Rocket Classic

Detroit Golf Club · Detroit, Michigan · Week 31

Detroit spent eight figures making its Donald Ross layout harder, then watched the field go low on it one last time. Eight editions, one restoration, no ninth.

Thorbjornsen opened with a 69 and never shot worse than 66 again, closing with a Sunday 63 to finish two clear of Xander Schauffele. Nobody inside the top ten finished better. Schauffele, playing Detroit for the first time, ran out of holes at -16.

Contest Winners

The nine-player field came down to one stroke: Art M. at -57, Andrew F. and Mike J. a shot back. Tom D. won the twelve-player contest by fourteen.

The Course That Got Harder On Paper

Detroit Golf Club put $16.1 million into a Donald Ross restoration and turned two par 5s into par 4s, dropping the card from 72 to 70. The architect figured it would play two or three strokes harder. It did not. Rasmus Højgaard shot 61 on Saturday. Thorbjornsen went around in 262 strokes, eighteen under a par that had just been trimmed by eight. Deleting par is not the same as deleting birdies. Rocket is not renewing for 2027, so the new Ross debuted and retired as a Tour venue in the same week.

Coming Up Next

Wyndham Championship, August 6-9, Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro. $8.5 million and 500 FedExCup points, the last regular-season stop.

FedEx St. Jude Championship, August 13-16, TPC Southwind in Memphis. $20 million and 750 points to open the playoffs.

I finished second to Tom in the twelve-player one. Get your contest up before Thursday.

Jeremy @ The Leaderboard Fantasy Team