As Ryder Cup fever heats up and yet another anniversary of 9/11 arrives, playing for one's country will stir emotions. But on Sept. 7-10, another patriotic and spectacular golf event took place in a quiet Michigan town near the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Twenty-seven teams representing 21 top U.S. colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and service academies gathered at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven for the fourth annual Folds of Honor Collegiate.
Stellar competition, certainly, but far more importantly, what these young scholar-athletes came for was to support and pay respect to fallen heroes who gave all.
Hosted by Florida State and Michigan State Universities (MSU), any semblance of a typical college team stroke-play tournament ends there, beginning with Sunday’s College-Am where participants paid $25,000 per team to play with these top collegians. A welcome party continued well past sunset, with Special Forces jumpers and an awe-inspiring nighttime drone show. Next came three days of competition carried live on The Golf Channel. Not your standard college invitational.
How exactly did this happen? First, know that the Collegiate is forever intertwined with the birth of Folds of Honor (FOH) and American Dunes in 2007, and next, that it can’t be separated from Lt. Col. Dan Rooney’s personal journey.
To say that American Dunes is just another top golf course is a vast understatement. It’s a special place, even sacred, where improbable ideas, dreams, visions (and hard work) collided with heartbreak to create something special.
Hundreds of stories have been written about FOH and American Dunes but here’s quick summary: In 2006 F-16 fighter pilot Lt. Col. Dan Rooney was escorting U.S. Corporal Brock Bucklin’s remains back home on a commercial flight to Michigan, and while watching Bucklin’s family members endure the transfer of remains from the aircraft, Col. Rooney was inspired to create Folds of Honor.
Rooney, also a PGA golf professional whose family owned Grand Haven Golf Club for decades, was also financially stuck at a difficult crossroads. Sell the course? Raze it? Revitalize or develop it? Hard choices for a family legacy.
An idea for American Dunes was already brewing, as Rooney had founded one course, the Patriot Golf Club in Texas. Why not add a second and use both as a force for good? Rooney had previously engaged with Jack Nicklaus, but how to persuade the legend to go all-in on the massive project?
Enter the Hail Mary.
Jack Nicklaus and American Dunes
“Dan came to me at the PGA Show with his self-proclaimed ‘crazy idea’", says Scott Tolley, who worked closely with Nicklaus for many years and today serves as director of golf relations at Folds of Honor. “I didn’t think it was so odd asking Jack to totally re-design Grand Haven and use it to help fund Folds of Honor; Jack was Honorary Chair for Patriot Golf Day, loves his country and his design projects.”
In his pitch, Rooney also floated the idea of Nicklaus “donating” his $3 million design fee. Tolley replied, “Now, we’re going toward crazy!”
But Nicklaus ultimately agreed to the project, and the donation.
“This was a course designed with a purpose, a great cause in mind and at heart, along with commemorating the birthplace of Folds of Honor and providing golf’s most patriotic round,” said Nicklaus. “It’s even more meaningful when the game of golf can become a platform to celebrate our country and support the families of those who have sacrificed for it.”
Even with Nicklaus’s backing, the challenge to revamp the course wasn’t easy.
“You don’t know how many times I wanted to quit,” Rooney said. “An endeavor like American Dunes is extremely difficult to achieve with so many moving parts, people and property, and running into naysayers or experts who say it can never happen.”
The course ultimately opened to rave reviews, with extra acclaim for its mission: a course to honor military traditions and sacrifice, and to earmark the proceeds for scholarships to the children of fallen heroes. The tee sheet quickly filled and hasn’t stopped.
Nearly 20 years later, Folds has grown into a worldwide movement and is celebrated at professional golf tournaments and charity outings everywhere with numerous fundraising events, FOH Fridays and more. Over $290 million in scholarships have been awarded to 62,000 students, with 57% going to women, including 45% to minority recipients. In the 2024-25 academic year alone, a record 10,000 scholarships totaling $50 million were awarded.
Great ideas often spawn other grand thoughts. After MSU’s James Piot won the U.S. Amateur in 2021, his golf coach Casey Lubahn met with Rooney to suggest a “little college golf tournament” at American Dunes. Rooney and Nicklaus were both college golfers at University of Kansas and Ohio State, respectively. In a flash, the inaugural Folds of Honor Collegiate was fashioned and held in 2022, with Nicklaus personally greeting all 18 men’s teams.
This year, to intentionally reflect the diversity of FOH scholarship recipients, there were 15 men’s and 12 women’s teams, including the service academies and HBCUs.
Since 2007, nearly 8,000 students have gone to college on FOH scholarships, with an educational impact of $17.5 million.
But the need remains: more than 1,000 qualified applicants still didn’t receive funding and according to Gold Star wife and Folds Speakers Bureau Director Rachel Faulkner Brown, that number is only increasing.
First widowed at age 23, a few years later Faulkner Brown lost her second husband when U.S. Air Force A-10 pilot Major David ‘Blair’ Faulkner was killed at Columbus AFB in Mississippi during a test sortie. His T-38C Talon’s jet flaps malfunctioned at an altitude where ejection was impossible.
“That’s when I realized nothing was mine…ever,” Faulkner Brown said. “And I never asked ‘why did this happen’? When it does, there’s a huge gap: emotional, financial, physical, and spiritual. It’s a battle just to survive, to get two small children up and fed. But the day David died I knew there were people I could influence and thousands of widows who needed what I carried.”
Today she tours the country, and with national television coverage on the Collegiate, familiarity spreads.
Folds of Honor's Next Chapter
The Golf Channel FOH Collegiate is proving popular, but just as “freedom isn’t free,” neither is TV time. Rooney’s crew worked double-duty to enlist major support from Anheuser-Busch/Michelob ULTRA, Titleist, Sinclair Oil, Sedgwick, and Compliance Solutions for the telecast.
Rooney continues to move Folds forward, and his passion also creates opportunities. In August, he received a sponsor’s exemption for the Ally Championship in Grand Blanc, Michigan.
“I can hit it past a lot of the guys, and tee-to-green I was good,” Rooney said. “But the putting? Wow, those greens are fast.”
Rooney is also spiritual, with a wife and five daughters. This year he lost his “wingman” father, Dr. John Rooney, in April, right after the Masters.
“He was my hero. My best friend. Here’s the one thing I’m certain of: they are closer here than we think. He communicates with me in such awesome ways, as if to say, ‘I don’t want to leave this place’.”
The legacy will continue with the Dr. John Rooney Award, which will be given annually to a male and female golfer who best exemplifies a commitment to education, along with philanthropic qualities similar to Dr. John and FOH. Each team gets to vote, with the winners selected by FOH and Collegiate representatives.
All of this begs the question: What next?
“Just trying to get through this is enough for now,” Rooney says. “But our goal truly is to provide support for every Gold Star son or daughter who needs it.
“Everything is on the table.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as This College Tournament With a Patriotic Mission Continues to Shape Lives.