman was
on the PGA tour for a while and then
Evan hammerling who’s who’s one of our
sponsored players for the French Lake
Resort absolute fabulous dude um ran the
Justin crit the uh the tournament
director it had some great Insight of of
what they go through in their sixth year
of of being the host site of the uh of
the classic there so yeah it’s been a
it’s been a great week uh met some great
people saw some fabulous golf on a
fabulous Golf Course and the whole thing
about it is I was on the Range on Monday
afternoon and everybody’s hitting balls
a everybody sort of scattered off a
little bit and I see this this young guy
you know just ripping the cover off a
golf ball all by himself with a caddy
and uh I went and looked at his bag and
it’s it’s miles Russell I’m like I know
that name from somewhere and I went and
Google him real quick I’m like holy cow
this is a kid out of Jacksonville
15-year-old Phenom who’s a sponsor
exempt so um I interviewed him a little
bit had a good little talk with him he
wed up playing quite well he’s the
youngest player ever to make a cut
finish top
25 uh on a corn fairy event last last
kid that was the next youngest was uh
Tony feno’s
brother yeah Gipper and uh it was really
good what a nice young man uh and you
can see as the week progressed the Press
got a hold of it we we did our interview
with him we threw it out there on the
internet uh and then all week long he
was just getting more and more and then
you could see from the the releases that
the corn fairy tour gave out kid was
just awesome he was just giving away
autographs young kids were coming up to
him old ladies were hugging him and he
was just great he was fabulous I
remember when uh when Jordan spe was was
coming up and he was a nice young man
playing the in the PJ Junior
Championships believe it was in Fort
Wayne Indiana and he just did a fabulous
bang up job and look at him now so I I
think if uh miles keeps his his nose in
a grindstone and he’s going to play well
this week in Texas his uh his uh top 25
gave him an exemption to get in that uh
event as well oddly enough if he uh he’s
he’s not exempt to play on tour he’s got
to be 18 to to get full exemption tour
so he’s he’s really uh as an amateur
he’s GNA do fabulous and uh it was
really cool to see him and it was really
great to be uh at another event it was
you know the people in Sarasota were
absolutely fabulous um and we’re
starting to get known people have have
noticed us on out out in on the resorts
the uh the team of the Corn fairy uh
media team were fabulous more than
welcoming to all of us here at golf
newset and uh next week we’ll we’ll see
what we can do in Texas did you get a
sense from talking to Miles and just
watching him on the Range that a top 20
finish was possible for a 15-year-old
kid who was making his coin fairy tour
debut did you see that as a likely
outcome or what did you kind of take
away from his game not so much uh just
him being a good young kid
I showed up again on Tuesday Morning um
and I was on the first te and I saw
miles walk up he played with h Bobby
Diaz uh Rob opheim Sam Sam Saunders I
mean as as a 15-year-old you’re looking
at these guys it’s like holy smokes this
is like you know the three kings of the
Corn fairy tour and he hung with them
and he went and to be honest with you I
I thought it was sort of gimmicky you
know hey get a 15-year-old kid and and
well you look at the end of the
day two of the three guys didn’t have
make the cut that he played with um and
he played well I was pleasantly
surprised I was I was really humbled by
by meeting him um as a dad uh you
couldn’t be more proud of a kid for for
acting the way he does he was just such
a fine young gentleman had a smile on
his face and he absorbed the whole
environment around him it was it was
pretty special uh I hope he does well I
he plays plays his tail off this week in
Texas and I think it would be a great
run for the Summers to have him out
there but you know as a kid you know
he’s he’s chasing his dream and I’m sure
he had to wake up on on Monday morning
say what the heck just happened you know
but I think he has that so much
confidence in him that he could do it
and God bless him that’s fabulous man
what a what what a great way what a
great lesson what a
great kids were coming up to like on
Monday at the range there was a junior
pram afterwards it started at 4:00 and
kids were coming up to him like his
peers were like hey man we follow you on
Instagram we follow you on this and he
was just hey it’s cool to meet you too
and they exchanging digits and whatnot
so yeah I was pleasantly surprised
honestly I didn’t think he had a had a
you know a chance to to go very far but
he proved us all wrong Man movie gears a
little bit we’ve got eight first-time
winners so far in eight events so far
this season we’ve talked about it
previously that the 30 players who were
going to get PGA Tour cards on the road
to French Lick in the Corin fairy TOUR
Championship presented by United Leasing
and finance that that’s a dream come
true for a lot of players and for those
eight players they have a tremendous
Head Start already toward getting that
card for next year it’s kind of
fascinating to see that amount of
firsttime winners playing the the tour
record to start a season is 10 and
that’s from about 20 years ago it for
you guys at the resort how interesting
is it to know that you’re have what
feels like probably a very different
crop of players getting through the corn
fairy tour this year as opposed to last
year well not only that were there eight
new winners but five of the of the
tournaments were in the playoff yeah so
what more could you ask for it’s so
exciting on Golf and then you look at
the PGA Tour this year and how many
firsttime you know corn Fury guys have
won this this year so far so the amount
of talent um that’s going to be showing
up in in Southern Indiana in October is
going to be just mindblowing and you
know we’ve dabbled in in professional
golf I want to say dabbled we we’ve
hosted championships um but I think you
the corn fairy tour when you look at it
it’s the hardest ticket out there I mean
these guys you know winning a purse on
the on the PGA tour is absolutely
life-changing you become a millionaire
overnight but these guys are earning it
man they’re they’re out there they’re
busting their tails and if a paycheck to
them you know if you’re top 20 it makes
difference if you’re top 30 it makes a
difference if you’re you know top 10 you
know you’re fighting for those points
and you’re fighting for the dollars and
and travel is not cheap I mean you you
you’re going from Sarasota Florida to
Arlington Texas this week you know are
you g to drive the 15 16 hours or you g
to jump on a flight and then you have
your caddy everything else but you know
their golf means so much and then
getting to the tour is a mountain to
climb and once you get on top of that
mountain you got to keep on digging so I
think the corn fairy tour and the amount
of talent that’s going to show up at the
Pete die Course De October is really
going to be mind-blowing and if the
course is set up the way that we like it
it’s going to be a true test of golf
Brendon thanks again for coming on with
us thanks for being at tournament site
last week what you produced from the
leom sonone co classic was awesome went
viral for us and hopefully you got some
more people to notice that the
incredible Talent young mid mid-age and
a little bit older on the corn fairy
tour as well so we’ll we’ll catch up
after the veritex bank Championship I
tell you what after after seeing uh
miles play and then talking to Rob
opheim I I mean it’s like sunrise and
sunset right there I mean there’s
there’s nothing going on so it was great
Ryan thanks for your support we really
appreciate what you’re doing and we look
forward to seeing you down the road each
week on the road to French Lake we’re
highlighting two holes at the host
course for the corn fairy TOUR
Championship presented by United Leasing
and Finance on the peak die course at
the French Lake Resort in French Lake
Indiana this week we’re highlighting the
devilish par 5 third hole as well as the
tantalizing par 34th hole here’s will
hasket to tell you more
hole number three is a real three shot
par five and again there are some large
bunkers lining the right hand side of
the Fairway but there’s also a steep
drop off that threatens players on the
left so accuracy off the te is certainly
a premium even the longest of hitters
will be doubtful of their chances at
reaching this hole in Two Shots the best
approach angle is from the Fairway
bunker at the turn of the Fairway it’s
approximately 140 yard from the green
the battle is far from over once you
reach the green while this is one of the
bigger green on the course it also plays
as one of the
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trickiest hole number four at mid-range
Par 3 is a great hole here at the Pete
diec so long as you don’t miss long or
left definitely some beautiful scenery
in the background especially from the
top tier of
[Music]
[Music]
te’s that’ll do it for us this week on
the road to French Lake thanks so much
for watching we appreciate it next week
on the corn fairy tour is the veritex
bank Championship from Texas Rangers
Golf Club in Arlington Texas is the next
stop on the road to French lck which
will culminate in the season ending coin
fairy TOUR Championship at French lck
Resort in French lck Indiana I’m Ryan
bie and on behalf of everyone here at
golf newset and Brendan Sweeney as well
as the French L Resort thanks so much
for watching we will see you next time
