The Northern Ohio Golf Association, in conjunction with its statewide OHIO.GOLF website, will bring back its fan-favorite OHIO.GOLF Fantasy Series for the 2026 PGA TOUR season, albeit with a slightly later start date to the year than has been done in the past.
For those not familiar, fantasy golf allows you pick a team of players from the field in a professional tournament, allowing you to compete for score against the teams selected by other players. The team with the lowest aggregate score at the end of the event wins.
The OHIO.GOLF Fantasy Series typically kicks off with The Sentry Tournament of Champions at The Plantation Course at Kapalua, normally the first big event of the PGA TOUR season usually played the first week in January. But due to ongoing drought conditions on Maui in 2025, with significant water conservation requirements and challenging agronomic conditions, the PGA TOUR determined it would not be able to contest The Sentry in 2026. Instead of replacing Kapalua with another regular PGA TOUR event for the start of the 2026 Fantasy Series, it was decided to simply move on to the next big tournament to start the season.
Thus, 11 PGA TOUR tournaments will be featured in the OHIO.GOLF Fantasy Series in 2026, starting with the WM Phoenix Open at the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course in Scottsdale, AZ on February 5-8. That Sunday, February 8th finish to the WM Phoenix Open will be played on its traditional ‘Super Bowl Sunday’ date, which always brings an extra air of excitement to the tournament — and to the Fantasy event, given all of the online sports betting action that surrounds it.
Even though the start date and starting event has been revised, the 2026 OHIO.GOLF Fantasy Series season will conclude as usual with The TOUR Championship at Eastlake Golf Club in Atlanta, played at the end of August.
How the OHIO.GOLF Fantasy Series Works
Once again in 2026, the events of the OHIO.GOLF Fantasy Series will be overseen by NOGA’s Alyssa Nicholas, with NOGA Tournament Director Sean Croell acting as Commissioner for the series should any concerns arise. The calls-for-entries, leaderboards and event results will always appear on the OHIO.GOLF site, with additional information posted to the site’s social media channels and in its weekly email newsletter.
Also again for 2026, the Series will be run on the Easy Office Pools platform, which has proven to be an easy-to-use system for both the players and administrators.
The rules for participation will remain the same as past years: the Fantasy Series is open to all, and each contestant may enter a maximum of three (3) teams per event. The top-3 teams plus ties will receive prize payments equal to 100% of the entry fees collected, split 50/30/20% for 1st/2nd/3rd place. Every dollar paid in gets paid back out, and all ties are split. The entry fee is just $10 per team per event, and the entry fee must be paid via Venmo (@noga1917) prior to the first shot being struck.
The 2026 OHIO.GOLF Fantasy Series Schedule
February 5 – 8: WM Phoenix Open, TPC Scottsdale
February 12-15: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Pebble Beach
February 19 – 22: The Genesis Invitational, Riviera
March 5 – 8: Arnold Palmer Invitational, Bay Hill
March 12 – 15: The PLAYERS Championship, TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course
April 9 – 12: The Masters, Augusta National
May 14 – 17: PGA Championship, Aronimink Golf Club, Newtown Square, PA
June 4 – 7: The Memorial Tournament, Muirfield Village
June 18 – 21: U.S. Open, Shinnecock Hills, Southampton, NY
July 16 – 19: The Open Championship, Royal Birkdale, Southport England
August 27 – 30: TOUR Championship, Eastlake
The Big Winners of 2025
So who were the big winners of Fantasy Series events in 2025? A number of the bigger events finished with a tie for first place, moderating the winner’s share of that week’s prize payouts.
But Frank Guise was the solo winner of the OHIO.GOLF Masters Fantasy Tournament, and with it earned a tidy $345 for his selection of winner Rory McIlory (-11), playoff runner-up Justin Rose (-11), Jason Day (-5), and Jordan Spieth (-3). His team won by two shots.
Louis Manuel Kori won the OHIO.GOLF U.S. Open Fantasy Tournament by selecting winner J.J. Spaun (-1), Sam Burns (+4), Scottie Scheffler (+4), and Brooks Koepka (+6) to finish at +13 good for a two stroke win, earning a $200 payout.
All told, 290 players entered the nine Fantasy events run by NOGA on OHIO.GOLF in 2025. These events keep gaining traction, and we expect even bigger fields during the upcoming season.
NOGA and OHIO.GOLF look forward to bringing you the 2026 OHIO.GOLF Fantasy Series, and we hope some new players will join in! Watch OHIO.GOLF for the first fantasy call-for-entries on January 26th…
