The 2026 Strokes on a Rope at Leslie Park Golf Course in Ann Arbor handed out its trophy Saturday under the kind of circumstances that only the Mulligan Tour can produce — a rain-soaked morning, a field thinned by the kind of May downpour that separates the committed from the comfortable, and a playoff that ended before the putter ever left the bag. Chuck Withey wins the 2026 Strokes on a Rope. His opponent in the playoff was nowhere to be found when the starter called for him. The trophy belongs to Withey, and the story of how he got it belongs to the ages.
The first chapter, though, belongs to Dave Oliver. When Oliver made a quad bogey on the opening hole of the day, the reasonable assumption was that his round was over before it started. Par 72, Leslie Park playing wet and long after the morning storm, and the field already dealing with weather delay rust — a quad on number one looked like a death sentence. Then Oliver made eagle on the second hole. Then he made another eagle on the sixth. Quad bogey to start, two eagles in the next six holes, and Oliver walked off the front nine at even par. It was one of the most roller-coaster nine-hole sequences the Strokes on a Rope has ever seen, and it set up a back nine where Oliver needed just one more birdie than bogey to finish tied for the lead at net 71 (-1). For a man who was four over through one hole, that’s a performance worth telling stories about.
Withey arrived at that same number the more conventional way. Hanging around even par all day, patient on a walking course that demanded patience, until the 11th hole provided the turning point. Withey made eagle on 11. He tucked that into his back pocket and kept playing — methodically, cleanly, without the fireworks of Oliver’s front nine but with the steadiness that defines him at this event. A birdie on 18 put the exclamation point on the round and put Withey in the clubhouse at -1, waiting to see if anyone could catch him. Oliver would. The two were called to a playoff putting green. Oliver was not there to answer.
The playoff was over without a putter leaving anyone’s bag. Dave Oliver, somewhere in the aftermath of his extraordinary round, was unavailable when his name was called to decide the championship. The trophy went to Withey by default — won without touching a putting green in the extra holes, which might be the most Strokes on a Rope way a Strokes on a Rope has ever ended. Chuck Withey is a two-time champion of this event, having also won in 2023. He joins a short list of players who have figured out this format more than once.
Tyler Floyd and Greg Kline finished tied for third at net 72 (E), both turning in clean, well-managed rounds on a course playing harder than its rating suggested thanks to the soft, rain-affected conditions. Mike Prieskorn was fifth at net 73, and the four-way tie at sixth — Mike Geisser, Kevin Gregoire, Mike Lee, and Stewart Levine all at net 74 — represented some of the best golf in a field that had already been thinned considerably by the morning weather. The players who showed up despite the rain and delay logged competitive rounds that will matter on the season-long money list. The players who stayed home missed a Strokes on a Rope for the ages.
The 2026 edition moved to Leslie Park for the first time in the event’s history — a walking course that tested legs and lungs alongside the short game all day. The format’s unique rules, which give each player two feet of rope to improve lies or escape trouble before playing the remaining holes without any relief, played out in the wet conditions with extra drama — rope decisions that normally feel routine took on new weight with the ball sitting down in soft turf throughout the round. Leslie Park, it turns out, is a worthy new home for one of the Mulligan Tour’s most unusual and entertaining events.
The closest-to-pin competition found two winners who had already been making their presence felt on the leaderboard all day. Stewart Levine stuck his approach on hole 7 to claim the $20 account credit, and Greg Kline — fresh off crossing the $3,000 career earnings milestone last week at the Animal House Classic — won the $10 cash prize on hole 17. Two more hardware pieces added to a Saturday that already had plenty of story to tell.
The 2026 Strokes on a Rope is in the books. Withey has his second title. Oliver has the most memorable opening nine holes anyone can remember. And the Mulligan Tour calendar keeps moving — with the Fox Hunt, Alzheimer’s Awareness Classic, and the Eastside Charity Classic looming next weekend and the HPO – the seaon’s second major on the horizon.