Epson Tour Announces New Tournament Addition for the 2025 Season

Epson Tour Announces New Tournament Addition for the 2025 Season - BOYNE Golf

New event in Michigan expands and elevates the Midwest stretch

By Brian Weis

The Epson Tour announced today a new tournament coming to the 2025 schedule, the Great Lakes Championship at The Highlands. The inaugural event will be held from June 9-15, 2025, at The Highlands located in Harbor Springs, Mich.

"We're excited to announce the addition of a new event in Michigan next year. The Petoskey Area is well known as a tremendous golf market, and I know our athletes will be excited to visit the community and take on the challenges that The Heather at The Highlands will offer," said Jody Brothers, the Epson Tour's Chief Business and Operating Officer. "With the help from the Great Lakes Sports Commission and the BOYNE Golf, we're confident that this event will instantly become an athlete favorite and help prepare them for their ultimate goal of playing on the LPGA Tour."

The Great Lakes Championship at The Highlands will offer a $250,000 purse and a $37,500 winner's check. This new event in Harbor Springs will mark the third Epson Tour event in Michigan - joining the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, and the Island Resort Championship in Harris - and will also showcase the beauty of Michigan golf while testing the Epson Tour athletes with a Tour-worthy track. This expansion of the Midwest stretch continues the Tour's efforts in creating regional clusters of events to simplify travel experiences for players each week.

"Bringing the Epson Tour to The Heather Golf Course at The Highlands at Harbor Springs will have a big impact on the Petoskey area and the northern Michigan region," said Executive Director, Eric Marvin. "The expansion of the Tour's Michigan stretch will not only showcase the unparalleled beauty and unique charm of northern Michigan but also promises to create significant economic impact and international exposure. We are confident that adding another high-profile Epson Tour event will enhance our reputation as a premier destination for golf and we look forward to welcoming the world's top women's golfers to northern Michigan in 2025."

"We are excited and honored to host the Epson Tour's Great Lakes Championship at The Highlands," said Mike Chumbler, president and general manager of The Highlands. "Hosting this prominent event underscores our commitment to golf and further highlights northern Michigan as a premier destination for exceptional golf. The beauty of northern Michigan, coupled with the high level of competition the Epson Tour offers, will make this a memorable event for players and spectators alike."

Additional details will be provided when the 2025 schedule is released later this year.

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Revised: 07/02/2024 - Article Viewed 1,797 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.