While longer hitters have thrived here thanks to the forgiving layout off the tee, players of all styles have found success, with many shorter hitters also posting strong finishes on past leaderboards. With four highly scoreable par 5s and few penal areas to punish mistakes, the winning score has been -23 or better in four of the past six years. Skilled putters who are strong with their wedges and are proven par-5 scorers are among the best players to target this week in Detroit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The Field<\/h2>\r\n
This is also arguably the deepest Rocket Classic field since its inception, as 47 of the top 100 ranked players will be in attendance. Other notables include, Akshay Bhatia<\/span>, Cam Young, Luke Clanton<\/a>, Wyndham Clark<\/a>, Min Woo Lee<\/a>, Tony Finau, Matt Fitzpatrick<\/a>, Max Homa<\/a>, Rickie Fowler<\/span>, Si Woo Kim<\/a>, Davis Thompson<\/a>, Keith Mitchell<\/a>, Stephan Jaeger<\/a>, Tom Kim<\/a>, Alex Noren<\/a>, Rasmus Hojgaard<\/a>, and Nicolai Hojgaard<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n The Detroit Golf Club was founded in 1899 by local businessman William R. Farrand and his partners. The course was originally a six-hole layout on a rented 45-acre plot of farmland just a few miles north of the city center. Originally limited to 100 members, the course added three holes a year later, making it a nine-hole course. With membership increased to 200 in 1902, an additional 35 acres of land were purchased, and the course expanded to a full 18 holes. In 1913, more property was acquired, and one of the most iconic golf course designers of all time, Donald Ross, was brought in to survey the land. He determined that two 18-hole courses could be built on the property.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n In 1916, Ross completed the two 18-hole tracts, which were simply named the North and South courses. The property’s heritage goes even further back in history, as between the seventh and eighth holes on the North Course, an oak tree was bent by Native Americans to mark the trail that extended from the area of Pontiac to the Detroit River.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Ross preferred to let the natural environment determine the design of his courses. This classic approach is quite evident at the Detroit Golf Club, especially concerning the topography of the course. There is very little elevation change, with only 10 feet between the highest and lowest spots. It is also this classical approach that, over a century ago, did not take into account players bombing the ball 320 yards off the tee. The course was chosen to host the 1941 Ryder Cup, but the outbreak of World War II scuttled that.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Based on the ShotLink data, minor adjustments to the course continue to happen. For example, on the par-4 12th hole, players were bombing it over 300 yards past the fairway bunker. This caused tournament officials in 2023 to add 40 yards to the hole which has kept the bunker in play.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n One revision of the North Course has been more controversial. Typically, the complexity of the greens is what makes it a “Donald Ross” course. With the passing of time, the greens have weakened, with some of the slopes becoming flatter. Said Golfweek’s course evaluator, Nick Ficorelli, “I\u2019m a little worried about the North greens being too easy. They used to be really, really good. When I watch PGA Tour players playing, say, a 1916 golf course, it\u2019s disappointing if those greens have been weakened. There\u2019s nothing more boring than watching guys make 30-footers that don\u2019t break.” While Ficorelli is accurate regarding the green surfaces being less undulating than a century ago, the sloping “back to front” greens remain the course’s main defense.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n As soon as this year’s Rocket Classic is completed, the will be a complete renovation of the North Course. This will include a remodeling of the greens back to how Ross had them at the course’s origin. Architect Tyler Rae will also reconstruct tees, fairways, and bunkers, along with removing problematic trees.<\/p>\r\n This includes the average finish position and Strokes Gained per round since 2019 for each of the categories. Players are sorted by SG: Total. Detroit Golf Club is the 16th least predictive annual course on Tour.<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15188,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"bs_types":[14,15],"bs_tags":[29,73,125],"class_list":["post-15180","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","bs_type-betting","bs_type-fantasy","bs_tag-golf-betting","bs_tag-golf-dfs","bs_tag-rocket-mortgage-classic"],"acf":false,"featured_image":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/gettyimages-1327004708-612x612-1.jpg","tags_list":[{"id":29,"name":"Golf Betting","slug":"golf-betting"},{"id":73,"name":"Golf DFS","slug":"golf-dfs"},{"id":125,"name":"Rocket Mortgage Classic","slug":"rocket-mortgage-classic"}],"types_list":[{"id":14,"name":"Betting"},{"id":15,"name":"Fantasy"}],"bs_author":{"name":"Ron Klos","profile_image":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Ron-Klos-150x150.jpg"},"bs_term_name":null,"is_paid":"true","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/15180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"bs_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bs_types?post=15180"},{"taxonomy":"bs_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bs_tags?post=15180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image\"](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/Gt6oBLuW8AAGguP?format=jpg&name=large\")
Detroit Golf Club – History<\/h2>\r\n
Finish Position and Strokes Gained History at Detroit Golf Club (2019-2024)<\/h2>\r\n