Written by Stephen Moloney (www.twitter.com/TheCheeky9)
As expected, from the moment play got underway at the Travelers Championship last Thursday morning, the deluge of birdies forecasted to rain down on TPC River Highlands arrived – along with actual rain then come Saturday afternoon. Though Mackenzie Hughes’ -10 par round of 60 on the opening day of play wouldn’t be bested (nor matched) over the rest of the week, a pair of scintillating Saturday 61’s from Brendon Todd and Dustin Johnson were plenty good enough to vault them into the 54-hole lead and, ultimately, lead to DJ picking up his 21st win on tour come Sunday.
Now, however, with the third winner of the PGA Tour’s comeback schedule newly crowned (and his retirement fund freshly padded with even more cash), that now means many of the game’s top stars who’ve made the fields since golf’s return look more akin to that of what you’d see in a WGC rather than regular tour events, will now retreat back to Florida and Arizona after three straight weeks of travelling and testing, leaving a somewhat ‘leaner’ – though no less talented – field to travel on to the historic Detroit Golf Club for the second installment of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
So, without further ado, let’s start the launch sequence, hope to God the heinous amounts of RP-1 and liquid oxygen don’t blow up before they’re supposed to and blast off to Motor City – which, admittedly, is a somewhat extravagant way to make the 713 mile-long journey from Connecticut to Michigan, but as it lends itself to making my title work, I think it’s more than worth it.
Field Report
Below you will find the top 30 players in the world as of this week. If they have a ✅ alongside their name, they’re in the field this week; if they have an 🆇 alongside their name it means they’re not in the field this week:
| Rory McIlroy | 🆇 | Marc Leishman | 🆇 |
| Jon Rahm | 🆇 | Tony Finau | ✅ |
| Dustin Johnson | 🆇 | Gary Woodland | 🆇 |
| Justin Thomas | 🆇 | Matt Kuchar | 🆇 |
| Brooks Koepka | 🆇 | Louis Oosthuizen | 🆇 |
| Webb Simpson | ✅ | Abraham Ancer | 🆇 |
| Patrick Reed | ✅ | Sungjae Im | ✅ |
| Adam Scott | 🆇 | Hideki Matsuyama | ✅ |
| Patrick Cantlay | 🆇 | Shane Lowry | 🆇 |
| Bryson DeChambeau | ✅ | Paul Casey | 🆇 |
| Xander Schauffele | 🆇 | Matthew Fitzpatrick | 🆇 |
| Tommy Fleetwood | 🆇 | Daniel Berger | 🆇 |
| Justin Rose | 🆇 | Bernd Wiesberger | 🆇 |
| Tiger Woods | 🆇 | Collin Morikawa | 🆇 |
| Tyrrell Hatton | ✅ | Francesco Molinari | 🆇 |
Notable additions to the field for the trip to Detroit who weren’t in Connecticut last week include:
Arjun Atwal. Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Jason Dufner. Rickie Fowler. Bill Haas. Adam Hadwin. Pádraig Harrington. Chris Kirk. Tom Lewis. Maverick McNealy. Alex Noren. Pat Perez. Seamus Power. Rory Sabbatini. Erik Van Rooyen.
The Yardage Book
(i) Below you will find the scorecard for Detroit Golf Club. For each hole I’ve listed its par and what shape best suits it off the tee (for right-handers):
| Front 9 | Detroit Golf Club | Back 9 |
| #1: Par 4 – Draw | Detroit, Michigan | #10: Par 4 – Draw |
| #2: Par 4 – Fade | 7,334 yards | #11: Par 3 – Draw |
| #3: Par 4 – Draw | #12: Par 4 – Either | |
| #4: Par 5 – Either | #13: Par 4 – Fade | |
| #5: Par 3 – Either | #14: Par 5 – Either | |
| #6: Par 4 – Fade | #15: Par 3 – Either | |
| #7: Par 5 – Draw | #16: Par 4 – Either | |
| #8: Par 4 – Fade | #17: Par 5 – Either | |
| #9: Par 3 – Either | #18: Par 4 – Draw | |
| Out: 36 | Par 72 | In: 36 |
(ii) Having not been able to watch the inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic last year, this week is the first time I’ve actually managed to lay eyes on the course at Detroit Golf Club – and it’s a beauty. Very much a return to what we saw over the first two weeks of the PGA Tour’s return, the North Course at Detroit Golf Club (with one hole included from the South) is a peach of a classic parkland golf course designed by none other than renowned course-architect, Donald Ross. What this, in turn, means is that there a nice amount of doglegs (though not as many as Harbour Town), tree-lined fairways that are tight (the front 9 more so than the back) and small, undulating greens that bear all the hallmarks of having emerged from the deepest recesses of Donald Ross’ imagination with multiple tiers, spines, bowls, false fronts and steep drop-offs all featuring on the putting surfaces. Plus, to add a little extra spice for the players once they break out the putters, the greens are made up of poa annua grass – which, as we all know, can cause havoc late in the afternoon or if the weather gets a bit hot.
(iii) What’s interesting about Detroit Golf Club, however, is that whilst it is a very ‘classic’ golf course – and a course that, for me, has a very European feel to it – unlike other golf courses that fall into that category, it’s most definitely not lacking in length. Measuring in at just over 7,334 yards (which is longer than both TPC Sawgrass & PGA National, & just a pitching wedge shorter than Bay Hill), Detroit Golf Club is a course where the longer hitters on tour are most definitely going to be at an advantage, with several meaty par 5’s, two of the four par 3’s measuring in at over 200 yards and four of the par 4’s capable of being stretched out to over 450 yards. And given the course itself is the flattest on tour (coming in flatter than Harbour Town, PGA National & TPC Louisiana), that means there aren’t many cambering fairways or steep slopes for those shorter hitters to exploit in order to wind up with a shorter club in their hands for second shots – it’s going to be all about who can fly their ball the farthest through the air.
(iv) This week will see the most par 5’s in a tournament since the PGA Tour’s return three weeks ago, with the field in Detroit having two on each 9 to try and pad out their scorecards with. This, however, will be much easier said than done as all four par 5’s have the capability to be stretched out into true ‘three-shotters’ with the 7th, 14th, 17th & 4th all able to measure in at 552, 555, 577 & a staggering 635 yards long at the whim of the tournament director. Still, though, if you can manage to rack up four birdies here all four days – whether it be through sheer brute force or tactical dissection – then chances are you’re going to find yourself well-placed come Sunday.
(v) As the 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic was the very first edition of this tournament, there aren’t multiple leaderboards from years going back from which we can try and recognise certain patterns for what type of golfer tends to do well around this course or what specific players show something of an affinity for the place by posting regular strong finishes. Therefore, to make up for this lack of data, below you will find the top 20 & ties from last year’s event, as opposed to the usual top 10 & ties:
| 2019 | |
| Nate Lashley -25 | J.T. Poston -16 |
| Doc Redman -19 | Sepp Straka -16 |
| Wes Roach -18 | Byeong Hun An -15 |
| Rory Sabbatini -18 | Viktor Hovland -15 |
| Joaquín Niemann -17 | Hideki Matsuyama -15 |
| Ted Potter Jr. -17 | J.J. Spaun -15 |
| Patrick Reed -17 | Wyndham Clark -14 |
| Brandt Snedeker -17 | Brice Garnett -14 |
| Brian Stuard -17 | Talor Gooch -14 |
| Cameron Tringale -17 | Billy Horschel -14 |
The Oracles’ Fourball
Bryson DeChambeau
With this being my fourth week in a row of thinking Bryson can win a tournament, you might be thinking that I may as well just bite the bullet and start calling this segment, ‘Bryson DeChambeau & The Oracles’ Threeball‘. But after a straight month of picking him to be in contention come Sunday, Bryson, to be fair, hasn’t disappointed, as he’s posted three top 10 finishes in a row (bringing his total for the season up to 7, the most alongside Justin Thomas).
So given how well his game has been looking since the restart of the season, if he can string together four solid days of clever golf where his wedge game is just a little tighter than what it’s been since the restart and he gets even just a few of those birdie putts he’s been burning the edges of holes with since Colonial to actually drop? Then if he’s not gassed after three weeks on the road, with his length and accuracy off the tee at a long, flat course like Detroit Golf Club – which has FOUR par 5’s a day for him to try & make hay on – then Bryson should definitely be in the mix once again to get the win his play this season seems to have been trending towards since January.
Tony Finau
Before the lockdown, Tony Finau was putting together a pretty solid – if not a tad unspectacular – season, where his best result was, of course, that second-place finish at the Waste Management after Webb Simpson bested him in a playoff (much to the chagrin of the predominantly pro Tony crowd). Since coming back out on the road, however, it’s been an average enough few weeks for the popular American as he’s only clocked up a T-23 at Colonial; a T-33 at Harbour Town; and didn’t make the weekend in Connecticut after his -3 total for Thursday & Friday saw him miss the cut by a stroke.
With Finau making his first appearance in Detroit this week, though, I think it could be a good fit for him to possibly make a run at finally bagging that elusive second win on Tour. With his length off the tee (32nd in ‘Driving Distance’ on 305.2 yards) and just all-round general power he should be able to attack the lengthier Detroit Golf Club a bit more than what he may have felt able to do over the past few weeks – and especially so when the fairways are probably going to be quite wide and the rough not overly penal. Like is the case with DeChambeau, with four par 5’s to play this week that can only be an opportunity for Finau to use that aforementioned power of his to pick up a lot of strokes on the field (even though his par 5 scoring average could be a lot better as he’s currently 111th in that category). And with his GIR% a decent 70.5% (a figure good enough to see him placed 30th on Tour) Finau should be able to navigate the challenge of finding some of the smaller greens he’ll come up against in Detroit.
The biggest part of Finau’s game that has me leaning towards him this week, though, is his apparent proficiency at handling poa greens. Having looked at where some of Tony’s biggest finishes have come in his career, a noticeable pattern is how well he’s done at the Memorial and Farmers Insurance Open, tournaments both held at courses in Muirfield Village and Torrey Pines that have greens made up of bentgrass and poa. So if he can find that same touch on the greens this week, on a course that is a lot easier than both ‘Jack’s Place’ & the site of Tiger’s historic U.S. Open win in ’08, then his so-far solid play this year could find another gear and see him wind up with a late tee time come Sunday.
Tyrrell Hatton
If I’d told Tyrell Hatton when he arrived at the Club de Golf Chapultepec back in February for the WGC-Mexico – his first competitive outing since undergoing wrist surgery a mere two and a bit months previously – that he’d wind up finishing in a tie for 6th that week, I’d say he would have been pretty happy with that. If I then went on to tell him, however, that in the space of a fortnight he’d be rolling in a par putt on the 72nd hole of the Arnold Palmer Invitational to secure his maiden PGA Tour title, he’d probably have said I pushed it too far, before then politely asking me to get out of his hotel room.
And, yet, that’s exactly what happened in that amazing and extremely lucrative three-week spell. Did it come as something of a shock? For me, yes. But having taken the time to actually dig a little deeper into what Tyrrell has been doing over the past few years, I realise now that shouldn’t have been the case. Because since 2016 the Englishman has been steadily building year-on-year and carving out a really solid career for himself. Four wins on the European Tour. A Ryder Cup. 16 top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour, four of which coming at WGC’s and another four at Majors. 45 of 61 cuts made across the Atlantic. And, of course, that aforementioned win at Bay Hill – like, that’s a résumé any golfer would be more than delighted to throw their name at the top of.
So when I see Tyrrell making his first appearance since his T-3 finish at Harbour Town saw him vault back into the top 20 in the World Rankings, then with how his game appears to be firing on all cylinders at the moment (1st in ‘Strokes Gained: Approach the Green’; 2nd in ‘Strokes Gained: Putting’; 1st in ‘Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green’; 1st in ‘Strokes Gained: Total’; 2nd in ‘Birdie Average’; & 4th in ‘Scoring Average’), along with how he seems to have mastered the rare ability to rock up to a tournament after time off and perform, it would be remiss of me to not think him capable of adding another PGA Tour win to that already impressive résumé.
Erik van Rooyen
Though probably more recognisable to those who follow the European Tour, the 6″3 van Rooyen is a South African golfer who’s made the odd appearance here and there in PGA Tour events over the last few years as he doesn’t, yet, have full-status to play Stateside.
Despite this lack of access to the veritable goldmine that is the PGA Tour, however, Erik has still managed to steadily climb the world rankings over the past few seasons – to the point where he’s currently 40th – and, as a result, earned himself 4 Major appearances and that same amount again in WGC events. And it’s these appearances which, I think, show Erik’s potential. Because in those 4 Majors he clocked up finishes of a middling T-43 in the 2019 U.S. Open; between 2018 & 2019 he finished T-17 & T-20 at the Open; and at the PGA Championship in Bethpage Black last year, the big-hitting Bok bagged himself a T-8 finish. And as for the WGC’S? Well, of the four appearances he’s made, the three between 2018 & 2019 at the HSBC-Champions and WGC-Mexico Championship didn’t exactly produce the most mind-blowing of results (a T-22, T-38 & T-36), but the one he made in 2020? The one where he matched the course record and wound up finishing in a tie for 3rd? That one showed that when he’s “on”, Erik is more than capable of hanging with the best in the world.
So, after seeing him come out of lockdown and finish in a tie for 21st at Harbour Town straight out the gate (at a course I wouldn’t have thought would necessarily have suited him), I just get the impression that van Rooyen could make a run in Detroit this week because, on paper, he has the requisite arsenal to overcome the challenges the course will present him with. As I mentioned, he’s long off the tee, but to give some actual perspective to that, from just the 18 rounds and 28 drives he’s had in events where his stats would qualify to be measured by the PGA Tour, his average distance of 315.2 yards is still good enough to see him 3rd in ‘Driving Distance’, behind only Bryson DeChambeau (2nd with 320.1 yards from 76 drives) & Cameron Champ (1st with 320.8 yards from 84 drives).
His ‘Par 4 Scoring Average’ is a healthy 3.96, good enough to see him sitting 24th on the PGA Tour, whilst his ‘Par 5 Scoring Average’ of 4.57 sees him in 46th. And when faced with approaches from 200+ yards out – which he should be seeing a few of this week given the lengths of some of the par 5’s – he’s shown he’s one of the best long-iron hitters out there as he currently ranks 4th, 2nd & 5th across a number of categories in that distance & beyond.
The biggest weapon Erik should have in his arsenal this week, though, is ‘hunger’. Like, he turned 30 during the WGC-Mexico this year, so he’s probably at the stage in his career now where he wants to start making that big money – and, as we all know, the PGA Tour is where that money can be found. So given he’s still looking for that ‘golden ticket’ which is ‘full-status’ on the PGA Tour, then, much like Will Gordon at last week’s Travelers, I think we could see an incredibly focused Erik van Rooyen rolling into Detroit this week knowing that if he plays to his potential and manages to find something on the greens, then he could well walk away with both the trophy and that all-important golden ticket tucked into his back pocket.
Title Photo Credit: Flipboard/Michigan News