The 2026 Big Dog Pro Am rolled into Pontiac Country Club on Saturday, July 25th, and for four players it was the kind of day where the tournament within the tournament — the pro draft — turned out to matter as much as the golf itself. In the Big Dog format, each player’s net score combines with their chosen professional’s score from The 3M Open’s Friday round, and this year the pro board separated the field before the first Mulligan Tour player reached the first tee. When the dust settled and a breathless finish on 18 was complete, “Sudden Greg” Fobare had his fourth win of the 2026 season — and for the first time all year, he didn’t need the putting green to close it out.
The pro draft defined the leaderboard from the opening hole. Fobare was the only player in the field to select Brian Harman, who delivered a -7 Friday round at The 3M to give Fobare an immediate and commanding cushion. Jonathan Barnes, Ken Westerman, and Jeff Klipa all paired with Hideki Matsuyama, whose -6 kept them very much in the hunt while everyone else’s pro came in between -1 and -3 — effectively taking the rest of the field out of serious contention before they played a single shot of their own. Four players in, seventeen out, before the gates opened at Pontiac. That’s the Big Dog Pro Am in a nutshell, and this year the pro picks made it appointment golf from the start.
What followed was a four-horse race that Fobare, Barnes, Klipa, and Westerman ran together from tee to green, each inspired by the professional they’d hitched their wagon to. Fobare matched Barnes stroke for stroke through the front nine and into the back, refusing to let the lead his pro had built disappear. Then came 18. Fobare on the tee holding a two-stroke lead over Barnes — before making a disappointing bogey on the par-72 closer to give it back to one. Barnes, still on the course with the par-5 18th in front of him and a birdie needed to force a tie, had already made five birdies on the day. He was comfortable, he was dangerous, and he had eight feet of putt with a clean look at the cup. Fobare, watching from behind the green, was already mentally warming up his putting stroke — the man who has won three tournaments this season via putt-off knows exactly when that possibility is looming. Barnes picked his line, struck the putt, and watched it burn the edge of the cup without dropping. Fobare exhaled. The trophy was his.
Barnes claimed this title a year ago at Pontiac with a dominant net -10, and he came agonizingly close to defending it on Saturday. His gross 72 was the best ball-striking round of the day at Pontiac Country Club — a number that tells you everything about how well he played and how narrow the margin truly was. Klipa finished third at net 72 (E) for $16, with Westerman and Chuck Withey — both powered by very different rounds — tying for fourth at net 75 (+3), claiming $9.50 apiece. Nancy Hiestand finished sixth at net 75 as well for $5. In the skins game, Mike Lee won two, Klipa won two, and Barnes claimed one — five total skins at $10 each. On the challenge holes, Klipa grabbed the $20 MT account credit on hole 8, and Fobare added the $10 cash CTP on hole 17 to go with the trophy — a complete day by any measure.
Four wins. Four different courses. Four different formats. And now, for the first time in 2026, a Fobare victory sealed without a single putt-off. The Mulligan Tour’s most dangerous closer proved on Saturday that he doesn’t need the putting green — he just prefers it when things get tight. Brian Harman did his part at The 3M Open. Fobare did his at Pontiac. Sometimes the best decision a player makes all week is who they pick for a partner days before they tee off.