The final round of the final Rocket Classic began Sunday, Aug. 2, under a veil of dark clouds and light rain at Detroit Golf Club.
Was it really rain? Or was it actually the golf gods crying, mourning the loss of the PGA Tour’s annual stop in the Motor City after eight years?
“It’s been eight years of work, and just here being the tournament director for one year, it’s going to be an emotional night when everybody leaves and you look out,” tourney director Mark Hollis said, a few hours before 24-year-old Michael Thorbjornsen won the tournament,. The victory was Thorbjornsen’s first on the PGA Tour, as he shot 7-under-par 63 Sunday to finish at 18-under 262 and beat Xander Schauffele by two shots, .
Hollis and anyone else who attended the tournament this year (and certainly in years past) knows what they’ll be missing. Having the privilege of watching some of the world’s best golfers fill the course with buckets of birdies and even some eagles is a thing of wonder for amateur golfers in golf-mad Michigan.
“The game is so important to the state of Michigan,” he said. “I think the club realizes, even those [members] that were grumbling a little bit, realize the importance this event has to the Detroit Golf Club.”
Hosting a PGA Tour event is a proud honor for any club, but it can also come with the inconvenience of restricted play while the tournament sets up for months. Now that Rocket has decided not to pick up its option for hosting the tournament in 2027, things will go back to being quiet again next summer at DGC.
And maybe it’ll be a little too quiet as everyone waits to hear what comes next in pro golf as the PGA Tour moves toward a new two-tier system in 2028, and LIV Golf grapples with financial uncertainty.
The irony this year at the Rocket is that it was on the tournament’s most successful iterations. The later date brought fans in droves and they got to glimpse course architect Tyler Rae’s beautiful restoration of Donald Ross’ classic design. Golden heather on a wide-open links-style course and old-timey squared off green complexes were as majestic in person as they were on the television broadcast.
Players lauded the course and conditions all week, especially for a new course that hasn’t had the chance to properly firm up just one year after the bulldozers arrived to carve out a new track.
As for the rain, well what was a little wet stuff to Thorbjornsen, whose name translates to Son of a Thunder Bear in Norwegian?
Midway through the round, the skies parted over Detroit Golf Club and the golf gods began to smile on Thorbjornsen, who missed just one green in regulation and threw darts at the pins.
Thorbjornsen began the day at 11-under, four shots behind leader Davis Riley. After a ho-hum two-birdie 33 on the front nine, he caught fire on the back, breaking out of a six-way tie with four birdies in six holes. He punctuated his victory by rolling in his final birdie from 25 feet, 8 inches on the 18th green.
The key, Thorbjornsen said, was his driver. He missed just four fairways, which allowed him to attack pins.
“Yeah, I think it’s just a consistency from tee to green,” he said. “That’s kind of what I’ve been lackingrecently. Then just having that sense of control has I think allowed me to hit those amount offairways and greens.”
Playing two groups behind Thorbjornsen, Riley had a chance to catch him when he was 16 under with two holes left. But he pulled his drive into the rough on the par-4 17th, then found the greenside bunker and two-putted from 18 feet for a bogey to end his chances.
What’s the future for Detroit Golf Club?
As for what the future hold for the PGA Tour and Detroit Golf Club, I would it’s a future that’s not without promise. DGC is still interested in hosting a tournament, according to club president Keith Hazely. And Rocket, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, has the money but wants to see what Tour’s landscape looks like in a couple years.
“I think ’27 is probably a lost cause at this point,” Hollis said, “but I think ’28 there’s a lot of conversations out there about where’s the Tour’s going to be, and I’m one that believes Michigan ought to be in that conversation.
“I don’t think there’s a better course in the state now than this one to host the Tour event. Oakland Hills, they won’t do a Tour event, but this one’s set up fine for it now and they’ve done a heck of a job here.”
You wouldn’t get an argument from the gallery that stood 10-deep on the 18th green to watch Thorbjornsen polish off his victory in what might be – or might not be – the final Rocket Classic in Detroit.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Golf gods cry a bit, then smile on Michael Thorbjornsen in final Rocket Classic
Reporting by Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
