The PGA TOUR Champions and Ally Financial announced on Tuesday The Ally Challenge which will debut at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc.
The event will happen from Sept. 10-16, 2018, at the same site where the Buick Open was hosted for 45 years until 2009.
The Ally Challenge will have a $2 million purse and the agreement is for three years to start.
“We are very proud to be bringing The Ally Challenge to Warwick Hills next fall, and to be part of the spirit and legacy of PGA TOUR Champions,” Ally Chief Marketing and Public Relations Officer Andrea Riley said in a release.
It becomes the sixth new PGA TOUR Champions event announced in the past 2 1/2 years. Formerly known as the Senior Tour and the PGA Champions Tour, professional golfers age 50 and over play on the tour.
“We are excited to welcome Ally Financial to the PGA TOUR Champions family as we usher in a new era of golf at Warwick Hills,” PGA TOUR Champions President Greg McLaughlin added in the release. “We are aligned with Ally in our goals to give back to this great community while creating a year-round impact through what should quickly become one of our most popular events.”
Warwick Hills was designed in 1957 and has featured winners like Tiger Woods, Billy Casper and current PGA TOUR Champions Fred Couples, Vijay Singh, Hale Irwin and Kenny Perry.
World Golf Hall of Fame Member Mark O'Meara was on hand for the announcement. He made 18 career starts at Warwick Hills and was a runner-up to Woods in 2002.
“It’s incredible to have the opportunity to come back to Grand Blanc, the greater Flint area and Warwick Hills to compete in a PGA TOUR Champions event,” O’Meara, who also owns two PGA TOUR Champions titles, said. “This community was a great host to PGA TOUR players for a number of years, and we received tremendous support from the fans throughout the years.”
It will be one of the regular season events on the way to the third-annual Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, which is the three-tournament series which determines the tour champion.
