Three days after I finished covering the PGA Tour’s final Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club, I drove to The Cardinal at St. John’s in Plymouth.
I wanted to see for myself what awaited fans hoping to attend the LIV Golf Team Championship Michigan that’s scheduled for Aug. 27-30.
But the similar eerie silence I felt when I left Detroit Golf Club greeted me at The Cardinal on Aug. 5, where there wasn’t the slightest hint of any on-course preparation for LIV’s season finale, which remains on the financially troubled tour’s schedule.
That same day, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil announced a lead investor that will keep the tour operational into 2027. But O’Neil wouldn’t commit to playing the Michigan tournament, calling it “a very fluid situation.”
So I contacted Ilana Finley, LIV Golf chief communication officer, specifically to ask about the process for ticket refunds, since the tournament continues to promote and sell tickets for the Michigan event, including a $3,031.12 four-day pass for its premium hospitality experience.
Unfortunately, Finley’s response was limited to this email: “We have not announced any further updates on our remaining 2026 schedule.”
Realistically, it’s all but certain the LIV event won’t be held at St. John’s. With no visible preparations for a major pro tournament, it’s impossible to imagine LIV putting on a sprawling, massive tournament at The Cardinal in less than three weeks.
By comparison, preparations at DGC for the Rocket Classic began May 16, more than two months before the tournament began. This year, there’s been nothing but crickets from LIV. No promotions, no press conferences, no media outreach. Nothing.
If LIV manages to have the tournament in Plymouth, it would be one of the greatest clandestine operational success stories. If LIV is determined to hold its team championship, my guess is the only option would be for the tour to stay put at the site of its penultimate event in Indianapolis and host the team event there a few days later.
So which pro golf events remain in Michigan?
The news isn’t wildly better at the final pro golf tournament of the year in Michigan, but at least it’s a little more encouraging.
The Ally Challenge, a PGA Tour Champions event since 2018, is scheduled for Aug. 28-30 at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc.
But this is the final year of the tournament. A one-year contract extension with the tour and other sponsors was signed in February 2025 to keep the tournament going through 2026.
After this year, it’s hard to say what will become of the event, though tournament director Erin Stone is doing everything she can to save the event. The obvious deadline to extend the tournament would be before the tour announces its 2027 schedule, likely in late October.
“Well, I’ll tell you we’re working hard right now and conversations are continuing,” Stone said Friday, Aug. 7. “And we are at the 10-yard line, but just like any good sports [event], we are going to take it down to the buzzer, and it ain’t over till it’s over.
“But we’re hopeful and optimistic, and we’re currently working through it right now, hoping to share more very soon.”
The golf landscape is shifting on the PGA Tour, which is moving away from being strictly a nonprofit organization and pivoting toward a new entity called PGA Tour Enterprises that allows players to become equity holders.
Since the Ally Challenge is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, it’s unclear how the future of the PGA Tour or PGA Tour Champions, where some players will have status on both tours, will affect the tournament.
“I don’t know what their tournament format will be for each individual tournament,” Stone said. “That remains to be seen.
“But the PGA Tour has always been a purpose-driven partnership sport, where you switch [tournaments] and you really give back to the community because there’s no ultimate team or league owner that is netting the profits. It’s a nonprofit running the event.”
Stone said this year the Ally Challenge will cross the $10 million mark in charitable giving since the tournament’s inception.
If this is indeed the swang song for the Ally Challenge, it sure sounds like it’s going out on a high note. Country music artist Keith Urban will headline a concert after the second round Saturday, Aug. 29. After the concert, there’s a drone show.
There’s always the popular “Birdie Time is Miller Time” beer frenzy on the famously raucous 17th hole from the old Buick Open days. If a player makes a birdie on the par 3, beers go for $2 while a 17-minute shot clock winds down.
Oh, and you can also win $1 million.
The tournament just announced “The Million Dollar Shot,” which will give three fans one shot to make a hole-in-one on the 17th hole – from 165 yards for men and 155 yards for women.
The prize is paid out in an annuity. Registration for the contest is available on the tournament website and ends Aug. 21.
Where does that leave us?
If the Rocket Classic, the LIV tournament and the Ally Challenge all go away, only two pro golf tournaments will remain in Michigan, and both are on the LPGA Tour, which has seen steady financial growth recently, according to the Sports Business Journal.
That should provide a safety net that helps keep the Meijer LPGA Classic and the Dow Championship in the state for a while.
The Meijer debuted in 2014 and is played at Blythefield Country Club in Belmont, just north of Grand Rapids. The tournament’s future is unknown, since it last announced an extension in 2019.
This year it was held June 18-21 and was won by Japan’s Miyu Yamashita, who beat England’s Lottie Woad on the first playoff hole. The tournament’s past notable champions include Nelly Korda, Brooke Henderson and Lexi Thompson.
The Dow Championship this year was played the week before the Meijer, June 11-14, at Midland Country Club. It’s been around since 2019. In 2022, a five-year extension through 2029 was announced.
The Dow is the LPGA’s only official team-format tournament, similar to the Ryder Cup. This year, Yana Wilson and Gina Kim won the 72-hole event competing in alternate shot and best ball.
The LPGA has always done a great job of getting its players to engage with fans with autograph zones and more relaxed accessibility to players. Michigan’s two stops this year also featured plenty of fan-friendly extras like a junior clinic, lawn games, a family care area for nursing parents, a STEM center and an interactive kids zone with inflatable “Golfzilla” challenges.
The Ally Challenge’s Million Dollar Shot was created in the same vein. Stone has extensive experience in the sports-business world and knows pro golf tournaments, even at their highest levels, have to continue to find ways to attract fans.
“You know, it’s kind of why are we throwing all of this at the wall, everything and the kitchen sink,” she said. “It’s because golf, as strong as it is in our state, golf still represents a niche, right?
“A niche audience that, you know, not everybody would enjoy going to a golf tournament. So we’re trying to make sure in that schedule of events and everything we’ve got going we’re appealing to more fans in different ways.”
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Future of pro golf in Michigan is bleak but not hopeless – yet
Reporting by Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
