FRENCH LICK, Indiana – Add the Korn Ferry Championship to the long resume of big golf tournaments played on the courses at French Lick Resort. Lots of new things have been going on at the southern Indiana destination, the latest being the staging of the season-ending event for the PGA Tour’s alternative circuit.
The concluding event in the four-tournament Finals be played Sept. 24 through Oct. 6 and when the last putt drops about 30 hopefuls will, in addition to their tournament paychecks, be handed their PGA Tour cards for the 2025 season.
Victoria National, after hosting a regular Korn Ferry stop from 2012-18, was the site of the circuit’s Finals from 2019-23. An ownership change at Victoria National led to French Lick being named the site through 2028.
“It’s great for us,’’ said Dave Harner, long-time director of golf at French Lick. “From all indications this will be very successful. We have six pro-ams, and they’re practically all filled.’’
Those preliminaries will be split between the super-scenic Pete Dye Course, which will host all four tournament rounds starting Oct. 3, and the historic Donald Ross Course. which celebrated its centennial in 2017. It has had its share of big moments, beginning with the 1924 PGA Championship won by Walter Hagen that started that legendary player on his way to five straight wins in the event.
The Ross also hosted the LPGA three straight years from 1958-60, and all were won by famous players. Louise Suggs won the first tournament and the other two went to Betsy Rawls and Mickey Wright when the event was designed as the LPGA Championship.
There was a big lull in tournament play after that as the community was known mainly as the home of basketball great Larry Bird. The golf activity started kicking in again around 2010 with the renovation of the Ross course and Dye’s creation of a the dazzling course that bears his name.
French Lick gave the senior LPGA players a huge boost by creating the Legends Championship in 2013. It grew into the LPGA Senior Championship in 2017, which was also played at French Lick. French Lick also found a place for the Senior PGA Championship in 2015, when Colin Montgomerie won the title, and the women’s Symetra (now Epson) circuits.
Also mixed in with those big professional events were three Indiana Opens, seven Big Ten collegiate championships, a U.S. Golf Association Men’s Team Championship and a PGA Professionals National Championship.
Now the Korn Ferry begins its scheduled five-year run.
“It’s only the second of those tournaments that has a group that takes care of the detail work,’’ said Harner. “It’s nice to have the support and knowledge that these guys have.’’
Unlike French Lick’s other big tournaments, the Korn Ferry has fall dates.
“That shows us in a different light, when we can all enjoy the fall colors,’’ said Harner. “The temperature should be cooler, we’ll have winds that we didn’t have in the summer and the course is in great shape.’’
A new charity, Golf Gives Back, is also in place. It focuses on early childhood education and funds gained from the tournament will be spread around all of southern Indiana, as was the practice when the tournament was played at Victoria National.
While the Korn Ferry’s arrival is the biggest deal, it’s not the only new thing at French Lick.
A fourth course is under construction that will eventually supplement the Pete Dye, Donald Ross and Valley Links, which is a nine-holer. The new course will have nine holes ranging from 47 to 97 yards, music will be a side attraction and lights will be available for night play. Russ Apple, the superintendent for the Dye course, has done the bulk of the architectural work. The course’s opening is uncertain.
“We want it to be a family experience,’’ said Harner, “but a lot of guys coming off the hills (at the Dye and Ross) will want to knock it around. It’s short but this course has some teeth, sort of a mini-Pete Dye.’’
French Lick has also added a PGA Tour player, Adam Schenk, to its staff.
“We took him on this year to sponsor him,’’ said Harner. “He’s a real nice young man who’s from Vincennes (just a few miles away), so he’s a natural fit for us.’’
Schenk is French Lick’s first major tour player since the days of Bob Rosburg and Marilyn Smith, both stars in the 1960s and 1970s.
