Rocket Mortgage Classic: Expert Picks

Tournament Information

Rocket Mortgage Classic
Date: July 2^nd – 5^th
Course: Detroit Golf Club
Purse: $7.5MM ($1.4MM to winner)
FedEx points: 500 to winner
OWGR Points: 72
2019 Winner: Nate Lashley (-25)

Course

Detroit Golf Club. Built in 1899 by William Farrand the 100 member club was built off 45 acres of farmland. The North Course is 6,936 (Par 72, course rating 73.6) much longer than the South Course at 5,967 yards (Par 68, course rating 68.7). The North Course is full of trees on either side of a number of holes, the greens waver and deep punishing bunkers liter the areas around the greens. This will be played on the North Course, this will fall among the shorter courses on the tour-placement is key over power here.

Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images

My Starting 4

J.T. Poston (2nd selection this year) — Poston finished 11th here last year. He missed the cut last week, the last five times he missed a cut he rebounded with these finishes: 10th, 57th, 37th, 29th, and 11th. Also the two tournaments prior to the missed cut were both top 12 finishes.

Brian Stuard (1st selection this year) — Stuard has made the cut in each of his three starts since returning culminating in a 20th place finish last week at Travelers Championship. He finished 5th here last year. He’s currently 5th in driving accuracy and 15th in strokes gained around the green.

Sung-Jae Im (2nd selection this year) — Sung-Jae finished 21st at Detroit last year. He also missed the cut two weeks ago. He has four top 30 finishes in his last six tournaments.

Patrick Reed (2nd selection this year) — He missed the cut at the RBC Heritage and bounced back with a strong 24th place last week. He finished 5th here last year and is having a fantastic season with an 8th overall strokes gained and 4th strokes gained putting.

My Bench 2

Sepp Straka (1st selection this year) — This is about as deep of a sleeper as you can get. Sepp has missed 13 cuts across 18 starts this season. The five starts where he made the cut yielded: 4th, 53rd, 4th, 27th and 33rd so not too shabby. Last year he had a similar trend and he finished 11th his score being well under par each day. He’s 49th in strokes gained off the tee more off distance then accuracy which is especially crazy since this course demands accuracy.

Kyle Stanley (1st selection this year) — He is among the most accurate drivers on the tour (6th in accuracy). He finished 24th last week at the Travelers Championship, he finished 21st last year here and he is 40th in strokes gained approaching the green.

Fun Fact: This course made bids for some PGA events in 2010 but didn’t get anything until the inaugural event here last year.

2020 Stats

Starting 4: Avg finish 44th (32nd percentile)
Bench 2: Avg finish 65th (47th percentile)