PGATOUR.COM's resident expert on the Korn Ferry Tour, Kevin Prise, joins John Swantek to delve into the emotional and dramatic moments of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. They highlight the journeys of players who graduated to the PGA TOUR, the challenges faced by players like Braden Thornberry and Sam Bennett, and the excitement surrounding new graduates like Matt McCarty and Frankie Capen III.
Talk of the TOUR Golf Podcast
PGATOUR.COM's Kevin Prise on how 30 players lives have changed at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship
welcome into the talk of the tour podcast gang. It is the Monday, October 7th installment of the pod. My name is John Swanson. It's great to be back with you. I appreciate all the work that the guys from PJ tour.com have done in handling the pod over the last few weeks or so. Paul Haudewoneck, Sean Martin and company, but it's great to be back with you today. I'm going to hook up with Kevin prize from PJ tour.com in short order here and talk about what Kevin describes as the greatest day in sports. Corn fairy tour graduation day with 30 players elevating to the PGA tour. Podcasts comes your way. Every week you can listen and download. You can always find me on X at J. Swan PGA tour. On Sunday afternoon in French, look, Indiana lives changed. 30 players from the corn fairy tour graduated earned their PGA tour cards and they are headed to the big show. I can't think of anyone in the golf content space more equipped to tell the dramatic stories of all of those graduates. What that life changing moment means to them than Kevin prize from PGA tour.com who describes the final day of the corn fairy tour championship, not merely as the greatest day in golf, but the greatest day in sports and that's not hyperbole coming from my man. What's happening, Kev? What's up, Swan, thanks so much for having me. Over the last 10 years, I've always loved the KFT championship and the affinity just builds and builds and I totally feel it every year. You see these guys lives change. I mean, all the sweat equity and work they've put in through from childhood to junior golf to amateur and college golf. This is the moment at this card ceremony on Sunday afternoon at the KFT championship where they can celebrate with their family, their friends, their mentors, their coaches. Everyone comes in, some childhood best friends and it's just one of the happiest days in the world and you have 30 guys who've reached a dream and able to share that A with each other, B with everyone to help them get there. It's just the best and then you combine that with the bubble where, you know, on one hand, the guys who have clenched it's kind of a victory lap around, they can just enjoy it. And then you have a few guys who get it dramatically and once they get it, it's almost even better because it's unexpected. But those last few holes Sunday, kind of with the projections shifting up and down and guys needing different things and some need help from other people to get their own PGA twerkard. There's nothing like it. It's a beautiful day in sports. There was only one player who began the week outside the top 30 who finished inside the top 30 and that was Braden Thornberry, the guy who won the Corn Ferry Tour championship. He was 51st going into the week. He needed to finish second and after shooting a 66 with a birdie on the 72nd hole, he got the job done and what he described as the round of his life. It was an awesome day for Braden Thornberry and so well deserved and he's kind of an interesting case in terms of number one ranked amateur player out of Ole Miss, kind of a funky swing but a great character in the game and someone you thought might go on to some quick success. But in golf, it doesn't always happen and he's had some things timed up pretty like three years ago, he was two shots away from his PGA twerkard at the Corn Ferry Tour championship two years before he was medallist to Final Stage Q school where now if you're top five at Final Stage Q school, you get to the PGA Tour but it was in that few year gap where it was just right to the Corn Ferry Tour so six years as a pro, never having a PGA Tour card and being six off the lead into the final round of the KFT championship needing a solo second or better. On a windy Sunday, I mean the round of the day, the round of his life, just a big time round and really one of those steering rounds and I'm prone to hyperbole when talking about these but I think it's fair to say it's one of the rounds of the year in professional golf. There's always bubble drama, right? Who's in? Who's out? And it ebbs and flows throughout the week and throughout the final round and it often comes down to the last hole, Kev, as it did in French lick and Sam Bennett who wowed us with his low amateur performance at the Masters a year ago was the first guy who was squeezed out of the picture. That's all pill to swallow. It's tough. It's his first full year on the Corn Ferry Tour and last year he played a lot of events on sponsor exemptions on the PGA Tour and had a pretty good track record of making cuts but wasn't able to have those high finishes to get Festival of Time Prairie membership and then this season on the Corn Ferry Tour again, steady but not really enough wow play and even though he's obviously a kid with a ton of game, you need those kind of top three top five finishes to sack up to comfortably get your card. Otherwise, a lot of consistency will find yourself on that bubble and that's where Bennett found himself and he went into Sunday needing a good round to secure his card or a lot of help and he didn't quite get the help. He got a little bit of the help with Doc Redmond and Zach Beauchoux moving out in the final few holes but he entered the week 30th. He needed someone not to move in and once Thornberry won to move in, he got bumped to 31st. As Naff turned out, he would have needed to shoot 300 on Sunday to ultimately get his card and bump no a good win for the final spot but he struggled early, had a double on his fifth hole and shot 78 so it wasn't really a factor and he would have needed really like a Bryan Campbell or someone who was already tourbound to win in Thornberry not finished solo second, have another tourbound guy finish solo second to get in. Didn't quite break his way but he'll be back, he'll have another chance at Final Stage Acute School now where the top five and ties will get PGA tour cards but Bennett wasn't pretty good spirits afterward, didn't seem like he was going to like dwell on it or let it get to him. It seems like he's confident in his ability that he'll get there at some point taking the you know 10, 15 year view which is a good view to have. Matt McCarty is the first player since 2001, 23 years to elevate directly to the PGA tour Kevin by virtue of the three win promotion. He is number one overall in the corn ferry to a points list which in terms of status and access is a huge deal out there. Absolutely huge, fully exempt on tour being above that reshuffle category because the rest of the grads 2 through 30 they'll be reordered every kind of couple months based on how they fare. McCarty not having to worry at all next year about what he plays if he misses a couple cuts won't need to like pressure which is the trap you can follow in so quickly as a graduate kind of feel in that panic button about the reshuffle and feeling like you need to change something just not having to worry about that'll be a huge advantage. Getting into the US Open at Oak mile will be awesome. He's excited for that getting into the players championship and TPC sawgrass which he played with his caddy dev during off week earlier this year. They're a great player caddy duo they've been together all three years they were college teammates at Santa Clara. It really reminds a little bit of Joel Damon and Gino Benali in terms of liking to have fun off the course and truly close friends who are out there together so excited to see Matt McCarty on the PGA tour next year with that through and promotion he played Sanderson obviously was a bummer for him not to be at the card ceremony but we understand Frankie Sappen the kid from Minnesota finished third on the points list we first became aware of him I guess in 2016 Kevin when he was a 16 year old amateur who played on the PGA tour Puerto Rico that was the year that Tony Fiena won he's also shot 58 to open our eyes but maybe more impressive than both of those feats is navigating his way through every stage of the corn ferrets work you school a couple years ago that's really hard work I could go on and on about Frankie Sappen fight in Minnesota shout out to our co-worker Paul Hodewannock nice to see another kid from that state naked to the PGA tour and just a super creative player obviously a ton of game he's kind of been mentored by demon green longtime caddy former player one majors with Zach Johnson and demon raves about Frankie's kind of ambition on the course in terms of trying to play different shots your listness kind of having to maybe rain that back in a little bit this year but like keeping that creativity but still kind of finding the right level of balance and control has led to really taking the next step from being close to his card last year to finishing third on the points this year and getting that PGA tour card comfortably and you had to make it through all four stages of Q school for pre-qualifying two years ago it's kind of cool also to do that in 2022 was mace and Anderson from Arizona State who also got his PGA tour card through the KFT in this class as well when a player makes it to the PGA tour and competes at the top level Kevin lives that lifestyle for a few years and then loses his card it can be a humbling experience it's a look in the mirror re-evaluation moment and retedicate yourself sometimes reinvent yourself if you have to and that's what Harry Higgs had to do and he did it successfully and the big rig is headed back to the show what a character great character and he had a blast in the tour bound studio yesterday with his dad kind of having some fun poses Harry's wife was there too they went on kind of like a couple week kind of joy ride European adventure this summer he went back to back times on the contrary tour in playoffs in made to clinch pretty much tour bound and kind of treated himself to that vacation which was well deserved not as rare and golf he can really take that type of time off so he made sure to enjoy that but yeah he's kind of a widely vet out here now he was kind of reflecting in we did a quick tour bound interview with him yesterday about being almost 10 years as a pro and just seeing him so happy for Noah Goodwin his fellow SMU alum who got the last card on the bubble and the moment they shared it was just cool to see Harry really relished the celebration and being a part of it and even though it was his second time getting his tour card through the corn fairy tour kind of exuded that energy the childlike enthusiasm that made it feel like the first but again that's the beauty of this ceremony and the greatest day in sports some players like Harry Higgs have a name that golf fans recognize they have a little bit of notoriety many more of these guys are perhaps more obscure to the average golf fan Paul Peterson finished 17th cab tell me a little bit about the man that you described as a globe trotter he's a cool story and he's from Oregon grew up in Salem Oregon which you don't see too many players from there I think back to the Peter Jacobson era and nice to have another guy from that state on tour but went to Oregon State and kind of had this like mini tour like kind of YouTube show backing thing that he fell into where these guys were basically like funding some young players to go play in Asia and that's why happened he did that early in his pro career 2012 2013 and kind of found it never really came back to play in America for eight years or so Cup status over there played some DP world tour played some Asian tour just kind of all over the world said he's been to 44 countries been to six continents and then the last couple years he made it through corn fairy tour cue school a couple years ago and he was a little outside the bubble needed something special during the corn fairy tour finals and did just that with a win in Nashville at the sevens bank open the same week as good friend Pat and Cazire and a mentor to him to Felicity Allen guy one on the PGA tour at the Fortinet championship and their friends their wives are friends they have the same mental coach and Amy Smith Schuster who does some pretty unconventional stuff but seems like it works pretty well for both of them Paul has talked about like writing bad thoughts on sticky notes and burning them which I might have to try myself but it'll be fun Paul Peterson on the PGA tour one of the shortest hitters on the corn fairy tour stemming from kind of like a foot injury broke his foot in high school and he can't do the full rotation and yeah he has to kind of compensate a little bit I can't speak to all of the biomechanics but it does not hurt him in terms of maximizing his game and focusing on his strengths his accuracy in his short game and being able to is one of the bottom kind of five in distance on the corn fairy tour to get your PGA tour card it's kind of a throwback you know Fred Funk my favorite golfer growing up shout out to him but nice to see that type of game on the PGA tour next year. Seven PGA tour university alums earned their tour cards including the kid who was number one in the inaugural PGA tour you class in 2021 that's John Pak who was seemingly destined for greatness after an all-world collegiate showing during his years in Tallahassee camp at Florida State but a sparkling collegiate pedigree does not instantly guarantee success at the professional level and it's taken Johnny Park a couple years to kind of put the pieces to the puzzle together hasn't it and he was someone that first year he kind of spent more time on the PGA tour and sponsor exemptions as opposed to the corn fairy tour that was before number one got PGA tour status and he was kind of in no man's land the next year on the corn fairy tour didn't really know the courses so had that rookie learning curve as opposed to some of the second year players you see like Ricky Castileo this year who made his way to the PGA tour but yeah Pak lost his corn fairy tour card suddenly had to go back to Canada for 2023 and a little mental shift he's definitely talked about the mental game which is definitely a bigger theme than ever engulfed these days to really help elevate him to the point where he's able to get back to the corn fairy tour so to go kind of from almost PGA tour you know buzzy name sponsoring lights back to KFT back to Canada back up to KFT and now back to the PGA tour really in just three years is pretty impressive and he actually began this season with like not great status not guaranteed starts on the corn fairy tour Monday qualified into Savannah finished top five and really set up a season from there than one in Oklahoma in route to his short card goes to show the power of Monday qualifiers as we always like to illustrate and kind of a testament to the journey and if you don't get that success right away it's okay like talent and kind of work ethic together will usually find their way back to the PGA tour as they have done for John Park. Aldrich Potketer a precocious young talent was a winner in Abaco as a 19 year old earlier in the season he just turned 20 so this is the youngest player to earn his PGA tour card since a name that people are going to know that former world number one right. Second youngest to earn his card through the corn fairy tour only to Jason Day in 2007 who came over from Australia and kind of met his wife in Ohio and just had a grand old time and the corn fairy tour that summer some great old footage of Jason Day and just his hairstyle and his kind of bright clothes and just rolling his way through the KFT that year but yeah Aldrich it's interesting he won earlier this year in the Bahamas becoming the youngest tour sanctioned winner since Ralph Goldall at the 1931 Santa Monica Open always a fun kind of tournament to reference back with Aldrich but he had kind of slipped toward the bubble and he was projected kind of in that 29 to 31 range throughout the week at the KFT championship definitely not safe it got to a point where it looked like him versus no a good one who had been separated by a point into the week whoever finished ahead of themselves would get the last card ultimately they did both get in once Zach Bocio and Doc Redmond fell out on Sunday but Aldrich had a clutch up and down on his 72nd hold the tournament that at the time looked like it would have been for a PGA tour card pretty clutched off and he's just so humble I mean so much game such a long hitter so powerful but soft spoken and very kind to his mom and sister flew in from South Africa for the week so it was cool for them to share them tourbound moment together. Yeah you mentioned no good when he was the last man in at 30th of 2017 US junior amateur winner so congratulations to Noah who secured that final PGA tour card how about the next layer of access Kev for the guys who just missed what are the avenues available for the players say on a 31 to 50 on the points list so numbers 31 to 60 on the points list finalized after the KFT championship our exam directly to Q school's final stage in December in our neck of the woods and Jacksonville TVC sawgrass Valley course and then sawgrass country club and I mean it's a lottery for sure only the top five in ties will get PGA tour cards but it's a chance otherwise everyone in the field at the KFT championship is fully exempt on the contrary tour for 2025 so they don't need to worry about kind of reshuffles next year on KFT number 61 to 75 from KFT champ on the final points list also 76 to 85 get to start Q school at second stage and then 86 and below start at first stage. Maybe there's Kevin you in that bunch former court fair tour graduate who wins his maiden PGA tour title in Jackson, Mississippi at the Sanderson Farms on Sunday in a playoff denying Bo Hostler his first win but how about Kevin you in the winter circle that was cool to see I remember when he got his card two years ago and his college coach Matt Thurman faced him at the ceremony and Kevin not normally an emotional guy per se but got choked up thinking about coming over to the US for college and the language barrier and his coach trusting him and sticking with him through some kind of up and down times and just that hidden home so fast forwarding a couple years later on tourbound day on tourbound Sunday for Kevin you to get his first tour win was pretty cool and yeah for Bo Hostler just keeps knocking on the door I mean he's becoming one of those he's probably not quite there yet but he's getting close into that best players without a win category and thinking of the overall career and being so close so many times you got to think it'll come for him soon but no it was cool to see Kevin you a PGA tour you along KFT along get that first win in Jackson the AFC East is an ugly bloodbath right now my man if my dolphins in your bills can maybe get some 9 and 8 that may get the job done at the end of the season who knows yeah I don't want to think Eden I don't win the division but the way this is tracking I mean Josh Allen 9 for 30 yesterday not optimal I know the dolphins got a big win but look to be kind of scruffing it around to I mean the Patriots are not going to do anything Aaron Rodgers I don't know the Jets might be kind of I don't want to say he's washed but I don't know if he's a star level of player anymore we'll see and it looks like sale it could be on the hot seat the other division is kind of a pelo fight right now which I wouldn't have really expected starting the year 9 and 8 might take it it's crazy it's great to talk to you as always at PGA tour Kevin is how you follow him on X as he fights for Wi-Fi signals Panera bread or Danny's just to make this happen today thanks for doing that and safe travels back to Jacksonville see you soon thank you for having me the corn fairy commute never ceases to throw some twists and turns at us thank you guys for sticking with me and that's going to do it for the talk of the tour podcast this time around hope you dug it and today's conversation with Kevin Price you can find me on X at J Swan PGA tour that will do it for today next show come in your way on Wednesday of this week PGA tour with a brand new event in Utah so be sure to listen to the pod on Wednesday and I'll check back in with you early next week after my return from the SaaS championship hosting golf channels coverage of champions to our final event of the regular season so I'd come in your way Wednesday and I'll be back with you early next week I'll look for you then I'm John Swantek thanks for listening everybody being part of the show thanks for hanging today and remember you cannot build a connection with someone who is disconnected from themselves think about it people have a great couple days I'll catch you soon (upbeat music)