About the Course

The Cardinal at Saint John’s, Michigan

Some courses become legendary over time. It takes years of intense competition, nerveless putts and clutch play-offs for them to earn their greatness.

And other courses? They’re just built that way. Right away. The Cardinal at Saint John’s is most definitely one of them. Framed by centuries-old trees and practically flooded with shimmering lakes, this brand-new course in the Detroit suburb of Plymouth is championship by design.

This year, the Cardinal gets its first truly global event when it hosts the LIV Golf Team Championship decider. Let's take a closer look.

What happened before we got here?

Well, the Cardinal itself only opened last June, but the wider resort goes all the way back to the 1940s, when a Catholic seminary was built on the land.

The seminary eventually closed down, but the Archdiocese of Detroit rebranded the property as a high-end hotel. A golf course was built in 1979, and quickly became a favorite of Michigan’s amateur golfers.

Then, in 2021, the Archdiocese donated the property to the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation, which set about a huge revamp. The central pillar of this revamp was a brand-new golf course, designed to host the cream of the professional game as well as local enthusiasts.

The Pulte Family engaged famed architect Raymond Hearn to oversee the new course. Hearn is an expert in renovation projects, and he and his team used all their experience to remodel St John’s. The ancient woodland has been lovingly preserved, while a host of brand-new features have been added, drawing on St Andrews and other world-famous golf venues.

Since opening last summer, the Cardinal has already been nominated for a USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Award for Best Public Golf Course, and the wider Pulte project has received widespread praise: 100% of the profits from Saint John’s are donated to local and international charities.

How will it play?

Hearn is a great innovator, and he’s given the course a real Golden Age look and feel, with subtle traps that play tricks with your eye and sucker you into mistakes. Take the Willie Park Jr.-style bunkers, which actually lie short of the green but seem to be part of the green itself when viewed from your approach shot. Concentration and risk-reward management will be crucial here.

That said, there are scoring opportunities all over the course. Generous fairways, bump and run avenues… the Cardinal is going to play tough, but it’ll play fair too.

Who will it favor?

The course is relatively short - it spans just over 7,000 yards in all - so it doesn’t look like a bomb-and-gouge track. Rather, it looks the kind of course you’ve got to work your way round, thinking carefully about your lay-ups and exploiting those vital bump-and-runs.

But really, every player is stepping into the unknown here. And you’ve got the extra dynamics of the Team Championship, with the pressure of eliminator golf and the added drama of match-play, which turns every hole into a win-or-lose.

At last year’s Team Championship it was Ripper GC, with their amazing short game, who came out on top. Who will handle the pressure (and the August heat) this time? The answer could go a long way to deciding the destiny of the title.

How can I be there?

Tickets to the Team Championship decider go on sale soon, with a whole range of packages to choose from. Stay tuned!