The dream Chandler Blanchet worked so tirelessly to attain was partly forged alone, during early morning practices on the UWF intramural fields.

He would strike golf balls after golf balls into the dew-soaked grass, before rushing to make his 8 a.m. chemistry class nearby on campus.

"I got kicked out a lot and had to rotate fields," Blanchet said, recalling those memories with fond laughter. "But I would always find time to hit balls, wherever I was."

That kind of determination, that relentless drive, helped launch the 2018 UWF graduate into professional golf fame, placing him among the more intriguing, recent storylines, at the sport's highest level.

Blanchet (pronounced Blon-shay), whose collegiate career feats made him the greatest player in UWF men's golf history, produced his finest pro season to earn his way into a full exemption, rookie status on the 2026 PGA Tour. He did it by finishing No. 2 on the points list of the Korn Ferry Tour, the developmental tour of the main circuit, after winning the Korn Ferry Tour Championship on Oct. 12.

He becomes the first player in UWF's decorated men's golf history, which includes a third NCAA Division II national title in 2025, to advance with full exempt status on the PGA Tour.

"I really had a feeling he was going to be something special…  and he was," said UWF men's golf coach Steve Fell. "He's a great player, but he is an even better person."

After turning pro in 2018, following his senior season at UWF, Blanchet has battled through peak-and-valleys and global travel into earning his PGA Tour card.

"It has been an amazing journey," said Blanchet, who will turn 29 in January and is married with two young children. "I guess this is my eighth year as a professional and you see some guys come out much faster and get it done, get on (PGA) Tour and have success, but everyone has their own journey and I find a lot of joy in mine. 

"I got to travel up and down South America and North America," he said. "I played five years on the Korn Ferry Tour against very good competition and got to see some of my buddies make it to the (PGA) Tour and have success and it was kinda like, 'Hey, we can do this. It's not far-fetched anymore.'

"And I feel like that self-belief became a part of it. I was more pleased as the years went on… and just becoming more experienced. Somebody told me, 'No dude, age is my asset.' Age comes with experience and I feel like I fought through adversity at some point and came out better on the other side."

After initial struggles on the Korn Ferry Tour, Blanchet lost exempt status and dropped down a level to play the PGA Tour-Latinoamerica, winning two tournaments on that tour in 2023 and earning No. 1 status on the tour's order of merit, which regained him the opportunity in 2024 to return to the Korn Ferry Tour.

"I spent two seasons in South America playing and you are playing against players with far less resources and are very, very good," Blanchet said.  "It kind of taught me a lot. Because you don't need the fancy courses or the Trackmans (golf simulator device) with you.

"It is still about feel at the end of the day. It's still about getting the golf ball in the hole as quickly as you can and some of those guys are out of this world good. I think I grew as a player a lot down there because of that."
But he credits the large portion of his development, his rise from a junior golfer, then high school golfer at Gainesville Buchholtz, to all the things he learned at UWF under Fell's tutelage.

After his freshman season at UWF, Blanchet had a 74.33 stroke average on the team.

"Which is nothing special at all," Fell said. "And then his sophomore it went to 71.49. His junior year, it was 68.76, so almost six shots (better) in two years. That is unheard of.

"It was a combination of making some changes with his swing, short game and really putting it to work and getting some confidence and learning how to win. He leaned on me pretty hard every day checking stuff. We made a lot of changes in his sophomore year with his swing and a lot of fundamental stuff.

"And really, then everything started to click. He worked his butt off, so I give him all the credit. It would not have happened without him working this hard."

Blanchet finished his UWF career with 13 individual wins at tournaments. That is one of 20 glowing feats in his final bio list as a UWF player.The two biggest awards were being named the 2017 Jack Nicklaus Award Winner as the top NCAA Division II golfer, which including meeting Nicklaus at the award presentation.

He finished that season as the 2017 GolfStat Cup Winner as the No. 1 ranked player across all NCAA levels. The previous winners of this award are headlined by Tiger Woods in 1996 at Stanford and current world golf stars Jon Rahm, Daniel Burger, Jordan Speith, Patrick Cantlay and Rickie Fowler when they all were in college.

"The list of players who have won that GolfStat Cup are a who's-who of professional golf," said Fell, who has caddied for Blanchet on several Korn Ferry Tour events. "He's the first Division II golfer to win that award. It's an incredible list, and he won it, and it shows how good he is."

As Blanchet went through his struggles in past years as a pro, he was mentored by Pensacola's Joe Durant, now 61, who grew up playing at Osceola Municipal Golf Course and rose from being an Escambia High and Huntingdon College golfer into a winner of four PGA Tour events, five PGA Champions Tour events and a Korn Ferry Tour win.

Blanchet credits Durant for his constant supportive text messages, tips on various parts of being a pro player and helping on performance suggestions.

After Blanchet won his first Korn Ferry Tour event on July 20 at the Price Cutter Charity Championship, he continued playing well the rest of the season and kept his position on the points list with six finishes in the top 10.
In the second-to-final event, the Compliance Solutions Championship Oct. 2-5 in Oklahoma, he finished the third round and was told he had clinched his top 20 finish for 2025 and earned his PGA Tour card.

"Hearing those words that you are PGA Tour bound…pure ecstasy," he said. "It kind of took me out of the moment of playing. I had to refocus for the Sunday round, played really well that day, then won the next week at the (Korn Ferry) Tour championship, so it was a dream end to the season.

"Having my family there and getting my tour card all in one weekend, you couldn't write any better."

Blanchet won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship on the Pete Dye Course at the French Link (Indiana) Resort. He carded a 6-under 66 in the final round to finish 14-under for the tournament. He finished 2025 earning $762,650 as the No. 2 money winner and has earned more than $1 million in career earnings on the Korn Ferry Tour.

As he reflected on his season, Blanchet had spent this particular late-October day at the PGA Tour headquarters at Ponte Vedra Beach, going through PGA Tour orientation.

He will start the 2026 season on Jan. 15-18 at the Sony Open in Honolulu and play the first four PGA Tour events in consecutive weeks.

"I don't think it has quite hit me yet," said Fell, reflecting on Blanchet's status as a PGA Tour member. "I think it will hit me when I see his name on the leaderboard of PGA Tour event. I know it's real, but it's surreal. I am just so excited for him and his family because he has worked so hard, he deserves it. So, I am just real happy for him."

That same kind of feeling has struck Blanchet, as he spoke after exiting the PGA Tour headquarters.

"Sometimes you sit back in awe," he said. "I always knew I could do it. I always knew it was going to happen. But it still feels surreal that I am one of the 20 players who graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour, playing (now) against the best players in the world next year."