Last thoughts about the Island Resort Intercollegiate and College Golf

During Labor Day Weekend I traveled from golf blogger Northern Headquarters to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to see the island of Resort Intercollegiate.

I had never been to a university tournament and the fact that my Alma Mater, West Virginia would be there, made it a perfect opportunity. I chose the perfect weekend because West Virginia won the Island Resort Intercollegiate on record fashion.

This kind of college golf tournament is a different animal than PGA Tour, LPGA and USGA events that I have attended. After 54 holes, the score of each team is based on the four best individual versions between the five starters of the team. A general individual champion is also awarded.

To illustrate, if the four lowest scores of a team -10, -8, e and +1 are, the team score -17 is.

Other players can also compete as individuals. West Virginia, for example, had five starters and one player who competed as an individual. Michigan State played three as individuals.

Here you can see where Liv got the idea for the format. As the NCAA has been doing for years, LIV has team and individual victories. The NCAA Golf Championship has both match and impact game. This year’s LIV Golf Team Championship in Michigan had competition and stroke game.

The 54-hole format that LIV uses is also the format used by College Golf. At the Island Resort Intercollegiate, 36 holes were played on Sunday and 18 on Monday.

I have read that some university tournaments use a Shotgun start to ensure that all groups end. That was not the case with the Island Resort Intercollegiate. The players went instead of the front and rear nines. The first groups got away at 7 o’clock and everyone finished their thirty -six times on dinner.

The players held However, use carts. That was logical at Sage Run, which has a number of really steep pieces while playing a drum line, over and down. I could definitely walk 18 on Sage Run. Thirty -six is completely a different story.

Maybe Liv can also ride carts. They could have carts with a team theme like the ladies at a Lid Guest (this is not a bit against the ladies; more power for them; I have never seen the boys decorate their carts at member guids).

Teams in the Island Resort Intercollegiate were Ball State, Miami from Ohio, Illinois State, Utep, South Dakota State, Nebraska, Michigan State, Michigan, University of Central Florida, St. Mary’s (CA), Purdue and West Virginia.

South Dakota State was the guest school, which seemed strange to me because it is twelve hours from their campus to the island resort and casino. They explained that they launched the tournament there because a former coach had a connection with the resort.

They have noticed that too Island resort and casinoThe general manager Tony Mancilla and all staff were extremely generous in supporting the tournament.

Each team ended in negative figures. West Virginia won at -55, followed by Purdue at -49 and Michigan at -42.

Those were record break numbers everywhere.

Sage Run is not as “simple” as the Scorecards 2025 suggest. Those figures were conveniently overshadowed the five previous winning scores. The average winning score before this year was -16. Nine of the twelve teams at this year’s tournament were better than that.

In 2019, James Piot won the individual title on 9-below in 2019. In 2015, individual champion Ryan Leach was -17. (Aside, Piot recently set a course record of 61 in Washtenaw Golf Club, my home course).

Absis perfect weather probably had something to do with the low scores. The sky was still, the humidity was low and the temperatures were in the 1970s. Sage Run was also in pristine condition.

This is to take absolutely nothing from the players. I was very impressed by the level of talent that was shown. Players were bombing, greens hit regulations and made good putts.

It wasn’t the PGA Tour. As a whole, the college players are not that long and their short games are not that sharp. But it was still nice to look at.

There were few specials next to the families of the players. That is not surprising. Michigan’s upper peninsula is sparsely populated. The nearest city of any size is Escanaba, population 12, 450. The entire county of almost 2,000 square miles has a population of 36, 903.

That said, I did have nice chats with some of the locals who came out to see the competition. A few gave me suggestions for local courses to play during a return trip to the up.

If there is a university wave tournament in your area and you love golf, I strongly recommend that you go up for a day. Even in the era of De Zero there is just something refreshing differently at university athletics – especially in the “non -income” sports.

You can see a list of Potential tournaments to be present at this link.