John VanDerLaan earns his first Korn Ferry Tour title at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship by three strokes over Zecheng Dou and Trent Phillips.

Charting the champion (stats updated through tournament)

John VanDerLaan (first/17 under)

• Earns first Korn Ferry Tour title at 29 years, 2 months, 24 days of age, becoming the 17th first-time Korn Ferry Tour winner this season
• Wins in his fifth season and 142nd career start on the Korn Ferry Tour
• Closes with 4-under 67 via seven birdies (Nos. 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13) against a double-bogey (No. 11) and bogey (No. 16) to deliver his first under-par closing score after holding the 54-hole lead for the fourth time in his career
• Improves to 1-for-4 converting 54-hole lead/co-lead into victory (most recent: 2025 The Bahamas Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island/finished T9)
• Converts one-stroke 54-hole lead into three-stroke victory at 17-under 267, tying the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship 72-hole scoring record (David Lingmerth/2022; Adam Svensson/2021)
• Rises to No. 15 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List; the top 20 players on the Points List upon conclusion of the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance will earn PGA TOUR membership for the 2026 season
• Tied the course record in Round 1 with 9-under 62 to match David Lingmerth – the 2022 champion of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship – for the tournament-low 18-hole score 
• Collects his first career victory in his sixth start at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, surpassing a previous best finish of T35 in 2024
• Previously finished No. 63 on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, maintaining fully exempt status for the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season with his fourth consecutive top 75 finish on the Points List (No. 53/2020-21, No. 47/2022, No. 42/2023, No. 63/2024) 
• Finished T7 at Final Stage of the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament (now PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry) to earn guaranteed starts on the Korn Ferry Tour and secure membership for what became the 2020-21 season 
• Played four seasons collegiately at Florida Southern College (2014-18), where he was a four-time All-American and named the 2018 Jack Nicklaus Award winner for NCAA Division II; he earned seven individual wins as a senior, with the crown jewel being the individual national title at the 2018 NCAA Division II Championship  

Additional notes

• Three-time Korn Ferry Tour winner Zecheng Dou (T2/14 under) collects his best finish on the Korn Ferry Tour since his victory at the 2022 Ascendant presented by Blue; logs his second top-five finish in his sixth career appearance at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship (other: Third/2022).
• Third-year member Trent Phillips (T2/14 under) matched his career-best finish and recorded the third runner-up of his Korn Ferry Tour career (2023 UNC Health Championship presented by STITCH; 2024 The Panama Championship); it marked his fourth top-10 of the season, equaling his total from his first two seasons combined, and moved him to No. 31 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List.
• Jeffrey Kang (T4/13 under) posts 4-under 67 to collect his fourth top-five finish of the season (Second, twice at NV5 Invitational and Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron, T3 at Visit Knoxville Open); prior to 2025, his career highlight was two top-10s, and he now enters the third Finals event of the season with two runner-up finishes and stands No. 14 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List.
• Chandler Blanchet (T4/13 under) earns his fourth top-10 finish of the season, highlighted by his first Korn Ferry Tour victory at the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Hiland Dairy Foods, and climbs to No. 7 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List; after beginning the year with conditional status following a No. 84 finish on the Points List in 2024, Blanchet now heads into the penultimate event – the Compliance Solutions Championship - inside the top 20 and firmly in contention for a PGA TOUR card.
• Bio Kim (T6/11 under), a 10-time international winner who previously played three Korn Ferry Tour seasons (2012, 2013, 2018), climbed from No. 137 to No. 110 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List with his T6 finish this week, earning a spot in next week’s Compliance Solutions Championship, the third Finals event of the season.
• Kim returned to the Korn Ferry Tour for the first time since 2018 at the 2025 Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank and Intermountain Health, where a top-25 and two top-35s elevated him into the top 156 of the Points List and the first Finals event; he followed with another top-25 finish to move inside the top 144 and qualify for this week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship.