Chile’s Joaquin NIemann has wrestled the lead away from Jon Rahm in their battle for an $18 million bonus. (Joy Sarver Photos)
The bottom line story at the LIV Individual Championship is the battle between Spain’s Jon Rahm and Colombia’s Joaquin Niemann. They’re the only players mathematically eligible to win the $18 million bonus, to be awarded to the season-long champion after Sunday’s final round at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
Neither did anything special in Friday’s first round. Rahm and Niemann, played together. Niemann started the day three standings points behind Rahm and shot a 2-under-par 68, one better than his rival. That enabled Niemann to regain the point lead he held for most of the season until Rahm had a win and runner-up finish in the two tournaments immediately preceding the visit to Bolingbrook.
Brooks Koepka was the star of Friday’s show, shooting a course record 8-under-par 62, to climb into third place in the point race and in position to capture the last of the bonus money on the line. The second place finisher gets $8 million and the third $4 million.
That bonus money is very much up for grabs. Neimann has 204.95 points to Rahm’s 199.17. Koepka, who won the final individual tournament last year to get third-place bonus money, can’t catch either Rahm or Niemann. It remains a two-man show but $20 million for individual competition at Bolingbrook and $5 million for team play is still available for the rest of the 54-man field.
“This was a goal, to have a chance to win – and hopefully win,’’ said Rahm, whose wife is expecting their third child imminently. “I consider myself a seasoned veteran. I’ve got to go and play golf and, if at some point it’s time to go, then I’m gone. I can’t be thinking about that.’’
Jon Rahm’s bid for LIV’s big bonus will carry on for two more days at Bolingbrook.
Rahm and Niemann won’t play together in today’s second round.
“It’s always nice to play with Jon,’’ said Niemann.“I’m going to miss him. Maybe on Sunday we might get together again.’’
Niemann won two of the first three tournaments of this season and was the point leader until Rahm got hot the last month.
“The first half of the season I played amazing,’’ said Niemann. “The last part hasn’t been the best, but I feel it’s getting there.’’
All three players at the top of the individual leaderboard are team captains. Koepka’s Smash is tied for second, Niemann’s Torque is tied for seventh and Rahm’s Legion XIII is down in 12th place. Team play at Bolingbrook will affect the seedings for the season-ending LIV Team Championship Sept. 20-22 in Dallas.
Koepka’s 62 on Friday opened a four-stroke lead on Paul Casey in the tournament standings. Casey is a member of the team-leading Crushers, captained by Bryson DeChambeau, the individual winner in Chicago last year. The Crushers are trying to repeat as both Chicago and the LIV Team champions.
“A good player gets hot and they can shoot 62 pretty easy,’’ said Koepka. “There’s a bunch of guys out here who can do that. When it’s your day, it’s your day.’’
Koepka erased the Bolingbrook record set by Mac Meissner by one stroke. Meissner set in it the third round of a Forme Tour event, held at Bolingbrook in 2021. The course was set up as a par-72 when Meissner set the record. It’s a par-70 this week.
Greg Norman (left), head of the LIV Tour, made his presence felt on the first tee of the opening round.
Money. That’s what differentiates the LIV Tour’s third tournament in Chicago from the others in the circuit’s first three seasons.
The event that tees off on Friday at Bolingbrook Golf Club will have the standard purse for the Saudi-backed circuit — $20 in the individual competition and $5 million in the team competition. That was also the case in LIV’s first two Chicago events at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove.
This three-day event – last of the regular season — will also decide the three players picking up bonus checks for their season-long performances. Those checks are hefty, too — $18 million for first place, $8 million for second and $4 million for third.
Only Spain’s Jon Rahm and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann are still mathematically in contention for the top prize, but five others – Tyrrell Hatton, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka – could claim third-place money.
Niemann, who won two of the season’s first three tournaments, held the point lead until Rahm got hot in the last two. He won his first LIV title in the United Kingdom and had a playoff loss to Brooks Koepka in the last event at Greenbrier in West Virginia. Rahm goes into Bolingbrook with 195.17 points and Niemann with 192.20.
“I’m probably going to need to win,’’ said Rahm. “(Niemann) is going to be up there. I’m going to need another good week.’’
“(Rahm) has been playing great lately, so he’s probably going to do the same. I’ve got to try to bring my A-game,’’ said Niemann. He didn’t do it at Greeenbrier, finishing tied for 15th after three straight top-six finishes.
Niemann, however, is the season money leader with $14.5 million in 12 tournaments. Rahm, who had to withdraw at Houston, has $12.7 million.
Much more is on the line than bonus money, too. Bolinbrook is the last tournament for players to secure their positions on the LIV circuit for next season. The top 24 get in. Those from 25-48 fall into the Open Zone and can move around the teams. Those from 49 or below go to the Drop Zone and are relegated off the circuit for individual spots in tournaments in 2025.
Bolingbrook also decides the three teams that will receive first-round byes in the season-ending Team Championship Sept. 20-22 at Maridoe in Dallas.
The LIV Golf League doesn’t have a season climax to match the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, but it does have a two-tournament wrapup to its third season, the first of which tees off Friday (SEPT. 13) at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
It’s both the climax to Chicago’s golf season and the LIV Individual Championship. Suspense might be lacking, since only Jon Rahm or Joaquin Neimann can win hefty bonus for taking the season-long point competition. No one else is mathematically eligible – not even Bryson DeChambeau. He’s no stranger to Chicago and the defending champion in LIV’s Chicago stop, having won last year at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.
DeChambeau is down in ninth place in the individual point race but the team he captains, the Crushers, are the leaders going into LIV’s season-ending Team Championship coming up Sept. 20-23 at Maridoe in Dallas.
The Crushers, who won the Chicago stop and league team title last year, hold a narrow lead over Rahm’s Legion XIII in this year’s team standings. DeChambeau has the same three teammates – Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri – who formed the winning team in 2023 at Rich Harvest.
DeChambeau gave the best individual performance since LIV’s founding when he finished 61-58 on the weekend to win the Greenbrier tournament last year. This year he’s without a win but has six top-10 finishes in 12 starts.
Playing away from the Saudi-backed LIV circuit in golf’s major championships, however, he’s been quite good. He won the U.S. Open at North Carolina’s Pinehurst, holding off Rory McIlroy in a stirring duel on the final nine holes, and finished as the runner-up to Xander Schauffele in the PGA Championship.
Those are the kinds of finishes that have made DeChambeau LIV’s most popular player, and his results on Illinois courses in recent years is rivaled only by the now retired Hale Irwin.
DeChambeau’s Illinois success extends beyond his playoff victory over teammate Lahiri last year at Rich Harvest. Shortly after winning the 2015 NCAA title for Southern Methodist he followed up by capturing the U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields. And, his first PGA tour win came at the 2017 John Deere Classic in downstate Silvis.
His play got only better after he joined the players exiting the PGA Tour for the more lucrative, though controversial, LIV circuit. In fact, he’s become one of LIV’s best spokesmen.
“We’ve changed the vision of the game of golf,’’ he said in the lead-up to LIV’s final two stops of this campaign. “There is so much opportunity now moving forward than there previously was. Golf was a bit stagnant. There was more to be done and things weren’t necessarily done in the way that some of the players thought they could have been done.
“LIV came around, and we all saw this opportunity of team golf and being partial owners of teams and creating business value across the world. That was a big decision for me, to be part of something like that.’’
Like many LIV players, he’s broadened his interests beyond tournament play.
“What we can do with building academies, creating driving ranges, education centers,’’ he said. “There’s just so much we can do when we bring people together to help grow this game globally.’’
David Feherty, one of the TV voices for LIV after having previously worked for The Golf Channel on PGA Tour events, said DeChambeau “has really blossomed at LIV, especially with how (he) deals with people.’’
“Just getting a little bit older,’’ said DeChambeau. “I’m about to turn 31. Being a little more understanding of others and understanding what the game of golf needs is a huge component for me…. LIV has been a gigantic platform for me.’’
The professional game remains in turmoil, and DeChambeau doesn’t see a quick end to that.
“The game of golf is in an interesting place right now,’’ he said. “It’s going to get figured out. I know that. I have zero doubt it will get figured out, but it’s going to take some time.’’
Bolingbrook Golf Club is getting ready for a visit from the LIV Tour. (Rory Spears Photo)
The Illinois PGA has four major tournaments for its members each season, and Brian Carroll won the third of 2024 last week.
Carroll, the head professional at The Hawk in St. Charles, captured his second Illinois PGA Professionals Championship in three years. The first, in 2022, was a springboard for Carroll to win the 2023 Player of the Year award, and it might be again. He’ll have to overtake Andy Svoboda, in his first year at Butler National in Oak Brook, to do it, though.
Svoboda maintains a comfortable lead in the Bernardi point standings heading into the final of the section’s four majors – the IPGA Players Championship Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 at The Glen Club in Glenview.
In last week’s IPGA Professionals Championship Carroll passed defending champion and 14-time winner Mike Small in the second round and then held off Matthew Rion, of Briarwood in Deerfield; Svoboda and 2021 winner Andy Mickelson of Mistwood in Romeoville.
Carroll was at 15-under-par 201 in the 54-hole event at Elgin Country Club. Rion was two shots back in second and Svoboda and Mickelson shared third, five strokes off the pace.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to play well in that event over the years,’’ said Carroll. “Typically over three days I know that if I play my game and limit my mistakes I’ll be close at the end. My whole golf career was a series of runnerups and close calls until two years ago, so it’s nice to get a string of majors over the last couple years.
After winning his first IPGA title at Makray Memorial, in Barrington, in 2022, he added the IPGA Players in 2023 and now another IPGA Professionals Championship.
“The initial goal last week was to make the PGA Professional (national) Championship,’’ said Carroll. “That’s really important to me to qualify each year, and I’ve made it eight years in a row now.’’
The IPGA tourney is a qualifier for the national event, coming up in April in Port St. Lucie, FL. The Illinois section will have 11 players in the next national event there.
For now, though, the challenge is to chase down Svoboda in this year’s last big local event, the IPGA Players. Svoboda, who was the Connecticut PGA Champion last year, had a big year since taking the Butler National job. He qualified for both the PGA Championship and U.S. Open, was runner-up to Medinah’s Travis Johns in the IPGA Match Play tourney and the low IPGA player with a tie for seventh at the Illinois Open.
LIV tourney is next
Chicago gets its third visit from the LIV Golf League next week. The first two visits from the Saudi-backed circuit were played at Rich Harvest, in Sugar Grove. This year’s event will be Sept. 13-15 at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
Bolingbrook gets a more important event than Rich Harvest did. Next week’s stop is the LIV individual championship, which will decide a season-long point race that includes 12 tournaments around the world.
Only Jon Rahm and Joaquin Neimann are still mathematically in contention for the season’s top prize, an $18 million bonus.
Rahm, a former world No. 1, left the PGA Tour for LIV at the start of the season. He didn’t win his first LIV tournament until July and lost in a playoff to Brooks Koepka in the last event two weeks ago. This week he was quick to discredit media reports, stemming from unnamed sources, that he regrets leaving the PGA Tour.
“There is zero validity to that, and I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know why they feel the need to say that some of us are unhappy when we’re not. I’m very comfortable with my decision, very happy with my decision,’’ he told the New York Post. “And, I’m very, very eager for the future of my team and the league.’’
The second induction class in the Illinois Junior Golf Hall of Fame will be enshrined tonight at Cantigny, in Wheaton. As was the case with last year’s first class, this one will be headed by a local golfer who went on to win multiple times on the PGA Tour.
Last year it was Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, who blossomed as a junior player at Cantigny before winning twice on golf’s premier circuit. This year it’s Gary Hallberg. He came out of Barrington to win back-to-back Illinois State Amateur titles in 1978 and 1979, starred collegiately at Wake Forest, captured the Illinois Open as both an amateur (1977) and professional (1982) and then won three tournaments during a solid PGA Tour career.
Hallberg, 65, lives in Colorado now. He was inducted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.
The IJGA Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who contributed to the game in a variety of other ways than playing, and that’s underscored by this year’s class:
The Makray family has hosted the Illinois State Junior Amateur since 2007 at its course in Barrington.
Betty Kaufmann, former coach of the DePaul University men’s team, was an IJGA board member from 1994 to 2015.
Bruce Slovitt, who passed away in 2006, served in a variety of roles on the IJGA board and the Illinois Junior Amateur winner receives the Slovitt Cup in his honor.
Roger Ulseth was the first paid executive director of the IJGA in 1992 and the final tournament of the IJGA season is dubbed “The Rog’’ in his honor.
Kevin Weeks, a renowned teaching professional at Cog Hill in Lemont, has been a particularly ardent supporter of junior golfers. He’s helped 95 of them earn Division I college scholarships since 2000.
A shot for the ages
Timmy Crawford, who starred as an amateur at St. Viator High School and as a collegian at both Loyola and Illinois, is trying to make it in the professional ranks now and had a spectacular start at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Ascendant Championship in Colorado.
Crawford needed to survive a nine-man playoff at a Monday qualifier to get into the field. Then, in the third round of the tournament, he pulled out his driver on the 365-yard third hole in hopes of cutting a dogleg on the par-4. As it turned out, he did more than that.
His shot hit the green, bounced twice and then rolled into the cup for a hole-in-one. It was the fifth par-4 ace in the history of the PGA Tour’s alternate circuit and the first since 2012.
Crawford wound up fifth in that tournament, then played in four more events including last week’s first of the four playoff events in Boise, Idaho, without making another cut.
HERE AND THERE
Two local titles will be decided today (WEDNESDAY, AUG. 28). The Illinois PGA Championship wraps up its three-day run at Elgin Country Club and the inaugural Illinois Super Senior Women’s Open concludes its two-day stint at Pine Meadow, in Mundelein.
Amateurs held the first four places in the men’s Illinois Super Senior Open last week. Dave Esler, of St. Charles, shot 67-71 to win the title by two shots over Algonquin’s Gary Hanson. Ted Pecora, of Winnetka, and John Haffner of Winfield, tied for third. Esler, a course designer, was the tourney’s first amateur winner since Jim Kennedy took back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014.
The University of Illinois men’s schedule was announced this week, with coach Mike Small celebrating the start of his 25th year at the helm with an especially busy September that includes two stops at Chicago area courses. The Illini, who led the 72-hole stroke play portion at last year’s NCAA finals, open with the nationally-televised Folds of Honor event in Michigan Sept. 9-11, then host their Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational Sept. 20-22 and compete in Northwestern’s Windon Memorial at Conway Farms, in Lake Forest, Sept 29-30.
The college golf season isn’t underway yet but, no matter how you slice it, the University of Illinois is already making its presence felt at a variety of levels.
Over the weekend Jackson Buchanan, an Illini senior from Dacula, Ga., advanced to the semifinals of the 124th U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine in Minnesota.
Another match win would have given Buchanan a spot in next spring’s Masters, but Iowa sophomore Noah Kim beat him 2-up before losing the title match to Spain’s Jose Luis Ballester, who plays collegiately at Arizona State. Both finalists qualified for the Masters.
Buchanan was last year’s Big Ten Player of the Year and qualified for this year’s U.S. Open.
Another Illinois-connected player, Brian Campbell, earned his PGA Tour card for the 2025 season. Campbell, another of Illinois coach Mike Small’s stars of the past, assured himself a place in the top 30 on the Korn Ferry Tour standings at season’s end. (He’s No. 10 now, and the top 30 get PGA Tour cards).
Campbell, 31, turned pro in 2015 and earned his card for the 2017 season but couldn’t retain it. He’s been a Korn Ferry player since then.
And, beginning on Monday, Small goes after his 15th title in the Illinois PGA Championship at Elgin Country Club. Small, who took his first title in 2001, won last season at Thunderbird, in Zion. That made him the winningest PGA professional at the section championship level across the PGA of America’s 41 sections nationwide.
Weather hampered last year’s event. It was scheduled for its traditional 54 holes, but had to be cut to 36. This year’s tourney concludes Wednesday and also determines nine qualifiers for next year’s PGA Professional Championship.
It’s Rahm vs. Neimann at Bolingbrook
LIV/Chicago, coming up Sept. 13-15 at Bolingbrook Golf Club, represents that circuit’s individual championship. However, only two players – Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann – are mathematically eligible to win the season-long individual title. It’s determined on a point basis.
Rahm didn’t win Sunday’s last regular season LIV event at West Virginia’s Greenbrier, losing to Brooks Koepka in a playoff, but he did pass Niemann in the point race.
Niemann, who won two of the season’s first three tournaments, led in points all season until Rahm’s strong showing at Greenbrier. Niemann tied for 15th there. Top bonus money will be on the line when they tee off at Bolingbrook.
“I’m probably going to need to win,’’ said Rahm, who has been in the top 10 in 11 of his starts in his first LIV season. “(Niemann) is going to be up there. I’m going to need another good week, and hopefully get it done.’’
The third-place finisher also gets a point race bonus, and five players – Tyrrell Hatton, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Cam Smith and Koepka – still have a chance at getting that consolation prize.
HERE AND THERE: Brien Davis and John Ehrgott teamed up to win the ninth Chicago Distlrict Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Mauh-Nah-Tee-See in Rockford. The CDGA will conduct its 32nd Illinois State Mid-Amateur Monday and Tuesday at Park Ridge Country Club.
Chicago golf community leaders, Paul Voykin and Chris Bona, have passed on. Voykin, who was 93, was a prominent superintendent, spending 47 years at Briarwood in Deerfield. Bona, 59, was head professional at Boulder Ridge, in Lake in the Hills since 2007.
The PGA Tour announced its 2025 schedule with the John Deere Classic, Illinois’ only annual stop on the circuit, keeping its dates of this year – June 30 to July 6 – at TPC Deere Run in Silvis. The BMW Championship, conducted by the Chicago-based Western Golf Association, will be played at Cave’s Valley in Maryland for the second time. Dates are Aug. 11-17.
Whistling Straits, in Kohler, WI, is back on the U.S. Golf Association calendar. The course will host the 2028 U.S. Amateur, the 2033 U.S. Junior Amateur and the 2037 U.S. Girls Junior.
This sign on the Donald Ross Memorial course sums up Boyne’s commitment to its guests. (Joy Sarver Photos)
BOYNE FALLS, Michigan – Having three top golf resorts is somewhat like having three children. How do you decide which one gets taken care of first?
That’s a potential dilemma at Boyne Mountain, The Highlands and Bay Harbor – the three resorts that have a combined 10 golf courses and plenty of other amenities and attractions. Just a few miles apart, they’re all special places with special needs.
So, how does the Boyne group management handle it? It’s all about planning. A 10-year plan was drawn up in the aftermath of the pandemic.
“We have a 10-year plan for every hole on every course at all the resorts,’’ said Ken Griffin, the director of sales and marketing for the resorts. “There are very specific plans for continual upgrades.’’
And it’s been working – though not without an occasional hiccup. The biggest was at The Highlands, where an exciting new par-3 course and putting course were to be installed.
They were almost finished last year, then a super storm hit.
“We only had two holes to go,’’ said Griffin. “Then we got 25 to 30 inches of rain. We had three-four feet of sand ripped out in the first week of November.’’
With a ski lift in the background Doon Brae will be the first golf course that will double as a ski slope in the winter.
Work resumed in the spring but neither the course, dubbed Doon Brae (Scottish for “short walk downhill’’), or the 27-hole putting course have opened to the public yet. The Grand Opening for both has been pushed back to 2025.
Michigan architect Ray Hearn did the design work as part of a series of projects he’s undertaken at the resorts. Each of the nine greens at Doon Brae has a different template, each reflecting a style of green — Ridan, Punch Bowl, Volcano, Postage — played in Scotland.
Just as intriguing is the course’s location.
“It’ll be the only course that we know of where golf is played in the summer and skiing is done in the winter,’’ said Griffin.
Doon Brae will be a walking course, but the walks up the ski hill will be minimal. The longest hole is 136 yards and only two holes require uphill walks. Though pushcarts may be available and carry-bags available, Griffin expects many players will simply carry a few clubs in their rounds.
Despite the weather problems affecting Doon Brae the ongoing upgrades are going on full speed at all three resorts. They don’t just encompass golf course work projects, either. Boyne Mountain received an impressive (and expensive) Skybridge last year, and it’s become a major tourist attraction. Extensive work has begun on the lodge at The Highlands.
Though it can’t be called an upgrade, Boyne has also taken on a new project beginning next year. The Epson Tour, the developmental circuit for the Ladies PGA Tour, will conduct a tournament the next three years on The Heather course at The Highlands. The resorts’ courses haven’t been lacking for players, but pro tour events are another matter.
“We’ve never done a tournament like that,’’ said Griffin. “Pre-Covid we were close to getting the Champions Tour (the PGA’s 50-and-over circuit) but negotiations fell apart.’’
Rain problems and tournaments aside, the beat goes on with new projects at the resorts.
“We’re re-investing at a higher level than I’ve ever seen,’’ said Griffin, who has worked for the resorts for 16 years.
Not only is the lodge at The Highlands being renovated now, it will become the base for an Epson Tour tournament. The LPGA’s development circuit will play on the Heather course in 2025.
HERE’S WHAT’S been happening at each Boyne resort:
BOYNE MOUNTAIN, in Boyne Falls: The oldest of the trio, the Mountain celebrated its 75th anniversary last year and the addition of the Skybridge was a huge project. Hearn also supervised major upgrades on the Alpine and Monument courses there.
The Mountain has only two courses, but that could change one of these days. Legendary architect Pete Dye designed a course for that resort prior to his death in 2020. Center lines were cut, then work ended abruptly because Boyne management preferred to build a water park. It opened in 2004 and is now the largest indoor water park in Michigan. Land for a future Dye course, however, is still available.
“There’s no further design plans for a course, but we know that we have the space for one,’’ said Griffin.
The village at Boyne Mountain is always busy place, day or night.
THE HIGHLANDS, Harbor Springs: The Donald Ross Memorial course here is one project that won’t be completed quickly. Every hole but one is a replica of holes that Ross designed around the world. Hearn has revised Nos. 1, 2, 13, 15 and 16. Work is being done one hole at a time to minimize a reduction in play and No. 9 is being tackled this year, meaning the Ross is temporarily a 17-hole course.
No. 9, a replica of the 14th hole at Scotland’s Royal Dornoch, is the only one of the 18 holes that wasn’t designed by Ross himself.
“But it’s the course where he grew up, where he learned golf,’’ said Griffin. It’s also the course where Ross worked as a golf professional for the first time.
The Ross course is not a project to be taken lightly. The Boyne hierarchy wants each hole to be as accurate as possible. To show how serious the staff takes this project is reflected by the work undertaken on the 15th hole – a replica of No. 11 at Aronimink in Pennysylvania. The original version at The Highlands had five bunkers. Now, after a renovation, it has 22.
“We thought what we had was the original, but it wasn’t,’’ said Griffin, “so we moved it up the line and redid it.’’
The tee shot on No. 18 offers one of several views of Lake Michigan when you play at Crooked Tree.
BAY HARBOR, Petoskey: This resort’s Links/Quarry Course, designed by the late Arthur Hills, is the best revenue producer of the 10 at the three resorts, but Crooked Tree may be a bigger success story there. Hills didn’t design Crooked Tree. Harry Bowers was the original architect, and Boyne purchased the course from the family that built it.
“It’s the only of one of our 10 courses that we didn’t build,’’ said Griffin. “The last three holes (16, 17 and 18) were not good holes, and about 10 years ago Arthur Hills Jr. redesigned them. Ten years ago the lowest number of rounds (on the Boyne courses) were at Crooked Tree. Now, with the Heather and the Hills (Arthur Hills-designed course at The Highlands), Crooked Tree is in our top three.’’
The Inn at Bay Harbor, Autograph Collection, is the youngest of Boyne’s three resorts.
Skybridge Michigan, which opened in 2022, is already a popular tourist attration. (Joy Sarver Photos)
BOYNE FALLS, Michigan — We don’t just play golf on our travel writing trips. While visiting Boyne Mountain in Michigan this week we walked the world’s longest timber-towered suspension bridge — called Skybridge Michigan.
The bridge, which has become a popular tourist attraction at the Boyne Mountain Resort, stretches 1,200 feet in length above the Boyne Valley below. The bridge is 120 feet from the Valley floor. You get to and from it from an historic chairlift. The Hemlock Scenic Chairlift was the first in the United States, installed at Sun Valley, Idaho, in 1938, then transferred to Michigan and rebuilt at Boyne in 1948.
The bridge offers spectacular panoramic views and has glass flooring in the middle to enhance viewing of the Valley floor. Quite an adventure from the chairlift ride up to the walk across the bridge.
Fall is the best season to visit the Skybridge.
“It’s so much about how the valley looks then,’’ said Ken Griffin, director of sales and marketing at the Boyne resorts. He said the bridge could hold 5,000 people but never more than 500 have been on it at one time.
The walk across Skybridge Michigan isn’t scary, and the views are captivating.
No. 18 is considered the signature hole at The Cardinal course at Saint John’s Resort. (Brian Walters Photography)
PLYMOUTH, Michigan – This transformation has been ongoing, and impressive.
Saint John’s started as a seminary in the 1940s. Seminarians designed the first nine holes of the 27-hole Mission Hills course in the early 1970s.
The seminary closed in 1988 and was dormant until 1994 when it re-opened as a retreat center for youth and families. Then, over time, it was converted into a conference center and hotel. With Jerry Matthews joining the design effort the course reached 27 holes in the late 1990s, with the nines given biblical names – Matthew, Mark and Luke.
And now it’s a resort, and a very nice one to boot, with a golf component that sets an impressive tone for the entire development.
The evolution of Saint John’s was a slow one until William Pulte Family Management purchased the facility from the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit in 2021. Then a $50 million transformation began, turning Saint John’s into what it is today – a “humanitarian’’ resort that features a 118-room hotel with three restaurants – all very good, but distinctly different. The Five Steakhouse, the Grotto Wine Bar and Doyle’s Irish Pub all fit perfectly into the resort’s composition.
So does the golf operation – the 18-hole Cardinal course, the seven-hole Little Cardinal short course, the 18-hole two-acre putting course, Carl’s Golfland retail store and a four-season heated Trackman driving range and short game practice area.
June 22 was opening day for The Cardinal, Little Cardinal, putting course and Doyle’s Pub. That underscores the freshness of this revitalized resort. While there’s still some signs of construction the place – barely two months past its latest re-opening — is in full operation now.
No. 14, a par-3 playing anywhere from 98 to 221 yards, is one of the best at The Cardinal. (Joy Sarver Photo)
The Cardinal is the first new public course to open in the Detroit area since Shepherd’s Hollow, in Clarkston, over 20 years ago and the Little Cardinal has become the area’s first short course.
All of it is based on an unusual and interesting humanitarian concept. All profits from the resort operation go to the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit that supports more than 200 humanitarian and educational initiatives both in the Detroit area and around the world.
Ray Hearn, the prolific Michigan-based architect, directed the rebuilding of the golf facilities over what had been the former 27 holes. It was a complete re-do, though some of the 100-year old trees remain.
Hearn’s overall design goal – as stated prominently in his company website — “is to revolutionize the golf industry’’ and he’s done that at Saint John’s.
Though less than a year old The Cardinal, built on 200 acres of undulating terrain, is in excellent condition and is very much a championship layout. It’s a 7,002-yard par-72 with a 73.3 course rating and 137 slope for men and a 79.7 rating and 145 slope for women from the back tees. The rough is thick and challenging, the greens big and tricky.
Saint John’s is a unique resort with a wood carving of its namesake cardinal on the golf course and local artwork throughout the halls of the hotel adding to its charm. (Joy Sarver Photos)
“The land was a perfect setting for me to draw inspiration from previous Donald Ross, Tom Bendelow and Willie Park projects,’’ said Hearn, a stickler for history in golf design. “Our goal was to create a fun golf experience. We’ve achieved that, and then some, with this project.’’
The Little Cardinal, built on seven acres in a parkland setting, has but seven holes and is a walking course. Holes range from 44 to 112 yards but the main feature is the greens. They’re replicas of green templates of the past – Punchbowl, Redan, Sahara, Volcano, Postage, Reverse Redan and Biarritz. An educational explanation of each is provided on plaques at the end of each hole.
Five tee placements are available on each hole of The Cardinal with No. 18 considered the signature hole with a valley cut through the fairway. An argument on that score could also be made for No. 9, with its church pew bunkers.
Church pew bunkers (bottom right) make No. 9 one of The Cardinal’s tougher holes. (Brian Walters Photography)
Though Hearn has developed courses from as far away as Vietnam, Egypt, South Korea, Panama and Croatia, he’s been most prominent in Michigan. His office is in Holland, MI., and he’s handled over 30 projects in his home state. That includes an ongoing renovation project at the three Boyne Resort courses.
That resume in his 28 years as an architect suggests the possibility of a Ray Hearns Golf Trail in Michigan and — if it materializes — Saint John’s will be a major part of it.
Inside the resort, in addition to the restaurants, Saint John’s has a beautiful Catholic Chapel that’s ideal for weddings, ballrooms, colorful local artwork on display in the hallways, 26 separate function rooms and a 24-hour fitness center with perpetual pool and Jacuzzi.
Saint John’s is located between Detroit and Ann Arbor and is a 24-minute ride to the Detroit Metro Airport. For more information check the website www.saintjohnsresort.com.
The Grotto Wine Bar, in the lower level of the hotel, is a most unique dining spot. (Joy Sarver Photos)
The countdown is on for the last big golf tournament of the Chicago season, and Phil Mickelson is ready for it.
LIV Golf/Chicago will play the first of its two season-ending championships at Bolingbrook Golf Club Sept. 13-15. The Saudi-backed circuit played regular season events at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, in its first two campaigns but this year’s event is bigger. It’s LIV’s season individual championship
The only event remaining after LIV/Chicago is the LIV’s team championship. Sept. 20-22 at Maridoe – another new site on the circuit – in Dallas. That’ll conclude LIV’s 14-tournament season.
Mickelson was the first major star to bolt from the PGA Tour to join LIV. He hasn’t been a star on the new circuit but has no regrets about what was then a controversial move.
He’s played in tournaments at all the well-known Chicago tournament courses, but Bolingbrook isn’t one of those.
“We’ve played some venues throughout LIV that are truly world class and cover the gamut, from long and hard to tight and a lot of character,’’ said Mickelson. “We’ve played many (PGA Tour) courses. We’re going to Greenbrier (West Virginia) this week. We’ve played Mayakoba (Mexico). We’re playing Hong Kong , Sentosa, where there have been many tournaments played. There’s also a value to playing a course where the public can play very easily.’’
Bolingbrook, the 23rd course LIV has used in its three seasons, is a public venue. Mickelson didn’t know that the course designer was the late Arthur Hills. That was good news.
“He’s a wonderful architect,’’ said Mickelson. “He’s done some great stuff. He’s very credible as an architect. I’m looking forward to seeing what he came up with.’’
Rich Harvest was well received by the LIV players, but it’s a private club. Mickelson wasn’t a big fan of Cog Hill’s Dubsdread course, another public layout in Lemont that had a long run as host of the Western Open and BMW Championship on the PGA Tour. He’s excited about going to Bolingbrook, however.
As for his own game, the six-time major tournament champion has yet to win on the LIV Tour. At 54 years old, his game may be on the decline. He’s ranked 44th of 56 players on LIV performance this season and the team he captains is 12th of 13.
He has played in all 33 LIV tournaments over the three seasons and has but three top-10 finishes, his best a tie for sixth. One of the others was a tie for eighth at Rich Harvest in 2022.
“If you look at the analytics it’s been my short game that has crushed me the last few years,’’ he said. “It’s been a staple of my game throughout my career, and the last couple years it’s been the reason I’ve not had the results. Finally I’ve had a little turn-around. If my short game is sharp I’m going to be in contention.’’
In the lead-up to LIV’s creation Mickelson was one of its outspoken advocates while also being critical of the PGA Tour.
“For 30-plus years I did everything I could to help build the PGA Tour brand,’’ he said. “I would be brought in to close deals with many CEOs. That was my way of helping to build the PGA Tour at that time. I’m no longer part of that tour. My focus now is to build the HyFlyers team and grow the game globally through LIV Golf.’’
Though negotiations are ongoing, peace between LIV, the PGA Tour and Europe’s DP World Tour doesn’t seem possible in the near future.
“We’re in the middle of a disruption phase,’’ admitted Mickelson, who isn’t participating in the negotiations among tour leaders, “but where we’re going to end up and where we’ll be when this gets sorted through is exponentially better than where we were in the path that we were on.’’
LIV attracted stars like Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka with hefty pay incentives and prize money per event that is more than the PGA and DP World Tour were paying. Standard LIV purses are $25 million for individuals in the 54-hole events and $5 million in the team competition.
Individual champions get $4 million and the team winner divides $3 million. Tourneys have 54 players – 13 four-man teams plus two wild cards. Tournaments have a shotgun start each day and no cuts. All players get a paycheck regardless of where they finish.
The bottom line story at the LIV Individual Championship is the battle between Spain’s Jon Rahm and Colombia’s Joaquin Niemann. They’re the only players mathematically eligible to win the $18 million bonus, to be awarded to the season-long champion after Sunday’s final round at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
