The courses were designed by legendary architect Donald Ross and opened in 1916.
Detroit Golf Club’s courses, site of the Rocket Mortgage Classic on the PGA Tour since 2019, were designed by legendary architect Donald Ross and opened in 1916.
The Rocket Mortgage Classic is played on a combination course of the club’s two layouts, the North and the South. The tournament layout starts on No. 8 of the North Course, then plays No. 9 of the North. Players then tackle what is normally No. 1 of the South Course before teeing off on what is normally No. 2 of the North and playing the next five holes in order.
An upcoming vote at the club will determine whether a full renovation will be put into motion, according to a story in the Detroit News. The estimated cost, according to reporting by the News, is expected to be $16.1 million and would be paid for largely through a one-time assessment for members.
Here’s more from the News:
The club also would allocate $2.2 million from Rocket Mortgage Classic funds for the project.
Voting by members begins March 6, and closes March 16. An approval rate of more than 60% is being required by the prospective lenders working with Detroit Golf Club.
The proposed renovations — which, most notably to fans, include the removal of the large pond at the par-5 14th hole, a signature hole, to help with drainage — coincide with the 125th anniversary of Detroit Golf Club.
The master plan of the proposed renovations at The Detroit Golf Club, which was originally designed by Donald J. Ross.
“As we approach Detroit Golf Club’s 125th year, we are celebrating the past but also looking toward the future,” Michael Pricer, DGC president, said in a statement to The News, which inquired about the project. “The proposed golf course project has been initiated by our membership to continue an exceptional golf course experience for many generations to come.”
The combined layout typically plays to 7,370 yards with a par of 72 for the tournament.
Rickie Fowler buried a 12-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to win a battle with Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa in Detroit and end a four-year victory drought at the 2023 playing of the event. Other winners since inception include Tony Finau, Cameron Davis, Bryson DeChambeau and Nate Lashley.
The 34-year-old won the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan, on Sunday for his sixth PGA Tour victory and first since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open. Fowler beat Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin in a three-way playoff on the first extra hole to claim the title and the top prize.
For his efforts, Fowler will take home $1.58 million, while Morikawa and Hadwin will each leave with $783,200. A trio of players – Taylor Moore, Peter Kuest and Lucas Glover – tied for fourth at 21 under and each banked $370,333 in winnings.
There were 84 golfers who made the cut this week, most on Tour this season.
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Check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
FAIRWAY WOODS:Cobra Aerojet LS (13.5 degrees), with Aldila Tour Green Graphene TX shaft, Cobra King LTDx LS (17.5 degrees), with UST Mamiya LINQ White 8 shaft.
GRIPS: Golf Pride Tour Velvet (full swing) / SuperStroke Tour 3.0 17-inch (putter).
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Rickie Fowler buried a 12-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to win a battle with Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa in Detroit and end a four-year victory drought at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
“I knew it was just a matter of time with the way I was playing,” said Fowler, who notched his sixth career PGA Tour title.
It had been 1,610 days, or 4 years, 4 months, 29 days since his last win at the 2019 WM Phoenix Open, the longest victory drought of his Tour career.
Ten months ago, he was ranked No. 185 in the Official World Golf Ranking and barely qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Late last year, Fowler returned to working with his former instructor Butch Harmon and his game has made steady progress. He entered this week having finished in the top 20 in 12 of his 15 starts this year.
“It’s tough when you’re struggling for that long of a period of time,” said Fowler, noting that his play was building to this victory. “How I’ve played is some of the best if not the best I’ve felt about my game and on the course really ever.”
After inclement weather in the forecast moved up final-round tee times at Detroit Golf Club and forced the use of preferred lies, the field dealt with intermittent showers and muggy conditions. Three players looking to end winless droughts emerged in a battle down the stretch, setting up for a thrilling finish.
Fowler, who held the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open two weeks ago, shot 64 on Saturday to claim a one-stroke lead. But he was 2-for-10 in converting 54- hole leads and almost let this one slip away too. He made birdie on three of his first seven holes, including a 46-footer at No. 2, to stretch his lead to two but failed to capitalize on the par 5s and lost the lead late on the back nine. When it mattered most, the 34-year-old out of Oklahoma State stiffed his approach at 18 to 3 feet.
“Our back was against the wall,” said Fowler of his dramatic 72nd-hole wedge from 147 yards. He cashed in the putt for 68.
Returning to 18 for the first playoff hole, Fowler flared his drive right into trouble but he got relief from casual water and had a clean look at the green and knocked his approach to 11 feet, which turned out to be closest of the three playoff contestants.
Morikawa, who hadn’t won in two seasons and nearly two years – an eternity for the 26-year-old two-time major winner – shot a bogey-free 8-under 64.
“Playoffs suck when you’re on the wrong side of them,” Morikawa said. “You put everything you want into it and comes down to one hole, but that’s what golf is. You’ve got to perform, you’ve got to execute the shots.”
He erased a four-stroke deficit by making six birdies in his first 12 holes, and chipped close at the par-5 17th to become the first player to reach 24 under and grab the lead for the first time in the tournament. His birdie putt at 18 to tie the course record lipped out of the left side of the cup. His approach in the playoff airmailed the green and his birdie chip from just off the green came up short.
“I truly thought I hit the perfect shot and I just was a little juiced, went a little far,” Morikawa said of his second shot at the playoff hole.
Hadwin, 35, was seeking his first win since the 2017 Valspar Championship, a drought even longer than Fowler, something that wasn’t lost on Hadwin or his caddie Joe Cruz.
“I looked at Joe on I think 15 and said, ‘Why don’t we do this more often? This is fun,’ ” Hadwin recounted.
Hadwin, who shot a final-round 67, made it a three-way tie for the lead at 23 under with a birdie at 15 and tied Morikawa with a birdie at 17. His approach to 18 rolled off the green, but he got up and down to shoot 67 and join Morikawa at 24-under 264. Hadwin’s 22-foot birdie effort at the first playoff hole burned the left edge.
“That putt on the playoff there looked really good, just a little bit hard,” he said.
Fowler’s winning putt benefited from a free read from Hadwin, and he rolled it in and soaked in the moment.
“I was kind of just still and quiet and everyone was going crazy around me,” he said. “It was a nice moment just to kind of feel like the weight on my shoulders was finally off.”
Here’s everything you need to know for the final round of the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Will Sunday be the day?
With 18 holes remaining at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic, Rickie Fowler owns the 54-hole lead at 20 under.
Fowler ended his day with a flurry, birdieing five of his final six holes to earn the top spot on the leaderboard all by himself. This performance isn’t coming from out of the blue. In his last three starts, Fowler tied for 13th at the Travelers Championship, for fifth at the U.S. Open and for ninth at the Memorial Tournament.
We’ll have to wait and see if he can close the deal this time around.
Due to inclement weather, tee times have been moved up to the morning and groups of three will be sent off both tees.
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s everything you need to know for the final round of the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
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1st tee
Tee time
Players
6:45 a.m.
Sam Ryder, MJ Daffue, Callum Tarren
6:55 a.m.
Doug Ghim, Ben Griffin, Max Homa
7:05 a.m.
S.Y. Noh, Chad Ramey, Brett Stegmaier
7:15 a.m.
J.J. Spaun, Russell Knox, Trevor Cone
7:25 a.m.
Satoshi Kodaira, Ludvig Aberg, Sam Bennett
7:35 a.m.
Ryan Palmer, Kyle Reifers, Keegan Bradley
7:45 a.m.
Tyler Duncan, Sungjae Im, Vince Whaley
7:55 a.m.
Cam Davis, Chez Reavie, Zecheng Dou
8:05 a.m.
Adam Schenk, Alex Noren, Troy Merritt
8:15 a.m.
Nicolai Hojgaard, Peter Malnati, Chris Kirk
8:25 a.m.
Taylor Moore, Lucas Glover, Brian Harman
8:35 a.m.
Dylan Wu, Collin Morikawa, Justin Lower
8:45 a.m.
Peter Kuest, Aaron Rai, Carl Yuan
8:55 a.m.
Rickie Fowler, Adam Hadwin, Taylor Pendrith
10th tee
Tee time
Players
6:45 a.m.
Andrew Landry, Kelly Kraft, Davis Thompson
6:55 a.m.
Harry Higgs, Chesson Hadley, Alex Smalley
7:05 a.m.
Stephan Jaeger, Carson Young, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
7:15 a.m.
Kevin Tway, Chase Johnson, Brice Garnett
7:25 a.m.
Zach Johnson, Greyson Sigg, Garrick Higgo
7:35 a.m.
Nate Lashley, Luke Donald, Brendon Todd
7:45 a.m.
Vincent Norrman, Matthias Schwab, S.H. Kim
7:55 a.m.
Will Gordon, Scott Stallings, Adam Svensson
8:05 a.m.
Hank Lebioda, Ryan Moore, Charley Hoffman
8:15 a.m.
Robert Streb, Martin Laird, Justin Suh
8:25 a.m.
Sepp Straka, Nick Watney, Davis Riley
8:35 a.m.
Robby Shelton, Ryan Gerard, Ryan Brehm
8:45 a.m.
Henrik Norlander, Kyle Westmoreland, Sam Stevens
8:55 a.m.
Matt Wallace, Paul Haley II, Danny Willett
How to watch
You can watch Golf Channel for free on fuboTV. ESPN+ is the exclusive home for PGA Tour Live streaming. All times Eastern.
Like most years, we had a bunch of names most of us have never heard of near the top of the leaderboard. Some of the marquee names made a move. Some marquee names made a move in the wrong direction.
And for the fourth straight year, there won’t be a repeat champion.
So pretty much par for the course at the halfway point of the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Detroit Golf Club.
At the very top of the leaderboard sat two journeymen and two Taylors. Taylor Moore, a first-time winner in March at the Valspar Championship, and Canadian Taylor Pendrith held a one-shot lead at 13-under 131. Moore, who’s ranked 51st in the world, shot 67 on Friday. Pendrith, who’s ranked 127th, shot a 64.
Hot on their heels were two of the tournament’s biggest names. Rickie Fowler caught fire late in the afternoon, eagled the par-5 17th, added six more birdies and shot 65 to reach 12-under 132. Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa eagled the par-5 14th, shot 67 and was at 11-under 133.
Fowler struggled on the “bouncy” and “beat up” greens in the first round, but avoided that problem by simply hitting it close for several tap-ins Friday. Two weeks ago at the U.S. Open, he closed with a 75 and tied for fifth. Last week at the Travelers Championship, he followed a third-round 60 with a 69 in final round and tied for 13th.
On Saturday, Fowler will be in the second-to-last group, in prime position knowing what he must, and must not, do.
“I mean, the biggest thing, we can’t try and press too hard,” he said. “I definitely know we can win. … How I’ve played is some of the best if not the best I’ve felt about my game and on the course really ever.”
This is the blessing and the curse of the Rocket. Anybody — and I mean anybody — can win this thing.
Rickie Fowler walks to the second green during Round 2 of the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Friday, June 29, 2023, at the Detroit Golf Club.
Fowler, a big fan favorite here, can bounce back from his U.S. Open faceplant and win this thing. But so can a guy you’ve probably never heard of named Andrew Landry. He won two tournaments a few years ago, but now he’s the 660th-ranked player in the world and on the road back from two shoulder surgeries. He had a bogey-free round with nine birdies for a 63 that tied Nate Lashley’s 2019 tournament record. That put him at 10-under 134.
Moore’s another example of a player on his own road to redemption. He was lucky to survive a collapsed lung in 2019 and missed the cut in his past two tournaments. Last year, he finished sixth at the Rocket and now he’s regaining his confidence with everything clicking. He went out early in the morning and outplayed partner Max Homa, the world No. 9 who shot 68.
“It might be a little bit of that,” he said of his growing confidence, “but golf’s just such a finicky game.”
In a way, I’ve always looked at the Rocket as a proving ground on the PGA Tour. A place where people can find their swings and some confidence. Or where players suddenly lose their mojo and make their exit.
— Rocket Mortgage Classic (@RocketClassic) June 30, 2023
Defending champion Tony Finau closed with a 38 on the back nine, shot 72-71 to finish at 1-under 143. The cut was at 4-under 140. Finau is still looking for his first top 10 since he won the Mexico Open in April.
Justin Thomas, a two-time major champ who made his Rocket debut, was the tournament’s biggest disappointment. He rallied from a disastrous opening 76 with a 69 on Friday and finished at one-over 145.
Playing well at the right time is always the key winning in golf. But so is the right attitude and it’s a secret Morikawa might have a unlocked better than anyone so far this week in Detroit. The player with an ever-present smile kept his promise to sign autographs following a quick break after his first round and he’s embraced the city, having dinner downtown taking in the Morgan Wallen concert at Ford Field.
“Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “Look, golf is meant to be enjoyable. We’re out here to have a good time. It’s frustrating at times as well, but so far this week has been amazing. The people out here, the fans have been great, we saw a lot of people out here today. So it’s been a nice ride.
“This is when work really starts. Make the weekend, you’re in contention and we just want to post two really low numbers this weekend.”
That’s certainly the key for Morikawa and Fowler. But it could also be the key for half of the remaining field.
Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.
Rickie, Collin and Ludvig are lurking heading into the weekend at Detroit Golf Club.
DETROIT – Taylor Moore is striking a pose this week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
The 29-year-old Arkansas grad backed up his opening-round 64 with a 67 at Detroit Golf Club on Friday to share the 36-hole lead with Taylor Pendrith.
Moore, who claimed his first PGA Tour win at the Valspar Championship in March, had missed three straight cuts and shot in the 70s in 11 of his last 13 rounds.
“I think in the past I might have hit panic a little bit with how my game’s been, scores that I posted, tried to really reinvent some stuff and try to make a quick fix,” Moore said. “But my golf swing’s good, mentality’s good, just going to keep playing golf and I feel like I would eventually play myself out of some of the scores I was shooting. Thus far I’ve done that.”
Indeed, he has thanks to a hot putter. Moore ranks first in Strokes Gained: Putting (+7.602), and already holed more than 226 feet of putts. But his focus has been on holding his finish on his swing, and so far it’s done the trick.
“That’s kind of just always been something for me as a junior golfer all the way through my golf career, that’s kind of brought me back just to hitting better shots and more quality shots and just kind of staying there until the ball’s finished,” he said. “That’s something I’ve tried to bring back this week.”
Here are four more things to know about the second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Here’s everything you need to know for the third round of the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
The first 36 holes of the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club are in the books and it’s time for moving day.
Taylor Moore and Taylor Pendrith, who tied for second at this event in 2022, are tied for the lead at 13 under while Rickie Fowler and Ludvig Aberg sit T-3 at 12 under. Fowler is looking for his first win since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open. Aberg has finished inside the top 25 in his last two PGA Tour starts.
Collin Morikawa, who missed the cut last week at the Travelers Championship, is tied for fifth at 11 under.
One year you hit it on a string like Tony Finau did last year en route to a five-stroke victory. This year? Not so much.
One week, you play well enough to win a major as Hideki Matsuyama and Webb Simpson have done before. This week? They’re exiting early.
One day, you can make birdies galore and shoot 62 like Justin Thomas did last Saturday at the Travelers. This week? Thomas made fewer birdies combined in two days work and is hitting the road.
But 84 of 156 golfers shot at least 4-under 140 for 36 holes at Detroit Golf Club and are sticking around for the weekend to see if they can claim a PGA Tour title at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
The Rocket Mortgage Classic ties the AT&T Byron Nelson for the most players to make the 36-hole cut on TOUR this season, with a tournament-record 84 players.
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) June 30, 2023
Here’s a closer look at some of the notable names that missed the cut this week.
DETROIT – At first blush, he appears to be a lock for Rickie Fowler’s ultimate fan.
But it turns out Mohawk Bob, as he affectionately is called, has never been to a professional golf tournament in his life.
One night, Casey Hurbis, chief marketing officer for Rocket Mortgage, was scrolling on Instagram when he saw the colorful hair of Mohawk Bob (Mohawkamaniabob) and thought it would be fun to have him at the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club and tracked him down.
Mohawk Bob’s reaction: “I was like, ‘Woah, sign me up,’” he said.
Mohawk Bob has been photographed with rapper Bad Bunny and was front and center at the Denver Nuggets victory parade in his hometown. He flew in from Denver and had his hair painted on Thursday with Area 313, the local area code for the Motor City and a central gathering place for fans on the back nine and just a short walk from the main entrance. (There is also a competition for players to try to make a 3 on No. 14, a 1 on No. 15 and a 3 on No. 16).
On Friday, Hurbis suggested Mohawk Bob dress in Fowler’s Sunday signature orange. As one fan put it, you could still smell the hairspray as Mohawk Bob watched Fowler tee off at the first hole. Joel Dahmen’s caddie Geno Bonnalie approached Fowler and told him, “There’s a guy with the best hair I’ve ever seen.”
Fowler, a Rocket Mortgage ambassador, smiled and said they’d already met and taken a photo together.
“I asked him, ‘Did you lose a bet?’ ” Fowler said.
“I feel like I won one,” Mohawk Bob said in between taking photos with fans. “I’m having the best time.”
