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 at the French Lick Resort 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.
he 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. More
