The Ally Challenge: 2026 Dates, Tickets, Field and Winners

By Marcel Hambálek · Senior Trader, For Traders

The Ally Challenge is a 54-hole, no-cut PGA TOUR Champions tournament played at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan, title-sponsored by Ally Financial. The 2026 edition follows the same late-summer slot the event has held since 2017, with a Monday qualifier and pro-am ahead of three tournament rounds and a field of roughly 78 professionals aged 50 and over.

Key takeaways

• The Ally Challenge is a PGA TOUR Champions event at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan — 54 holes, no cut, every player who tees off Friday plays all three rounds.
• Players get into the field four ways: career and category exemptions, the prior-season money list, sponsor exemptions, and the Monday qualifier.
• The Monday qualifier is open to eligible professionals and top amateurs aged 50+, usually awards a handful of spots, and is the quietest and cheapest day to watch.
• Warwick Hills hosted the Buick Open from 1958 to 2009, which is why leaderboards here run deep into red figures.
• Grounds passes start in the low double digits, with weekly badges, concert add-ons and hospitality priced above them; juniors and active military typically enter free.
• The Ally Challenge is a golf tournament — it has nothing to do with Ally Invest products or a prop firm trading challenge, which is a separate evaluation on simulated capital.

Watch: related video

What is the Ally Challenge?

If you're asking what is the Ally Challenge, the short answer: it's a PGA TOUR Champions stop for professionals age 50 and over, contested over 54 holes of stroke play with no cut, played every year at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Think of it as a compressed, three-day version of a regular TOUR event — same discipline, same leaderboard pressure, just one fewer round and none of the Friday-night cut drama.

Who runs the tournament and who sponsors it

The event sits on the PGA TOUR Champions schedule, the circuit built for players once they age off the main TOUR, and it's title-sponsored by Ally Financial — hence the name. Ally's backing has kept this an Ally Financial golf tournament since it replaced the old sponsor era, and the branding is everywhere on-site: from the grandstands to the leaderboard skins. It's run with the same TOUR-level rules officials, scoring systems and volunteer infrastructure you'd see at any PGA TOUR Champions stop, just scaled to a smaller, tighter footprint.

54-hole no-cut format explained

No cut means exactly what it sounds like: every player who tees off Friday is still teeing off Sunday. There's no Friday-evening scramble to survive into the weekend — the full field of roughly 78 pros plays all three rounds, and the 54-hole no-cut stroke play format simply totals the three scores to crown a winner. Practically, that means the gallery on Sunday still sees every name from the Friday pairing sheet, journeymen and legends alike, and nobody's week ends early on a bad opening 76.

The Buick Open heritage at Warwick Hills

Warwick Hills isn't a rental venue — it's steeped in TOUR history. The par-72 layout hosted the Buick Open from 1958 through 2009, a fixture on the regular PGA TOUR for over five decades before General Motors pulled sponsorship. The greens are soft and receptive, the fairways generous by modern standards, and it plays firmly in the pros' favor: winning scores here routinely land in the mid-teens under par, a nod to the same low-scoring conditions that made the Buick Open a birdie-fest for generations of TOUR pros before the Ally Challenge inherited the course.

When is the Ally Challenge 2026 and what is the full week schedule?

The Ally Challenge 2026 runs in its usual late-August window at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club, following the same Monday-qualifier-through-Sunday-final structure the tournament has used every year since it moved into this slot on the PGA TOUR Champions calendar in 2017. Exact 2026 dates and tee times should be confirmed on the official PGA TOUR Champions schedule page, since tournament weeks can shift by a few days year to year depending on the broader Champions calendar.

Day-by-day schedule table

Here's the typical shape of Ally Challenge week — use this as your planning template, then verify specifics once the 2026 dates post.

Note the Ally Challenge is a 54-hole, no-cut event, so Saturday — not Sunday — is usually the final round. That's a scheduling quirk worth double-checking if you're planning travel around "when is the Ally Challenge 2026" specifically for the trophy presentation.

Gate times, tee times and where to check for changes

Ally Challenge tee times are published the evening before each round, not weeks in advance — the field's pairing groups depend on the previous day's scores and TV broadcast windows, so plan your arrival around the published gate time, then check tee times again the night before. The tournament's official site and the PGA TOUR Champions app are the two reliable sources; local Flint/Grand Blanc media also mirror the sheet once it drops. If you're building a "PGA TOUR Champions this week" viewing plan around Ally Challenge, bookmark the official schedule page rather than relying on last year's start times, since gate opening can move earlier on final-round Saturday to handle bigger galleries.

Pro-am days and what fans can actually see

Wednesday's pro-am is the most fan-friendly day of the week if your priority is proximity, not competitive golf. Amateur partners — often local business figures, sponsors, or contest winners — play alongside the pros at a noticeably slower pace, which means more time standing near tee boxes and greens, more natural breaks for autographs, and a looser atmosphere overall than tournament rounds. It's not the day to watch tight leaderboard golf, but it's the best day to get a signed hat or a photo with a player you've followed for years.

Who is in the Ally Challenge 2026 field?

The Ally Challenge 2026 field runs about 78 players, all age 50 and over, and it's assembled through four distinct entry routes rather than a single ranking. If you're trying to guess who'll be teeing it up at Warwick Hills, understanding those four paths tells you more than any early "predicted field" article will.

The four ways players get into the field

• Career and category exemptions — major champions, guys with multiple PGA TOUR win exemptions, and past Ally Challenge or other Champions winners get automatic entry.
• Charles Schwab Cup money list — standing on the prior season's money list locks in a spot, which is how the tour's steadiest performers keep showing up year after year.
• Sponsor exemption — the tournament itself hands out a handful of spots, often to a Michigan native, a recognizable name coming back from injury, or someone the crowd will pay to see.
• Monday qualifier — a small number of open spots go to whoever plays best in the local qualifying round two days before the pro-am.

Typical field size and how it is structured

Across most editions the ally challenge 2026 field settles at roughly 78 players once all four categories are filled — a number that lines up with the standard PGA TOUR Champions field for a 54-hole, no-cut event. That size holds fairly steady from year to year; what changes is the mix inside it. Some seasons lean heavier on major champions, others on Schwab Cup grinders who need points late in the year.

The names Michigan galleries turn out for

Ally Challenge crowds tend to respond to three types of players: Champions-era headliners with major titles on their résumé, pros with a genuine Michigan connection who get a hometown ovation walking to the first tee, and the newest 50-year-old rookies who just aged onto the tour and are still figuring out senior golf in real time. That blend is part of why the ally challenge field has stayed a draw at Warwick Hills since 2017 — it's rarely just one big name, it's a rotating cast worth walking nine holes to see.

Where the official field list is published

Any ally challenge 2026 players list you see more than two weeks out is provisional — sponsor exemptions and late commitments keep shifting it, and the Monday qualifier result swaps in the final names just days before round one. For the list that actually holds, go to the tournament's official site or the PGA TOUR Champions field page directly rather than trusting a reprinted roster that's already gone stale by the time you read it.

How does the Ally Challenge Monday qualifier work?

The Ally Challenge Monday qualifier is a one-round, 18-hole shootout played the Monday of tournament week, and it's how a handful of outsiders punch their way into a field otherwise built from career money lists and sponsor exemptions. No cut line drama, no cushion — you post your number that day or you're driving home.

Who can enter and what it costs

The open qualifier is exactly that: open. Any professional or eligible amateur who has turned 50 can enter, provided they meet the standard eligibility bar set through PGA TOUR Champions qualifying and pay the entry fee attached to that year's Q-School and qualifying administration. This isn't a closed invite list — it's the same democratic entry point that's put club pros and journeyman veterans into PGA TOUR Champions fields for years. The catch is timing: pre-registration closes well before tournament week, so a walk-up entry isn't happening. If you're a 50-and-over pro thinking about it, treat the deadline as fixed and confirm it directly through the official qualifying entry portal rather than a secondhand date.

How many spots are available

Spots are scarce by design. A typical Monday qualifier at an Ally Challenge-type event on PGA TOUR Champions hands out only a small handful of spots into the field — often just two or three, occasionally more depending on how many exemption and commitment slots are already filled that week. With dozens of entrants chasing single-digit openings, the math alone tells you why this is the toughest 18 holes of anyone's week, harder in some ways than the tournament itself because there's no cushion for a bad number on one bad hole.

Why Monday is the best-value day to watch

When the scores are tight — and they usually are — ties for the last spot get settled with an 18-hole qualifier playoff, sudden death, hole by hole, until someone's in and someone's packing up. It's often the rawest golf you'll see at Warwick Hills all week: no leaderboard cushion, no TV package, just a handful of players playing for their tournament week in real time.

For spectators, Monday is the sleeper day of Ally Challenge week. Admission is frequently free or priced well below tournament-round tickets, crowds are thin to nonexistent, ropes are often down or nonexistent in stretches, and you get full access to the practice range where the same players you'll watch compete for real money later in the week are working out swing issues in front of almost nobody. If you want proximity to the game without the tournament-day logistics, the qualifier round is the value play — just confirm the site and start times against the official qualifying entry portal, since Monday scheduling can shift closer to tournament week.

Who won the Ally Challenge 2026, and who are the past winners?

If the 2026 edition has finished, the champion is decided by 54 holes of stroke play at Warwick Hills — no cut, no playoff format quirks, just the lowest cumulative score across Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you're reading this before Sunday's final groups have finished, don't trust a cached answer: check the PGA TOUR Champions leaderboard directly, since scores can shift fast in the final round on a course this scoreable.

The 2026 result

Once the trophy is handed out, this section will carry the confirmed 2026 champion, winning score and margin of victory. Warwick Hills has a track record of producing low, birdie-heavy finishes — recent winning totals have sat in the -15 to -19 range for 54 holes — so expect a similar number rather than a grind-it-out major-style score.

Past winners at Warwick Hills, year by year

The Ally Challenge has been played at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club every year since its 2017 debut, with a gap only for the 2020 event that was cancelled tour-wide. The table below tracks champion, winning score and margin — useful if you're trying to read what kind of score wins here before you set expectations for 2026.

Cross-check the older entries against the official PGA TOUR Champions tournament archive before you cite a specific score — historical records occasionally get revised for weather-shortened rounds, and Ally Challenge past winners lists on third-party sites don't always flag that.

Purse, prize money and Charles Schwab Cup points

The Ally Challenge purse sits in the same band as most standard-field PGA TOUR Champions events, historically around $2.2 million, with the champion typically banking roughly 15% of the total fund — call it $300,000-plus depending on the year's exact allocation. Purse levels are reviewed annually by the tour and title sponsor, so treat any fixed dollar figure as a snapshot rather than a guarantee for 2026.

Just as important for the standings watchers: the winner picks up a meaningful chunk of Charles Schwab Cup points, the season-long race that determines bonus money and playoff seeding heading into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. A win at Warwick Hills in late summer isn't just a paycheck — for players on the bubble, it's often the result that locks in a playoff spot.

Ally Challenge 2026 tickets: tiers, prices and the concert

Ally Challenge tickets break into four practical buckets: single-day grounds passes, weekly badges, hospitality upgrades, and a separate add-on for the concert. The cheapest way onto the course at Warwick Hills is a daily grounds pass in the low double digits; the priciest hospitality packages run into three figures per person once food and drink are included.

Ticket tier comparison table

Concert ticket prices and what is bundled

The concert that closes out tournament week is almost never sold as a standalone ticket — you're generally buying same-day grounds access bundled with concert admission, which is why the ally challenge 2026 concert tickets price sits a notch above a plain grounds pass rather than matching a typical arena show. Official sales run through the tournament's own site and Ticketmaster, and that's the route worth using first: face-value bundles disappear fast once the headliner is announced, and resale listings for concert night routinely run two to three times face value once the primary allocation sells out. If you only care about golf and not the concert, buy the grounds pass or weekly badge directly and skip the bundle entirely — you'll pay less and still get the full tournament experience.

Free entry for juniors and military

Juniors typically get in free when accompanied by a ticketed adult — no separate junior ticket to buy, just bring them along on your grounds pass or weekly badge. Active-duty military and veterans usually get complimentary grounds access with valid military ID, a policy consistent with most PGA TOUR Champions stops. Neither policy is guaranteed to carry over unchanged for 2026, so confirm current terms on the official Ally Challenge ticket page before you plan a group trip around them.

Getting to Warwick Hills: travel, parking and where to stand

Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club sits at 3540 Warwick Road, Grand Blanc, Michigan, just off I-75 south of Flint — about an hour from downtown Detroit, and comfortably under two hours from Lansing or Ann Arbor. There's no on-site public parking at the club itself, so every plan for the Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Michigan starts with knowing the satellite-lot system before you leave the house.

Driving from Detroit, Lansing and Ann Arbor

From metro Detroit, the drive is almost entirely I-75 north — exit at Grand Blanc Road or Baldwin Road depending on which satellite lot you've been assigned, and follow the tournament signage rather than your GPS's idea of the "fastest route" to the actual clubhouse address, since that route won't account for lot access. From Lansing, you're looking at I-96 to US-23 to I-75, roughly 70-80 minutes outside rush hour. Ann Arbor is similar territory, straight up US-23 to the I-75 interchange. Build in extra time on Saturday specifically — that's when local traffic, weekend errands and tournament traffic collide hardest around the Grand Blanc exits.

Flying into Bishop International Airport

If you're flying in, Bishop International Airport (FNT) in Flint is your best bet — it's roughly 15 minutes from Warwick Hills, making it the closest commercial airport to the course by a wide margin. Detroit Metro (DTW) has more flight options and lower fares most weeks, but factor in an hour-plus drive north on I-75 once you land, longer if you're arriving during evening rush. For a quick day trip or a tight schedule around tee times, Bishop wins on convenience even if the flight itself costs a bit more.

Satellite lots, shuttles and gate strategy

Nearly everyone arrives at the Ally Challenge via satellite parking and a shuttle bus — there's no walk-up parking at the gate. Lots typically open early and fill fastest on Saturday morning, when the weekend crowd overlaps with the tournament's biggest galleries; if you're aiming for a marquee pairing, arrive at least 45-60 minutes before shuttles start running to avoid a long queue. Shuttles run continuously to the main entrance throughout the day, and accessible parking is available closer to the gate with a valid placard — check in at the accessible lot attendant rather than trying to self-direct, since spots are limited and monitored.

Best holes to stake out

The par-5s are where the roars come from — Warwick Hills' reachable-in-two holes draw the biggest galleries and the loudest eagle celebrations, so stake out a spot early if you want a seat in the ropes. The closing stretch on the back nine is prime real estate late in the round when the leaderboard tightens. But if your goal is simply seeing the whole field, spend your first hour at the practice range before the day's groups head out — it's the one spot where you'll watch nearly all 78 players warm up within arm's reach, no shuttle timing required.

How to watch the Ally Challenge 2026 on TV and streaming

Golf Channel is the broadcast home for the Ally Challenge, with weekend windows typically running in the afternoon Eastern time and a same-night replay for anyone who misses the live window. That's the standard setup for PGA TOUR Champions this week and every week — Golf Channel coverage anchors the domestic broadcast, and the tournament weekend (Saturday and Sunday of the three-round event) gets the featured slots.

Golf Channel broadcast windows

Expect coverage to start mid-afternoon Eastern and run a few hours, which usually lines up with the leaders making their turn on the back nine — the same closing stretch where the leaderboard tends to tighten. Times shift slightly week to week depending on the tour's broadcast calendar, so don't lock in a viewing plan until you check the listings the week of play. A quick search of the Golf Channel schedule or the tournament's own site the Monday before Ally Challenge week will give you exact start times.

Streaming and international options

If you're cutting the cord, NBC's streaming platform carries Golf Channel programming with a cable-provider login, which covers most US viewers who want an Ally Challenge live stream without a traditional TV package. Outside the US, PGA TOUR Champions events are picked up by regional rights holders — coverage varies by country, so check your local sports broadcaster or the PGA TOUR's international broadcast page rather than assuming NBC's feed is available. This patchwork is standard for PGA TOUR Champions this week and most weeks on the senior circuit, not unique to this event.

Following live scoring and tee times

If TV coverage doesn't start for another few hours and you want to know who's leading right now, skip the broadcast search entirely. The PGA TOUR Champions app and website carry a free live leaderboard with hole-by-hole scoring updated in near real time, plus next-day tee times posted as soon as they're finalized. It's the fastest way to track the field of roughly 78 players across all three rounds — no login, no cable package, just the scores. Bookmark it for early rounds when Golf Channel coverage hasn't kicked in yet, and keep it open during the broadcast window for the hole-by-hole detail TV cuts away from.

Ally Challenge vs Ally Invest vs a trading challenge: clearing up the confusion

The Ally Challenge is a PGA TOUR Champions golf tournament sponsored by Ally Financial. Ally Invest is a separate consumer brokerage product from the same parent company with no tournament-linked contest attached. A prop trading challenge is something else entirely — an evaluation where a trader trades simulated capital against a profit target, a daily loss limit, and a max drawdown to earn a funded account. If you searched "Ally Challenge" hoping to find a trading competition, you're not wrong to be confused — the naming overlap is real, and you're not the only one who's landed on this page looking for scoring on one search and evaluation rules on the next.

Three different things with similar names

What a prop trading challenge actually is

A prop trading evaluation puts you on simulated capital — not your own money, not a live brokerage account — and checks whether you can hit a profit target while respecting a daily loss limit and an overall max drawdown. Clear the phases and you move to a funded account, where results from simulated trading convert into performance rewards paid out to you. It's a skills test with rules, not a golf leaderboard and not an Ally Invest product. The honest part: most traders who start an evaluation don't finish it. Passing comes down to risk control more than prediction — sizing down, respecting the daily loss limit before it respects you, and not swinging for a target in the last three days of a phase.

Where to go if that is what you were looking for

If a prop trading evaluation is actually what brought you here, the For Traders Trading Challenge lays out the phases, targets, and drawdown rules in plain numbers, and Instant Funding covers the single-step route for traders who'd rather skip a multi-phase evaluation. Worth saying plainly: For Traders is an educational prop trading platform, not a broker — you're not opening a brokerage account or trading live markets during the challenge, you're being evaluated on simulated capital. No hard sell here, just the two pages that answer the question you may have actually typed into Google.

Frequently Asked Questions