Bauchou achieves quest to join college teammates on PGA Tour

Pairings and live scoring here.

By Ken MacLeod

The opening day of the Compliance Solutions Championship Thursday is officially Oklahoma State Cowboy Golf Day, with famous alum Bo Van Pelt cranking out the ceremonial first tee shot at 7 a.m. on the towering bluff overlooking the par-5 first hole at The Patriot in Owasso.

One of three former OSU golfers in the field for the third of four Korn Ferry Tour playoff events will not be sweating the outcome as he did a year ago.

Zach Bauchou, a stalwart on the 2018 OSU NCAA Championship team that many rank among the best collegiate squads of all time, will be joining five of his former teammates on the PGA Tour next year. Bauchou has locked up one of the top 20 spots on the season-long KFT Points Race, all of whom will earn PGA Tour cards for 2026.

He still has plenty to play for this week, with a $1.5 million purse at stake. But unlike in 2024, where he led in the final round of the final playoff event at French Lick Golf Resort in Indiana before bogeying his final three holes to drop outside the top 30 in the points race, a crushing finish that took weeks to get over, he is a lock. He vowed not to be in that position again this year and to have business taken care of before the final event. He has done exactly that, thanks in large part to his victory Sept. 14 in the Simmons Bank Open, where he shot 23-under with rounds of 65-64-64-64.

It may take a similar card to win this week at The Patriot, which is in spectacular condition. Bauchou, who has been a member at Oak Tree National in Edmond since college but had never visited The Patriot previous to last week, said he didn’t know Oklahoma had courses with this much elevation.

“I was actually shocked to see a course this hilly in Oklahoma,” he said following his pro-am round Wednesday. “I live in Edmond and it’s pretty flat, you come out there and the first tee shot is maybe 40 yards downhill. Visually it’s cool, you can see downtown Tulsa on the first tee. It reminds me a little of old Karsten Creek”

Bauchou was a productive member of that 2018 OSU team led by Viktor Hovland, Matthew Wolff, Austin Eckroat and Kris Ventura, all of who have gone on the PGA Tour. Even sixth-man Sam Stevens has become a force on the PGA Tour, while Bauchou went through some swing issues that began in his senior season and took him a while to iron out.

“I think Zach started to chase distance when he didn’t really need to,” said OSU coach Alan Bratton. “When he was at his best in college his game was PGA Tour ready. I’m so glad to see he has stayed with it and worked hard on his swing to get everything ironed out.”

Bauchou, now 29, admitted it’s been hard to wait his turn as the only top player on that team not to be on the PGA Tour. He was playing on the All Pro Tour and other mini tours while Eckroat was becoming a two-time PGA Tour winner and Hovland was winning the FedEx Cup Championship and becoming a worldwide star. Stevens has moved into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings and finished 38^th in the FedEx Cup standings this year. Wolff joined LIV Golf two years ago.

“They are all playing so well and it’s a good motivator for me to stay on top of my game.,” Bauchou said. “For a while there I lost my game and lost the way I was needing to hit the ball to compete. I needed to rebuild that and make some swing changes and from there it’s just been working on the short game. The weeks I can get the ball up-and-down I’ll have a pretty good week.”

Bratton will be at the event Thursday as part of OSU golf day. Tournament title sponsor Mark Lammert, CEO of Compliance Solutions, is a sponsor of the OSU program and donated to the rebuilding of Karsten Creek, which reopened this spring after an extensive redesign by architect Andrew Green.

Problems with his long game led to problems with his short game and Bauchou lingered on the mini-tours for four years before earning full-time status on the KFT in 2024, playing 24 events with five top-10 finishes and finishing 34^th on the points list.

This year he has amassed five top-10 finishes and won $485,692. More importantly he is looking forward to being the sixth member of that legendary college team to be on the PGA Tour.

Bauchou and his wife Victoria have two children under age two and he doesn’t get up to Stillwater often to play the redesigned Karsten Creek, but he tried it from the tips once (nearly 8,000 yards) and said it is a much harder venue than the one he practiced on for four years. But he can get great practice and competition at Oak Tree National, home to a bevy of young pros mainly from OSU and Oklahoma who enjoy taking each other’s money.

“It’s been really good for my game, having the games to play out there with a lot of the OU and OSU guys. It has really helped me improve my game and get ready for tournaments.”

Bauchou is not the only OTN member in the field this week. Oklahoma grad Logan McAllister is ranked 25^th and a good week could vault him into the top 20 and joining Bauchou as a rookie in 2026. Another with a chance is OU grad Patrick Welch, who began the year with only conditional KFT status but a second-place finish in Springfield, Mo., has helped him jump up to 38^th on the points list. He needs two strong finishes (or one victory) to crack the top 20.

Other OTN members in the field are Josh Creel (80) and Rayhan Thomas (106). Also in the field with Oklahoma ties are former Cowboy Kevin Dougherty (31) and former Sooners Blaine Hale Jr. (51) and Grant Hirschman (116).

Bauchou went to using a cross handed grip for chipping and pitch shots and Welch, who has gained notoriety as one of very few professional golfers to hit all of his shots cross handed, said he was glad to have a kindred spirit when he first noticed Bauchou hitting shots that way.

Welch has also benefitted by the fierce competition at Oak Tree National.

“You’ve got to bring it every day out there, because those guys are really good,” he said. “If you don’t you’re not going to be a happy camper. Not only financially, but just your pride. It’s really helped me a lot.”

Tickets for the Compliance Solutions Championship can be purchased at www.compliancesolutionschampionship.com.