Golf’s fastest-growing sector is women. The lush fairways and greens in “Pure Michigan” have served as a significant stage this summer, luring high-performance professionals and aspiring amateurs from around the world.

The Epson Tour’s road to the LPGA went, for the 13th year, through the FireKeepers Casino Golf Classic, this time at the Medalist Golf Course in Marshall, two exits from the casino and across the street from Turkeyville. Once a champion was crowned, the international field of female touring professionals traveled to Harbor Springs to compete for cash again at Boyne Resort’s Heather Course at The Highlands.

During those same two weeks, the LPGA Tour brought its pros to Midland Country Club for the Dow Championship and then to Grand Rapids for competition and a culinary experience — the Meijer LPGA Classic at leafy Blythefield Country Club. June will end with the Michigan Women’s Open (June 30-July 2) in the forests of wildflower-filled Crystal Mountain Resort.

Crystal Mountain is about 30 miles away from Traverse City, where the sport’s preeminent course architect Tom Doak, history’s most thoughtful golf designer and defender, lives. Doak says his best design work might be his Loop Course at Forest Dunes in Roscommon, but he’s created and restored far-flung, world top-100-rated tracks in New Zealand, Tasmania, Scotland, Colorado and at his Pacific Dunes Coastal Oregon’s Bandon Dunes, where the 2038 Curtis Cup will be held.      

Doak’s design expertise was the stage for this summer’s biennial Curtis Cup Match, where, for the 44th time, eight amateur women from the USA competed against a team representing Great Britain and Ireland. The highly exclusive Bel-Air Country Club, in the Southern California canyons above UCLA, was designed by George C. Thomas in 1926 and meticulously renovated and restored, with reverence, by Doak in 2017.

“It’s a unique piece of property and design,” Doak said for a story in the USGA’s Curtis Cup program book. “If I told a client we were going to build a course where you took a long tunnel under a hillside, went up in an elevator, hit across a ravine, and crossed a suspension bridge to get to the green, they would think I am nuts.”

Three massive, billowing flags — the Stars and Stripes, Union Jack and Ireland’s Tri-Color — were unfurled from that Bel-Air “Swinging Bridge” above the 18th green beside the new, 64,000-square-foot, white, Spanish-style clubhouse as USGA CEO Mike Whan and Dennis Watson, captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, hosted the Curtis Cup opening ceremonies down the hill on the carpet-like fairway. The players paraded to the podium behind a bagpiper before the national anthems were performed. Returning captains Meghan Stasi and Catriona Matthew, whose GB&I team was defending their win two years previous in England at Sunningdale, also spoke.

In terms of tourism, golf ambassadors Madeline Kleiner, recently Executive VP of Hilton Hotels, and Heidi Ueberroth, co-chair of Pebble Beach Resort, were in attendance with pro golf stars Michelle Wie and Los Angeles resident Amy Alcott, even though star-studded Bel-Air has never agreed to open its gates to a professional tournament. The televised Curtis Cup gave the world a peek inside the Bel-Air enclave, with the media and online assistance of Griffin Genobaga, the USGA coordinator of championship communications, and Julia Pine, senior director of communications and content. Future Curtis Cup competitions will be held at “bucket list” courses Royal Dornoch, National Golf Links, Pine Valley Golf Club, Bandon Dunes, Cypress Point and Seminole.

My only other visit inside the private Bel-Air Country Club was 25 years previous. I was summoned to meet there by Frank Chirkinian, the legendary CBS TV golf director, who sat with me at the club’s famed round, corner table with other prominent Bel-Air members: ABC sportscaster Al Michaels and country music star Mac Davis. Davis wore a visor with the word “OTFIG” on it, which I presumed was a corporate logo. “Nah, kid,” he corrected me. “It stands for ‘Over the top – f---! – It’s gone.’” (Referring to a bad swing and resulting lost ball.)  

At the same time as the Curtis Cup international competition took place, the FIFA World Cup soccer games were taking place in Los Angeles, on a weekend when Iran’s team would compete. Sara Joata, an Iranian now living in Beverly Hills, plays golf weekly after picking up the game a year ago. When a business venture failed to take flight, one of Joata’s debtors offered to pay her back with golf lessons. She learned she loved the game.

“I never had access to golf or knew anything about it in Iran,” she explained. “I enjoy how golf helps me to be patient and teaches me to smile even after a bad shot. The Curtis Cup is the first golf tournament I have ever attended.”

Joata bought a Bel-Air-logo headcover in the golf shop as a souvenir of the occasion.

The USGA is coming to Ann Arbor in late August to stage the U.S. Senior Women’s Open at another golf course of historic significance — Barton Hills Country Club, designed by Scotsman Donald Ross in 1919. A local rooting favorite will be University of Michigan alum Elaine Crosby, an LPGA player and past president.

Contact Michael Patrick Shiels at MShiels@aol.com  His new book: Travel Tattler – Not So Torrid Tales, may be purchased via Amazon.com Hear his radio talk show on 730 AM 1240 in Lansing weekdays from 3 pm – 6 pm.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: USGA takes golf world to historic Bel-Air CC, heads to Ann Arbor in August

Detroit — Steve Yzerman just wanted to talk about the draft, and the Red Wings’ new prospects, and his trade for a first-round pick. But one issue won’t go away, not until he makes it go away.

And judging by Yzerman’s demeanor and terse response, Dylan Larkin’s trade request isn’t any closer to being resolved. Plenty of teams made deals during the draft that concluded Saturday, but the Wings’ wayward captain didn’t move. And it’s increasingly apparent Yzerman isn’t inclined to budge — no giveaway to make this go away.

The standoff overshadowed a seemingly productive draft by the Wings, who traded one-time hotshot goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa to Utah for a first-round pick, which they used on high-scoring winger J.P. Hurlbert. The circular nature of this drama is bizarre, with no end in sight. Hurlbert is headed to play for Michigan, where Larkin starred. When interviewed after the pick, Hurlbert said his favorite team growing up was the Red Wings, and his favorite player was Larkin.

Maybe at one time, Larkin’s favorite player was Yzerman. But the link between captains is broken, and hope of a quick, amicable resolution is fading. Yzerman initially declined to address the issue until after he spoke about the draft. Then he delivered a blunt statement and took no questions.

He confirmed the details of Larkin’s request, that it was made by his agent shortly after the season, followed by a short list of teams for whom he’d waive his no-trade clause. Yzerman’s options are limited and acceptable offers scarce, so far. And he doesn’t seem interested in clearing up the murkiness.

“Dylan has five years remaining on his contract,” Yzerman said Saturday. “My job as the manager of the Detroit Red Wings is always to do what’s in the best interest of the Detroit Red Wings, and I will act accordingly to that. I cannot make any guarantees and did not make any guarantees that the request could, or would, be met. There’s certainly a lot of uncertainty around that.”

Time on his side

Yzerman said he might have more to say when free-agency opens next week. Uncertainty does the Wings no good, as they must make decisions on trades and signings during a vitally important offseason. Uncertainty does Larkin no good either, although he doesn’t really have to deal with it until training camp, if he’s still on the team.

That’s far, far from ideal, as Larkin has irreparably damaged his standing in Detroit, and in the process, further damaged Yzerman’s. The only thing Yzerman controls now is time, and as we’ve seen, he can be a patient, stubborn one.

At the time of Larkin’s request, I thought he was doing Yzerman a favor, forcing him to shake things up after 10 years out of the playoffs, the last seven with Yzerman in charge. The Wings still might find a suitable trade partner for Larkin, 29, whose contract is team-friendly and whose scoring acumen — five straight 30-goal seasons — is impressive.

Perhaps other teams don’t find him so enticing. When you dig into the numbers, Larkin’s production severely lags in five-on-five situations. He has been the captain during four consecutive March collapses, and while injuries have been a factor, he hasn’t been a vocal, driving force through tough stretches.

When Larkin won a gold medal with Team USA in the Olympics, he played alongside stars and close friends, and unlocked a spirit that had been dulled by the losing in Detroit. It was the most high-stakes winning he’d ever experienced, and it made him long for more with the Wings.

Twice, Larkin has publicly questioned Yzerman’s inactivity at the trade deadline, which is his right (and his duty as captain). Yzerman angrily retorted after the 2025 season that he counted on more “from our best players, our leaders.” The frustration is shared. Yzerman has made poor decisions on veteran acquisitions, and the Wings rarely have looked like a true playoff team, but the players rarely have risen when it mattered.

Dictating terms

On a broader scale, this is a growing trend in the NHL, about a decade after NBA stars began dictating their terms. A lot of U.S. players relished the Olympic experience and came home with heightened ambitions. They want to win, of course. They also want to play alongside friends in comfortable settings.

Brady Tkachuk forced his way out of Ottawa to play with his brother in Florida. Connor Hellebuyck, the gold-medal goaltender, isn’t happy in Winnipeg. Minnesota defenseman Quinn Hughes pushed hard for a trade from Vancouver. Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski, the reigning Norris Trophy winner and a former teammate of Larkin’s at Michigan, said he won’t re-sign when his contract is up in two years.

The Blue Jackets are searching for a solution now, and while you could envision a Larkin-Werenski pairing somewhere, it’s hard to see where. The Wings probably don’t have the assets to land Werenski, and frankly, any notion of Larkin remaining in Detroit seems distasteful right now — to the Wings and the fans.

Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell said the quiet part out loud last when he spoke to the Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.

“I think it’s the model of what the NBA has done over the years, where players ask to get traded to particular places and somehow they always make it happen,” Waddell said to LeBrun. “I will say, for myself, if we’re in that position, just because somebody asked for a trade, you don’t always have to make it.”

That’s surely what Yzerman would have said if he wanted to say more. The Wings have benefited from this before, when Alex DeBrincat wanted out of Ottawa and Yzerman bought him back to his hometown. DeBrincat, Larkin and Patrick Kane know each other well and have meshed nicely. Larkin also was close friends with Tyler Bertuzzi and got emotional when Yzerman traded him in 2023.

Yzerman can be unyielding and austere, more about business, less about feelings. But times and players are changing. Yzerman’s firm control and tough negotiating worked in Tampa, where he made excellent picks and drove hard bargains. That was almost 10 years ago, and Yzerman’s approach has taken a beating in Detroit. He has a modest talent core in Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, Simon Edvinsson and DeBrincat, a solid coach in Todd McLellan, and decent prospects in the organization. He has respect and power, although both are waning.

Yzerman still has leverage and time to use it. Minnesota reportedly covets Larkin to play alongside another Olympian and friend, Quinn Hughes. The Wild boldly dealt for Hughes and desperately want to add more.

Depending on what Yzerman can get for Larkin, the rebuild sadly might require a rebuild, or at least a repurposing. Hurlbert  sounds and plays like a younger Larkin, a skilled scorer. At one point Cossa was the goalie of the future, and that mantle now goes to Michal Postava or Trey Augustine.

Yzerman said Hurlbert, 18, was in a small group of players he was willing to leap for, if available at Utah’s No. 23 pick. It looks like a slight philosophical shift, as the Wings recognize the need to focus on offensive players, not just two-way players.

“He’s very skilled, he’s very smart,” said Kris Draper, Wings assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting. “He has a knack around the net, can score goals in different ways, and has good creativity with the puck on his stick. He’s going to Michigan and has an opportunity to play in a really good program that certainly stresses offense.”

That was Larkin a decade ago, when everything was bright and promising. It was Yzerman a decade ago, when he was putting together a Cup-winning team in Tampa. It can still work for both, although apparently not together, not here. It’s a shame with an uncertain end game. Letting this linger doesn’t serve anyone’s best interest.

Bob.wojnowski@detroitnews.com

@bobwojnowski

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Wojo: Red Wings’ Yzerman-Larkin standoff is mess, with no end in sight