Dow Championship Set to Return to Midland Country Club with Big Names and Big Plans
By Elle Chavis
With the Dow Championship less than 20 days away, the tournament held its annual Media Day at the Arnold Center. One thing is for certain Midland, Michigan, and the Great Lakes Bay Region are already ready to welcome the only official team event on the LPGA Tour event back to town.
Though the event has moved its dates up two weeks to June 8-14, the community is just as prepared to welcome world-class golfers, guests and friends to Midland Country Club for the seventh iteration of the tournament.
At Media Day on Tuesday, Tournament Director Wendy Traschen emphasized not just the world-class golf spectators can look forward to, but also the community partnerships fostered by the tournament. With representatives from the Arnold Center—where the Media Day was held—Arnold Farms and the Good Kitchen sat on stage alongside Traschen and Executive Director Carlos Padilla II, the event began first by recapping the work that the charitable organizations perform.
“One of the big things we do in this region is give back,” Traschen said.
For those who call Midland and the surrounding areas home year-round, a culture of service and charitable works is what make the place special, and it’s something the tournament itself leans into.
Since its debut in 2019, the Dow Championship had become a cherished part of the Great Lakes Bay Area community, driving economic growth, community engagement, charitable giveback, and sustainability efforts throughout the region.
“Today is about honoring the past while reinforcing the past of the Dow Championship,” Padilla II said.
That mixture of the old and the new was a throughline throughout Media Day. Spectators and volunteers have a new parking location—the Fairgrounds—to look forward to. With the date change, for the first time, the Dow Championship will overlap with the 40th annual Greater Midland Dow Run Walk, which will take place Saturday, June 6, 2026, a few days before the tournament is set to begin.
Additionally, Traschen revealed four of the 72 teams that will compete for a share of the $3.3 million purse at the tournament in early June headlined by defending champions Somi Lee and Jin Hee Im, and World No. 1 Nelly Korda along with her partner Olivia Cowan. Previous teammates Lydia Ko and Danielle Kang and UCLA alumni Alison Lee and Lilia Vu round out the early team commitments announced at media day. More team commitments will be announced in the coming weeks leading into tournament week.
