Dow Championship
There’s plenty of synergy this week between the LPGA and PGA Tour, with both tours’ main events taking place about two hours apart in Michigan.
The Rocket Mortgage Classic and Dow Championship will both air on CBS on Sunday, marking the first time a PGA Tour and LPGA event share the same state, same week and same weekend broadcast partner.
Both tournaments also have players competing this week via exemptions from winning the John Shippen Invitational, which has a men’s and women’s tournament. The event was created in 2021 to honor John Shippen Jr., the first Black golf professional in the U.S.
The Dow Championship underwent a significant overhaul from 2023 to this week’s event. In its fifth year, it got a new name, moving on from the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, a new date on the calendar, a mascot for the first time and a new trophy by Tiffany & Co.
Dow Championship
The changes came about as Carlos Padilla II, Dow’s global head of sports partnerships, took over the team event. Padilla was hired in January of 2023 and wanted to use Year 1 to listen, learn and remove any potential roadblocks.
“I didn’t want to do anything or change anything in that first year that I hadn’t experienced myself,” he said.
The tournament has a $3M purse this year, making it one of the highest for a non-major on the LPGA, something Padilla feels gets overlooked.
“We are a top 5 non-major from a purse perspective and I didn’t feel like we were getting that recognition,” he said. “So, the approach moving forward is to market ourselves for who we are.”
As for other changes this week, Padilla expanded hospitality square footage and added more covered seating areas for the general public.
An inclusivity summit earlier in the week featured speakers like Magic Johnson and Klutch Sports’ Nicole Lynn, the agent for LeBron James and Magic Johnson.
The new date this year also puts the Dow the week after the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, as opposed to last year when it was contested in July, the week before another major, the Amundi Evian Championship in France.
“The players would say after such a stressful and intimidating week, coming here and partnering up with one of their friends and having a competitive team event, it’s a welcomed environment,” Padilla said.
The Rocket Mortgage Classic faces a challenge from a scheduling standpoint, coming at the end of a three-week stretch that includes two Signature events and the U.S. Open. The tournament this week includes some big names like Will Zalatoris and Rickie Fowler, but it’s also leaned into a group of budding young stars through its sponsor exemptions.
Neal Shipley, the low amateur at both the U.S. Open and Masters, is playing this week as a professional. As is Miles Russell, a 15-year-old who has already played on the Korn Ferry Tour this year and counts TaylorMade as a sponsor. Other exemptions were given to Luke Clanton, the top-ranked player in the men’s amateur rankings, along with heralded college players Ben James and Jackson Koivun.
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Jason Langwell, who runs the tournament for Intersport, said the strategy goes back to the tournament’s first year in 2019 when players like Viktor Hovland, Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa came onto the scene.
“That class was the beginning of college players just coming out, stepping out and being ready to win,” Langwell said. “Given our date, we’re looking on the back end of the NCAAs and saying let’s make our event one where future stars start.”
Fifteen-year-old Miles Russell is among the young group of sponsor exemptions at the Rocket Mortgage Classicgetty images
Langwell said Rocket Mortgage ticket sales were up year over year, and it broke first-day merchandise sales records, aided by a Fowler-themed giveaway.
Fowler, the defending champion, is a big presence this week. The tournament also has a simulator on site where fans can recreate his shot on the 18th hole last year that won the tournament.
The event also has borrowed from the success of the recent NFL Draft in Detroit. Langwell said there’s visibly more Lions blue on site at Detroit Golf Club, and the event also is collaborating with DE Aidan Hutchinson for a “House of Hutch” that in Langwell’s words has seen merch “flying off the shelves.”
