Detroit — The city that put the world on wheels is hitting the brakes when it comes to professional golf.
This is it for the PGA Tour in Detroit, at least for the foreseeable future, with the Rocket Classic set to be played for the eighth and final time this week at Detroit Golf Club.
Rocket Companies, the Detroit-based mortgage lender founded by Detroit billionaire booster Dan Gilbert, decided last month to end its decade-plus run as a title sponsor on the PGA Tour amid uncertainty over the changing landscape of the tour and its scheduling.
After months of negotiations, Rocket declined to exercise its option for 2027, bringing an end to the first and only annual PGA Tour stop to be played within the city limits of Detroit.
“It’s been amazing to see what they’ve been able to build,” said Rickie Fowler, who has played in every Rocket Classic as a longtime pitchman for Rocket and previously Quicken Loans.
“To be a part of that,” added Fowler, who last won on the PGA Tour at the 2023 Rocket, when he dramatically birdied the 18th hole in regulation Sunday and then again in the playoff, “has been a lot of fun.”
Said Tony Finau, the 2022 champion: “I’m extremely sad … to not have a tournament back in the 313.”
Mark Hollis, Rocket tournament director and formerly the longtime athletic director at Michigan State, has said there will be tears come Sunday night at this year’s Rocket, but before that, he looked forward to putting on a show. It appears like he could deliver, with arguably the best field in the tournament’s history.
The Rocket field, thanks in no small part to being the second-to-last regular-season tournament before the start of the PGA Tour playoffs, boasts four players who are in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking and eight in the top 20. More than half of the OWGR top 100 is playing the Rocket. Xander Schauffele is here for the first time, and Jordan Spieth, too. Jackson Koivun, the 21-year-old who took the golf world by storm with his win at the 3M Open, is playing. Even withdraws by major champions Brooks Koepka (personal reasons) and Jason Day (injury) did very little to put a dent in the overall strength of the 147-player field.
World No. 3 Cameron Young, who won The Players Championship and Cadillac Championship this year and finished runner-up at the British Open earlier this month, is the highest-ranked player in the field. He has been a regular throughout the years at the Rocket, where he has two top-10s, including a tie for second in 2022.
“It’s been a great place for me,” Young said this week. “I’ve played some nice golf here. I have good memories.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with the future, but it’s been a great host.”
Speaking of the venue, for the final Rocket Classic, Detroit Golf Club is showing off a $16.1-million renovation that began after the conclusion of last year’s Rocket in late June. The Donald Ross greens, which had naturally shrunk over the years, have been raised and expanded (they average 6,700 square feet, from 5,400) to allow for more pin positions; there are more bunkers (over 100 now) and they’re deeper, too; fescue has been planted all over the grounds, making the course more penal and aesthetically pleasing; Ross’ old cross-ditches have been brought back; and two pushover par-5s have been turned into long par-4s. DGC now will play to a par 70. Players who got an early glimpse at the changes this week are raving about the look, and assuring all of us that it will play tougher, if not exactly tough.
Members approved the renovation in 2024, with an eye on hosting many more Rockets. That makes this week a big bittersweet for the grounds crew, including the head superintendent.
“My staff takes a lot of pride in being able to present a golf course to the nation,” Sam Moynihan, DGC’s director of agronomy, said Tuesday morning, “and being able to help highlight Detroit Golf Club on a national stage.”
Before the first tee shot had been hit at this year’s Rocket, the PGA Tour officially announced its replacement for 2027 on Tuesday. A new tournament with a new sponsor, insurance company Sompo, and a familiar venue, Silverado Resort’s North Course, in Napa, Calif., will take place from July 29-Aug. 1, 2027. That Sompo-sponsored tournament will remain on the schedule in 2028 as part of the PGA Tour’s new Championship Series, the upper-tier in CEO Brian Rolapp’s new two-tier scheduling model. That tournament will move to a new, as-yet-undisclosed location in 2028.
The PGA Tour, though, continues to maintain that the Detroit market, including the surrounding Metro area, remains a priority for the future, and officials are exploring potential new sponsors and possibly new venues.
Even Rocket hasn’t completely shut the door on a return one day, though that don’t assuredly won’t be in 2027.
“We look at this as a bit of a pause,” Nic Barlage, CEO of Rocket Entertainment Group, said recently. “We’re not ruling out being back and a part of the PGA Tour again.
“We’re not giving up on golf. We just need a chance to kind of reassess the (golf) landscape.”
Rocket, Barlage said, is in negotiations to continue as an official market partner of the PGA Tour, but a future title sponsorship will depend on what the PGA Tour looks like when its new scheduling model is fully in place in 2028. Rocket, Barlage said, has zero interest in being involved in the second tier, or Challenger Series, of the new model.
Rocket survived eight years despite facing some pretty strong headwinds, including COVID (it was one of the tournaments that carried on with a tournament in 2020, despite no fans), having no consistent slot on the PGA Tour’s summer schedule, and the arrival of LIV Golf in 2022, after which the fields in Detroit never were very good. At least, not until this week.
What the Rocket rarely has lacked is drama. There have been big-named champions, including Fowler, Finau and Bryson DeChambeau, who overpowered the course in 2020 and then, sheepishly said afterward, “Sorry, Mr. Ross.” And there has been plenty of drama down the stretch on Sunday, with three playoffs, two that lasted five holes, including last year’s when Aldrich Potgieter got his first PGA Tour win.
The South African got the win with his dad, Heinrich, in the gallery in Detroit, following every shot.
“We have so many good memories, me and my dad being out here last year, getting that first victory, getting over the line,” Potgieter said. “It’s going to be pretty tough to not see that on the schedule next year.
“It’s sad to see the tournament not being here next year.”
For now, this is it.
As for the future, well, Detroit’s been known for a lot of things, like those wheels — and comebacks.
“I’d love to have an event back here at some point,” Fowler said. “Never say never.”
When is the 2026 Rocket Classic?
When: Thursday, July 30-Sunday, Aug. 2
Where: Detroit Golf Club
2025 champion: Aldrich Potgieter
Tickets: Starting at $68; children 15 and younger get in free with a ticketed adult. Details at RocketClassic.com.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Pro golfers sound off on final Rocket Classic: ‘So many good memories’
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tony Paul, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
