COVERAGE: VanDerLaan’s Bounce-Back Places Him Atop Nationwide Leaderboard

COLUMBUS, Ohio — It would have been understandable if Nationwide Children’s Championship first-round leader John VanDerLaan displayed panic after a 4-over par front nine Friday, but instead, he brought his round back to par and carried that momentum into Saturday when he hit each of his first 17 greens in regulation.

Now the 2018 Jack Nicklaus Award recipient finds himself in the same spot, leading by one shot over Trent Phillips in the second of four Korn Ferry Tour Finals tournaments.

“This is a golf course where you can’t really get defensive,” VanDerLaan summarized. “If you miss in the wrong spots, you’re going to find yourself struggling to make par kind of like I did on 18 just now. So really just when you get out of position, got to manage it. I plan on sticking to the same game plan tomorrow, take advantage where I can and play conservative when I need to.”

VanDerLaan who currently projects as one of 20 golfers to earn a PGA Tour card, with his current 15th projected points placement, has been pleased with the state of his game and believes something is clicking, good signs come Sunday as he hopes to get in the winner’s circle.

One thing which assisted that was his mentality on Friday’s round where he maintained a happiness about how he played at Ohio State University’s Scarlet Course.

“I mean, that’s what it’s all about, right?” pondered VanDerLaan. “I’ve always loved this golf course. I think this golf course puts an emphasis on ball-striking more than some of the ones that we play. You’ve got to play all-around really good golf out here; it’s a really good test.

“To be 13 under, is some really good golf. (Let’s) see if we can finish it off tomorrow.”

Another factor certainly aiding VanDerLaan is his dog Bunker which has admittedly been a good-luck charm. There were several birdie dances from the canine, four of which occurred on the front nine — a field-leading 20 on the tournament. After the round, Bunker ruled the roost leaping atop the interview area all smiles.

VanDerLaan, has been in this position before, leading or close to it heading into the final round and hopes that experience will serve him well.

“It’s always good to be in this spot,” he said. “I think the last few times I’ve been in the lead or around the lead, I’ve definitely taken a couple things away, learned a couple things, what might work better
for me in the future. So, I plan on using those to my advantage tomorrow hopefully.”

Phillips, VanDerLaan’s closest pursuer, was in Saturday’s final pairing and his story places him in 28th position, which would allow him to return to the Korn Ferry Tour next season, behind some good form of late.

In his press conference following the round, Phillips discussed that he has found something in his one session with new coach Adam Schriber. The two were set up by Phillips’s agent and it has caused him to believe in his game a little bit more, while getting rid of some of the doubt residing in his mind.

Despite play which saw Phillips enter the week 53rd, by his standards he felt that more could be done, more specifically not hitting it how he desired, yet finding a way to get the ball in the hole.

Phillips has not had a consistent coach and bounced around with one-off lessons, but this lesson and approach have seemed to strike a chord in the South Carolinian.

The approach involves a gym routine where he is training his body to move in the proper way, instead of the pattern he had that he believes created some bad swings.

“Just trusting what I’m doing and believing that I’m on the right path with what I’m working on,” Phillips opened up. “In this game, if you’re just out there playing and you don’t really have any guidance or any structure, it’s going to be pretty difficult to find like a base to go back to. If you don’t have base to go back to in what you work on daily, then you just kind of feel a little bit lost and that’s kind of how I felt.”

One thing which eludes Phillips is his feeling he got 100 percent out of his game, offering he would let the media know when he gets to that level.

Regardless, this is already the best postseason Phillips has experienced and is currently in the best 54-hole position in his Korn Ferry Tour career.

“With doubt, results kind of kill a lot of it,” determined Phillips. “Tomorrow will be a big day.”

Chandler Blanchet finds himself in third place, an additional two shots off the lead as scoring was harder to come by on the front nine, with his lone circle a birdie on the par-5 sixth hole.

This is Blanchet’s fifth season on the Korn Ferry Tour, and he projects sixth, up three positions, an ideal position to be in to secure his PGA Tour card.

“I striped it on the front nine, I was hitting it really good and close. On 7, 8 and 9 I had a 5-footer and two 10-footers, and it would have been easy to get aggravated, and I probably did for a second, but just stuck to my guns, keep shooting and make them with good speed,” Blanchet described. “Thankfully I made a couple of nice putts on the back nine.”

Jeffrey Kang joins Zecheng Dou at nine-under as the pair rounds out the top five. Kang might have had the highlight of the day, holing out on the par-4 seventh hole to record an eagle.

“I had 165 and tried to hit a 9-iron a little bit short of it,” he illustrated. “I hit a really good shot, it came out perfect, took a big bounce and went in perfectly in the hole.”

Kang entered the week 17th and now is up three spots, placing himself in the 14th position in the points race.

That eagle vaulted him up the leaderboard, with him and 2021 U.S. Amateur runner-up Austin Greaser battling for low round, before both flinched.

Kang had two bogeys in his final pair of holes, but still his play Saturday and overall on the season, evidenced by four top 10 finishes have him in position for his end goal, though he is trying to keep his process as simple as possible.

“Just not making too big of a deal out of it,” noted Kang. “At the end of the day trying to hit good shots and keep your rounds going, so not thinking too much out of golf shots.”

19TH HOLE

It has been a good week for the Ohio State University Scarlet Course as Wednesday came the official announcement that the Nationwide Children’s Championship was extended as a Korn Ferry Tour Finals stop through 2029.

A course highly regarded by the field, it is a stop which sees some of the highest scores on the Korn Ferry Tour, because it requires every club in the bag in order to achieve success.

“This is as close to a (PGA Tour)-like course as we play all year, especially in these conditions,” Blanchet noted. “The cream rises to the top and I’m happy to be near the top this week. It takes a lot of discipline to your targets, to your shot selection. You can’t go at every pin and some courses when we have it nice and soft in the summer you can just send it at every pin, this one you have to pick and choose.

“I’m just soaking it all in and hopefully this will help whenever I do get to the tour.”