A Hammock Beach Pro-Am and Korn Ferry Tour Graduation Day: The Road to French Lick, 2026, Ep. 15

Hi everyone, welcome once again to the Road to French Lick. I'm Ryan Bellinger, Brendan Sweeney's in Orlando. We were both in Florida last week, though, for the Constellation Fury and Friends, the PGA Tour event in Palm Coast, Florida this year. First year at the Hammock Beach Golf Resort. Beautiful property. We had a chance to play in the Pro Am on Monday. We're going to talk about that to kick off this episode. And then in the second half of our show, Ryan French from Monday Q Info. You know and love him. he was covering the Korn Ferry Tour Championship as 20 guys got their PGA Tour cards in basically the middle of a monsoon nor'easter uh in the Richmond Virginia area so we'll wrap up the show talking with him but uh brendan it was really cool to get to play with you and with uh chris van doyne and kevin lewis from the friars club down at the Hammock Beach course which was a great host i mean i'd never been down in that facility was walking really really impressed by it was a really good day yeah yeah i tell you what uh uh we played with uh the Aussie John Sendon and his uh his brother-in-law mick was on the bag for with that just super nice guys his son jacob joined us for a few holes um what a what a wonderful nice man he is he's got a great story he won the uh John Deere Classic he won the Bell Spar back in the day uh just carried it on it was great uh also playing with kevin lewis from the friars club uh he used to be the sales director at hammock beach which is a killer killer resort if anybody hasn't been to Hammock Beach it's located about you know 30 miles south of St. Augustine and about 20 miles north of Daytona Beach it's a fabulous facility Jack Nicklaus designed ocean golf course um what what four holes on the water yeah it's great it's really just picturesque the facilities at the resort are second to none We had a great meal with the folks from the resort, the team from Golf Week slash USA Today. And we actually came across a couple celebrities. Unexpectedly, ran into 1980 Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers sitting at the bar. Had an opportunity to talk some turkey with him. He let us pick up the Heisman. We'll show you a picture of that real quick. Obviously enough, that thing is pretty heavy. I've lifted Johnny Lattner's before. and Barry Sims, uh, Heisman, but it's been a while. And, uh, 38 pounds 20 years ago, I didn't see that much, but 38 pounds now it was like, Hey, so yeah, a little struggle on it. So it was good. It was cool to see it, had a great time. Uh, we beat a lot of the weather. Uh, it was good running into some, some of the, uh, PGA Tour champion guys, uh, running the Paul Guidos, Sticky Pride, uh, had a great conversation with Tommy Gainey, uh, who's Yeah, Skip Kendall, putting coach, yeah. He's good. He's good. But yeah, it was, it was pretty cool. Todd Lewis was there. Doug Ferguson was there. And then you have Jim and Tabitha Furyk, who we actually ran into at the Presidents Cup up at Medina, just walking down the fairway, it was 14th fairway, walking towards the clubhouse. We were a couple of holes ahead of the groups and he was like, just scoping it out and said, Hey Jim, we're playing in your pro-am next week. And he came over and said, hello. And thanks. Thanks to Saul. But, yeah, great event, a little different location from where they were, moving down from Duval County down to Flagler County. What a great, it's a great part of the world, part of Florida that not a lot of people go to. It's really easy to get to from Orlando. It's an hour and 15 minutes from the airport. Just like French Lick, only an hour and 15 minutes from the airport. Nobody seemed to complain about that either. So, yeah, it was great. Great catching up with you as well. So, Ryan, we had a good time. uh got some good shop cred and uh i picked up a couple foursomes for my buddies down here so it should be good yeah we got it in i mean just in the nick of time i mean it was supposed to be bad you know from i think we teed off at 12 in a shotgun and it was supposed to be bad by like two and it hung on until i don't know right about four o'clock and i think we had what three or four holes left and it started to rain and we all kind of looked at each other like we're gonna get this thing in one way or the other let's do it baby we got to that last hole our last hole was 16 and uh it started coming down and luckily it's a drivable par four, put it you know 15 20 yards off the green and you know we finished the last putt and then the horn goes off and it's let's go to run let's go that was great it was uh we also lost by the time the first hole was over because it's a shamble where everybody finishes out the hole after the tee shot and you've got 75% of your handicap And as I told Brendan, 75% of nothing is nothing So we were in trouble from the start It's not about winning. It's about having a good time with your buddies. And that's the beauty about these pro-ams, just meeting people and getting involved and supporting a great cause that the Furyx put together, especially for the area. But, you know, the Treasure Coast of Florida is great. They're doing a fabulous job. It's what they do. And glad to support them any way we can. Yeah, absolutely. So a great, great Monday there. Glad they got a good champion in the end. They had a great finish. Alex Chayka, who we saw on Monday, he wound up getting to a playoff. He lost the second hole of the playoff to Vaughn Taylor, who earned his first PGA Tour champions win. He gets full status with it. So that's a really cool story. One of the good stories of the week in golf. And then the other one is Korn Ferry Tour Championship, where 20 guys got their PGA Tour cards. And Brian French was all over that. And we'll talk with him about that and so much more after this. 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 hey welcome back to the road to French Lick, we're here with a special guest what's better than one Ryan but they have two, we're here with Ryan French of Monday Q, thanks buddy, we appreciate you jumping on, um this is sort of like your wheelhouse part of the year with the The Corn Fed Championship's just wrapping up in their new venue. we could touch about that a little bit And 20 guys got their cards last week. What are your thoughts on the venue? What are your thoughts on the players? And there's always some highs and lows when it comes to this. 20 guys get in, but the rest of them hit the road. So welcome to the road to French Lick. Back to the road to French Lick. Yeah, thanks, guys. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, it's a very cool week. um as you guys know uh you've hosted this event uh so wait wait when did we do that yeah oh yeah that's right that's right um i mean it's a very cool week uh this year and i tweeted this out is like 17 of the 20 players that got their cards have never been a member of the PGA Tour and that's not a bad thing in my opinion like no i don't think the p i don't think the PGA Tour wants a bunch of you know older veteran recycled guys getting their card again um it's a chance the young guys Blades Brown Tommy Morrison even Austin hit still pretty young there's a lot of young guys there's veterans Michael Johnson's been on the Korn Ferry, just had him on the podcast for 10 years uh but was like a very dedicated i mean a decorated amateur had a great career at Auburn so there's no doubt about his talent um and to your point there's you know Cole Hammer who's the number one uh amateur in the world and has just not lived up to those expectations unfortunately and and uh and finished i think 22nd but basically one or two strokes out for the entire season and uh and good on him i i tweeted it and Brently did a great job with it but you know we talk about uh guys not not uh doing interviews at low moments i'm not sure there's not many more low moments in golf than like missing at Q school or missing a chance at a PGA Tour card, Cole knows this we all know it guys like there's no guarantee he'll ever be in that position again and so uh to stand up there and just talk about how much it sucks is is is really good on him and Brentley handled it great uh the venue uh the layouts uh had some struggles there's a mile between nine and ten and then uh I tweeted out I got multiple messages it's like there's no there was no shuttle from the parking lot to the to the first tee which evidently was like over a mile so uh there was some logistical issues concessions ran out of food stuff like this uh but you hope it's growing pains uh you hope it's corrected by next year shuttle seems like a tough one to miss if the parking lot was a mile it was a mile there wasn't entrance but again most people want to start at the clubhouse uh friends family don't want to like pick you up on four and so if you're if you're a player's grandma and you don't want to like walk in on hole six and then have to walk a half a mile to watch your grandson tee off so hopefully they fix that uh tickets were 50 a piece and that's like i don't like listen i i've said this you guys know this uh like the corn prairie tour is only a marketing tool it's their only job and to prevent people from coming in 50 bucks i'm not i'm not saying it should be free i'm just saying like 20 bucks right like right you don't go to if you paid $50 for a triple-a baseball game uh you'd go insane rightfully so and so uh as someone tweeted underneath mine it's like i went to a triple-a baseball game with my family of four and it cost me 100 bucks food tickets you know whatever like that's 25 bucks seems pretty reasonable uh kids in free hopefully and uh yeah i hope that's i hope that's corrected but it's a great week it is a great week it's a i've had the guys on the podcast uh a lot of graduates and it's it's very very cool i'll tell you what if you if you look at one of one of the one of the players who over the last few years uh Alistair Docter he was just heartbreaking the last couple years for him to get his card as I look at the list I mean he's one of the guys that just jump out because you know he had that coal hammer moment a couple of times and he's just a dynamite dude Doc Redmond another great guy that's come so close before but to get his card from that and I'm actually I think I have bleeding on the inside of my lip from biting my lips so hard when you were saying all that stuff but hey it's all water under the bridge so it's all good um Ryan I mean when you look at how the lives were changed how many guys that you looked at who had their card prior that didn't get back I mean you look at you know we sponsored Tyler Duncan uh he was in a show for a couple years thought he's gonna do a cup of coffee on the Corn Ferry and next thing you know he's going back into his third year on there so Kyle Westmoreland same thing um these guys have seen it they've tasted it now that they've gone back into the into the fold and and roll up your sleeves and guess what next thing you know you're at Prairie Landing in Springfield, Illinois in the middle of July you're sweating your butt off you're hacking it out some Marriott Hotel Six whatever it is is the grind that hard and how do you keep your focus to that whole process yeah i mean ryan can speak to this too but i'm not using myself in the third person there's another ryan on the show but uh i always think i think it's harder to go backwards especially when you have like a lot of success Adam Hadwin would be a great example this year um you know he's won of the PGA Tour, he had a great career and shot 59, it's like pretty like every year, you know Adam's going to be in contention a couple years and he had a terrible year 25 and found himself back in 26 and and i think for two reasons uh but one mentally it's hard right like you've been on a PGA Tour your whole life and now you're playing in Springfield, Illinois and uh Boise, Idaho and there's nothing against those cities this is just not the PGA Tour and and then second thing is the golf courses are just too easy on the corn Ferry Tour and Adam Hadwin, I used this was about Mondays but I had a conversation with David Duvall at a course in Denver and he's like, he quite frankly he was like I have no chance in a Monday I don't know how to shoot 64, you know, very often because, but get me on a tour course, I'm going to kill these guys because I'm gonna shoot 68 every time, you know? And, and I think tour players go through that, especially long-term veterans like Adam is like, you know, in the last three weeks, you know, 30 under one, 27 under one, 25 under one, like, and that just doesn't happen on the PGA Tour very often. The courses are getting a little better on the Korn Ferry Tour, but just, I, I, this is not Adam. This is just history is like a lot of guys like Adam just never make it back unless it's through Q school or something like that. It's just, or through, they have, you know, Adam has past champion status and he plays well in one event and shuffles back up and gets back on, but very rarely do middle-aged He's not middle-aged, but he's older on the older end, uh, PGA tour veterans get back through the corn prairie tour. It just doesn't happen. and it's a process it's so hard to just change your mindset like you said to go from shooting you know 468s might win you a tournament to 468s with your T49 and no points and it's so jarring to do it but i also think it kind of makes it a tough case to say that the Korn Ferry Tour is the proving ground for the PGA Tour because they are completely different types of golf that you're playing between those two tours and i think that's why you see so much up down between the circuits 100 yeah i we're not identifying the best 20 golfers every year and that not that some you know blades or uh tommy morrison austin hit those guys are all super talented and probably are in the top they definitely are in the top 20 players of talent but again if Adam Hedwin fixed his swing issues from two years ago there's no way he's he's not one of the best players uh now i'm not saying he did but if he did then he's 100 doing it and pj2 players just don't very often get through the Korn Ferry Tour uh the guys who have had long-term success like doc redmond and carson young are the two uh pj2 members that got through this year they've had 100 starts but they haven't had like defined wins or huge careers they've been like grinding their ass off keeping their card or barely losing their card or whatever and now they were like i gotta go back to the Korn Ferry and just get my card but um yeah it's just it we're not identifying the 20 the 20 best golfers it just isn't it's just we're identifying a lot of the time a lot of the best wedge players i think the last event of the year is played in oklahoma nothing against the course seems to be and good and they haven't from everything i've heard it's like windy often and it hasn't been windy the times they've gone there and i mean it was 33 under uh two years ago and i think it was 29 or 30 under one at this year uh the 58 on the uh on the board yeah 58 that didn't yeah yeah it's just uh that's not that's not what happens on the pj2 just all there is to it like these the fairways at this course are super bold everybody says and it's like you can't miss a fairway essentially like hit it right bounces down into the middle of the fairway and no matter what tour you're on if guys are hitting to soft greens from the middle of the fairway with less than nine iron they're going to destroy the place and uh and that's what happens every year so and to your point Ryan it's like that that's why we're we see a lot of bounce back is is is we're not identifying PGA there uh there's Peter Quest is the example i use all the time Peter's Monday into PGA Tour events I think he has seven top 25s in like 15 PGA Tour events and I think he's played three full seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour he might have five top 25s like basically he can play at a PGA Tour level and he and I'm not saying Peter doesn't have to improve the things it's just that it is what it is there's no way around it you got to go play you got to go figure out a way to get your card or get your card back but Peter's probably a very good PGA Tour player but you got to get you got to have a place to play and so will he ever get there you don't know uh Monday Q we're big fans uh we love having you on man you got the insights uh you know the people you know where the bodies are buried around around town and and uh i've seen you with a shovel in your hand before so thanks for your friendship and we appreciate your time my man same thanks guys thanks for having me on thanks for being on with us always so gracious with his time check out money q info where you can on the web uh if you can subscribe to him he does such great work his foundation is fantastic if you can support that as well and you can find him on twitter slash x the case of the monday uh on online so let's wrap up the episode uh brendan And French Lick is in all of its splendor right now, looking incredible right now. Some final thoughts on this episode. I'll tell you what, if you guys are a fan of foliage, this is the time of year to be in French Lick. Start booking your stuff for 27 and 28 now. We're getting busy. We're going to release some big news here coming up soon. I'll crack the door open a little bit. We're building a new golf course up on top of the ridge. So we'll do a little preview of this coming up in the next couple weeks or so. and it's going to be dynamite man we've got a great team up at French Lick we have a great team with you Ryan and we look forward to closing out a great 2027 or 26 season and looking forward to 27 so if you want to start booking your buddy trip packages now now's the time to do it go to FrenchLick.com you can't go wrong so for Brendan Sweeney everyone at the French Lick Resort I'm Ryan Bellinger thanks for watching really really appreciate we'll see you next time right here on the road to French Lick