Friday At LIV Golf Michigan

Friday At LIV Golf Michigan

This weekend, there are two competing professional golf tournaments in Michigan: the PGAT Champions Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills in Grand Blanc and LIV Golf Michigan at The Cardinal in Plymouth.

Interestingly, both are three-round affairs.

I decided to attend the LIV Golf tournament, as I have previously been to the Ally Challenge. There’s a lot of buzz about LIV — both negative and positive — so I wanted to experience it myself.

LIV Golf Michigan is the tour’s Team Championship — the final event of a 14-tournament season. As with the others, it is a three-round, shotgun start format. Unlike the others, however, it’s match play.

I love match play.

LIV has thirteen teams, so on the previous Wednesday, the 12th and 13th ranked teams held a single elimination match play. The Majesticks and Iron Heads were in those spots; The Majesticks made it through.

In the Friday matches, each team contest consisted of two singles matches and one alternate-shot (foursomes) match, with a total of three points available. The winner of each match was the first team to two points.

On Saturday, the six winning teams advanced to the Championship Bracket, while the six losing teams continue to play in the Rankings Bracket. The format remains the same.

Sunday’s rounds are stroke play, with each team’s score coming from all four players scores on th team.

Teams earn final positions based on their finishes in the respective tiers.

• 1st-3rd – Championship Bracket Finalists
• 4th-6th – Losing teams from the Championship Bracket Semifinals
• 7th-9th – Winning teams from the Rankings Bracket
• 10th-12th – Losing teams from the Rankings Bracket

The team with the lowest total score in the Championship Bracket is the 2025 LIV Golf team champion.

I think the PGA TOUR should take notes on this. The rap on match play for the PGA Tour has been that the most popular players would not be playing on the weekend. LIV Golf’s format ensures that all 48 are still playing at the end. I’m not sure I like the sudden switch to stroke play, though. It seems to me that the losers could just continue to play as teams for final positions.

As a “fan,” the experience at LIV Golf is notably different from a PGAT event.

I put the word “fan” in quotes because I’m technically at the event as a member of the media. I do not intend to spend a lot of time covering the scores, though. There are more than enough outlets reporting on scores, shots and player quotes. I’m more interested in communicating in some fashion what it feels like to be a paying spectator.

The first thing I noticed — even before entering the gates — is that it is noisy. LIV has it right when it says “Golf But Louder.” Speakers are everywhere and all are playing a sort of (to my ears) inoffensive pop rock. I didn’t recognize any of the bands, but I’m old. Younger folk probably know them.

I also noted that the signage on the course was better than other tournaments I’ve attended. I was never at a loss for directions. There are signs with QR Codes for maps and the LIV scoring app.

Humorously, there were a lot of signs that said “FORE!” and instructed spectators that if they heard the call to cover their heads.

Or perhaps that’s not humorous. It may be true that LIV Golf might be more likely to attract people who have little experience with golf or golf tournaments.

Many of the PGAT, LPGA and USGA tournaments I’ve attended have had “fan experience” areas with food, drink, games and other ancillary activities. The Rocket Mortgage tournament I attended had a very nice one, with lots of canopy tents representing local businesses that were offering exhibits or activities.

LIV’s “Fan Village” also was impressive, but leaned into the activities. Among the offerings were putting areas, a “seated soccer” table, basketball, and a dunk tank.

Elsewhere, there was a “Family Fairway” section, with activities for the tykes. Next to an ice cream truck, of course.

As with other tournaments I’ve attended, the Cardinal has a confluence of tee boxes, greens and grandstands that attracted the most fans. In this case, it’s the central area near the first, fourth, fourteenth and seventeenth green, and the second, eighth and sixteenth tee boxes. They’re all in orbit around the halfway house.

The biggest and most rowdy point was the Birdie Shack grandstands and food venue around the par 3 fifteenth (normally the eighth; the course has been rerouted for the competition). The Birdie Shack is an up-priced ticket, however, and is sold out.

Away from that core area, as you might expect, crowds were much more sparse. Some groups, such as the Mickelson group, attracted larger crowds, but I never found it more than one fan deep.

I don’t think that LIV Michigan on Friday was as well attended as any of the PGAT events I have covered. I’d put it more on a par with an LPGA event. Outside of the core areas at PGAT events, premier groups usually are two to three deep with fans round the tee boxes and greens. To get good photos, I’ve had to go inside the ropes with my media pass. That wasn’t the case at LIV Michigan on Friday. I was always able to get right up to the ropes outside of the central district.

That is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing for fans who want to get close to the action. It likely is a curse for tournament organizers who would like to have more paying patrons.

I do not think we will ever get accurate daily attendance figures for LIV Michigan, any more than we get accurate attendance figures from PGAT events.

The Cardinal was immaculate, with perfectly smooth greens, pristine fairways and thick, four inch rough. I had a chat with course architect Ray Hearn, who said that a course superintendent can make or break an architect’s design. He had nothing but praise for the Cardinal’s grounds crew.

It is a very pretty course, and well-suited to hosting a high level tournament, with plenty of space betwen holes for grandstands and other venues. I asked Hearn about that, and he said that leaving such space betwen holes was indeed a consideration in the design.

The spaciousness of the Cardinal (18 holes over terrain once occupied by 27) let LIV space its amenities to avoid long lines. The tournament map shows eleven restroom areas and five food and beverage collections.

Refreshments were expensive, though. A Michelob Ultra or Guiness were $13. That’s MLB ballpark prices.

As with ballparks, there actually were roving drink vendors.

And speaking of expensive, items in the merch tent were priced at a premium with $150 polos and so forth. Still, if you are a Range Goats superfan, I suppose you’d be willing to take out a second mortgage to get some of their branded merch.

I am very much interested in seeing how Saturday shapes up. I think it likely that the crowds will be larger, as it is a weekend. There also is the added attraction of an Imagine Dragons concert after the competition.

I’ll have more tomorrow.