LIV Golf to make Michigan debut, will hold its team championship at The Cardinal

Posted by author January 7, 2025 Golf

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LIV Golf, the rebel professional tour that is entering its fourth season, is coming to Michigan for the first time.

LIV Golf’s Team Championship will be held at The Cardinal in Plymouth Township from Aug. 22-24, the tour announced Tuesday. The Cardinal officially opened in 2024, as the first newly built course in Metro Detroit since the early 2000s, and course officials made it no secret the goal was to eventually ― and quickly, as it turned out ― bring a major professional tournament to the growing Saint John’s resort.

The LIV Golf tournament in Plymouth Township is one of 14 events on LIV Golf’s 2025 schedule, and one of six in the United States. It will be played two months after the PGA Tour holds its Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club.

“It’s a big deal,” Ray Hearn, the west Michigan-based golf-course architect who designed The Cardinal, told The Detroit News on Tuesday. “It’ll be huge.”

Officials with The Cardinal, who contract with a public-relations firm out of Chicago, didn’t immediately comment on the LIV Golf announcement.

LIV Golf launched in 2022, controversially, with financial backing from Saudi Arabia, and began poaching some of the biggest names in golf to huge contracts, many of them well into the nine figures. LIV Golf hoped to provide an alternative for the golf fan, with shorter tournaments (54 holes), shotgun starts and a team component.

Some of the biggest stars to defect from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf include Jon Rahm, Cam Smith, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Joaquin Niemann and Bubba Watson, and last year, LIV Golf made big headlines when it brought the long-AWOL Anthony Kim out of retirement. With their move to LIV Golf, the players who were members on the PGA Tour had to forfeit those memberships, though they remain eligible to compete in majors and the Ryder Cup.

When LIV Golf launched, it set off an all-out war of words and ill will between itself and the PGA Tour, though that has thawed a bit over time, and the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund, which funds LIV Golf, remain in talks to merge business operations. It’s unclear what that would mean for the two-tour system moving forward.

The Cardinal, an 18-hole course, was built on the Saint John’s resort grounds of an old 27-hole course, and it opened to rave reviews, at least as far as the conditions, if not the high cost of green fees. The resort, with a hotel, bars and restaurants, has the infrastructure to host VIPs like the players and tour officials, as well as lots of fans, and LIV Golf crowds have been growing since the tour’s launch. Hosting the tour’s season-ending team championship may provide the resort significant visibility, as it positions to market itself as a destination for out-of-state golfers. LIV Golf reportedly is set to sign a broadcast deal with Fox for 2025.

The Saint John’s resort previously was a Catholic compound owned by the Archdiocese of Detroit. It now is owned by the Pulte family, which pledges its profits to a variety of charitable causes.

As for the course itself, players will be met with fast greens and a layout that can stretch out to over 7,000 yards. It typically plays to a par 72, though it could be made a par 70 when the pros come to town in August.

In 2025, Michigan will be home to the PGA Tour and LIV Golf tournaments, as well as two LPGA Tour tournaments, in Grand Rapids and Midland, and a Champions Tour event, in Grand Blanc. The Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc will be played the same three days as the LIV Golf team championship in Plymouth Township.

The Rocket Mortgage Classic has been played annually since 2019, as the first PGA Tour tournament stop in the city of Detroit. It has drawn hundreds of thousands of fans during its run, and has raised more than $10 million for local nonprofits and its own “Changing the Course” initiative, aimed at ending Detroit’s digital divide. The Rocket will be played June 26-29, and the tournament released a statement to The News on Tuesday after word that LIV Golf is coming to Metro Detroit.

“Since Day 1, Dan Gilbert’s vision has been to shine a bright spotlight on Detroit and celebrate all that makes our city extraordinary,” Rocket Mortgage Classic officials said in a statement. “While the professional golf world continues to try and find a unified platform, our commitment to building on our mission in 2025 and beyond will not waver as we prioritize the needs of our great community.”

Ticket info for the LIV Golf team championship will be announced at a later date. Ticket prices for the 2024 team finale, held in Dallas, started at $34 per day, and were about $100 for a three-day pass.

The 2024 LIV Golf team championship, which featured a $50 million purse, was won by Ripper GC, whose roster includes Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert.