Best bets for the Rocket Mortgage Classic
Keegan Bradley, born in Woodstock, Vt., and a current summer resident of Newburyport, Mass., has always had a special place in his heart for the Travelers Championship, which is the lone regular PGA Tour stop in New England. He finished runner-up here in 2019 but went one better on Sunday to win in Hartford at a pre-tournament price of 80-1.
The New Englander led the Travelers field for Strokes Gained: Approach and Strokes Gained: Putting. Putting has long been a weakness in Bradley’s game as he ranked 183rd, 149th, 174th, 178th, 185th and 186th over six seasons before rising to 88th last season and now sits 23rd. Bradley set the Travelers Championship scoring record with a 257 (23 under par) and won the event by three strokes over Zac Blair and Brian Harman. Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay and Chez Reavie shared T-4, finishing four shots back. Rory McIlroy and Denny McCarthy finished T-7 at 18-under par. Rounding out the top 10 to share T-9 were Justin Thomas, Alex Smalley, Corey Conners and Min Woo Lee.
Bradley (28-1) is part of this week’s field in Detroit for the Rocket Mortgage Classic. This week is not a “designated event,” so the field depth is down by that standard, but 14 of the OWGR Top 50 are entered here.
Tony Finau (12-1) is the defending champion and tournament favorite. However, this event looks wide open as we do not have a single-digit price on the board for the first time in several weeks.
Rickie Fowler (14-1) shot 60 on Saturday at TPC River Highlands in Saturday’s third round of the Travelers and finished T-13. Fowler has also been an endorser and goodwill ambassador for the event’s title sponsor Rocket Mortgage. However, he has never finished better than 12th in the event.
Thomas (16-1), who makes his Detroit debut, followed up a Friday round of 64 with a Saturday round of 62 at the Travelers last weekend. There have been rumors of a shoulder injury and they persisted with him missing the cut so badly at the U.S. Open two weeks ago. This event will give us a clearer view of Thomas’ health and game.
At 18-1 are Hideki Matsuyama, T-13 last week, along with Max Homa and Collin Morikawa (also making his Detroit debut), who both missed the cut last week.
South Korean duo Tom Kim (20-1) and Sungjae Im (22-1) both have top-10 finishes here (Kim seventh last year, Im eighth in 2021).
Cam Davis (33-1) and Nate Lashley (100-1) are both past champions of the event.
The Event
The Rocket Mortgage Classic is now in its fifth year in Detroit as a PGA Tour event. Rocket Mortgage is the online brand for Quicken Loans, which is the leading mortgage lender in the United States. Quicken Loans was the title sponsor for the National event in the DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia) area from 2014-2018 before leading the PGA Tour to move the event to Detroit, where it is headquartered. The company is committed to sponsor the event through 2027.
The Course
The Detroit Golf Club serves as the venue for the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The club’s North Course is located 15 minutes north of downtown Detroit near the University of Detroit Mercy’s campus. The track was designed in 1916 by Donald Ross and is a classical, tree-lined, flat parklands layout that plays as a par-72 of 7,370 yards. Detroit GC is the flattest course on the PGA Tour, so with little undulation, it plays a bit shorter than the listed average. The average score per round last year was -1.72 under par, which played as the eighth easiest on tour.
There is only one hole with water (No. 14), but the course’s 87 bunkers provide the main defense. Detroit has gotten some recent rain, so the track should play very soft.
The front nine is somewhat more challenging than the back nine. The fourth hole, one of two par-5s on the front nine and the course’s longest, extends to 635 yards. On the back nine, holes 14-16 combine to form what organizers have called the “Area 313” challenge. The 14th hole is a 555-yard risk-reward (water) par-5. The 15th hole is a par-3 that typically plays longer than its 160 yards while the 446-yard par-4 16th hole has one of the most demanding greens on the course and rates as the sixth-toughest hole overall.
The smaller (5,150 square feet, 12th smallest on tour) greens are evenly split Poa Annua (50%) vs. Bentgrass (50%). These are also vintage and trademark Donald Ross greens featuring a back-to-front pitch, surrounded by tightly mown run-offs into collection areas. The greens will run an average speed of 12 on the stimpmeter, but the downhill putts are difficult to attack, so approach shots below the hole are ideal. Even with some of the typical Ross trademarks on the greens, they are still receptive.
The fairways, which are relatively wide (34.6 feet on average) are Bentgrass/Poa Annua and the four-inch rough is a Bluegrass mix. Most of the holes are fairly straight with only two angled doglegs.
The traditional par-72 is broken up into four par-5s, which are a bit longer than average (No. 4 635 yards, No. 7 552, No. 14 555, No. 17 577), four par-3s and 10 par-4s. Three of the par-5s should be reachable in two shots for the bigger hitters and are relatively easy. The easier holes look to be the par-4s. Five of the 10 par-4s are 450 yards or less and three of them are shorter than 400 yards.
Essentially the plan of attack at Detroit GC is to rip it off the tee, hit good wedges and then it turns into a putting contest.
Other Donald Ross designs that are or have been part of the PGA Tour schedule include: