Rocket Mortgage Classic: The Punter's Preview

• Hot putting required in Detroit

• Read my Italian Open preview here

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Tournament History

The Rocket Mortgage Classic replaced the National, formerly the Quicken Loans National, on the PGA Tour schedule five years ago.

It was the first PGA Tour event to be staged in Michigan since the final edition of the Buick Open at Warwick Hills back in 2009 and it's the first PGA Tour event to ever be played in Detroit.

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Venue

Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan

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Course Details

Par 72, 7,370 yards
Stroke Index in 2023- 69.92

There are two courses at the Detroit Golf Club, the North and the South. Both were designed by Donald Ross and the tournament is predominantly staged at the longer North, although the third hole is the par four first hole on the South Course.

Detroit's fairways are tree-lined and the small Poa Annua greens usually run at around 12 ½ on the Stimpmeter.

Detroit is not a stern examination by any means. Tony Finau won with a tournament record 262 -26 total in 2022 and the 2020 scoring average of 70.06 was the lowest among all par 72s during the 2019-20 season. Last year it averaged 69.92 and three players reached 24-under-par - the winner, Rickie Fowler, and the two beaten playoff protagonists, Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 17:00 on Thursday

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First Five Winners with Pre-event Exchange Prices

2019 - Nate Lashley -25 1000.0999/1
2020 - Bryson DeChambeau -23 6.05/1
2021 - Cam Davis -18 (playoff) 120.0119/1
2022 - Tony Finau -26 19.018/1
2023 - Rickie Fowler -24 (playoff) 17.5

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What Will it Take to Win the Rocket Mortgage Classic?

With only five editions to evaluate, it's hard to say how much use the stats are but here's the top-three and ties at the first five renewals with all the traditional stats - Driving Distance, Driving Accuracy, Greens In Regulation, Scrambling and Putting Average.

2019

1 Nate Lashley -25 DD 43 DA 11 GIR 4 SC 3 PA 2
2 Doc Redman -19 DD 34 DA 47 GIR 18 SC 8 PA 16
T3 Wes Roach -18 DD 30 DA 28 GIR 25 SC 5 PA 13
T3 Rory Sabbatini -18 DD 43 DA 1 GIR 47 SC 25 PA 4

2020

1 Bryson DeChambeau -23 DD 1 DA 58 GIR 13 SC 29 PA 7
2 Matthew Wolff -20 DD 5 DA 25 GIR 54 SC 61 PA 1
3 Kevin Kisner -18 DD 39 DA 16 GIR 39 SC 13 PA 2

2021

1 Cam Davis -18 DD 7 DA 29 GIR 24 SC 16 PA 15
T2 Troy Merritt -18 DD 48 DA 1 GIR 24 SC 30 PA 2
T2 Joaquin Niemann -18 DD 24 DA 37 GIR 24 SC 1 PA 22

2022

1 Tony Finau -26 DD 34 DA 3 GIR 1 SC 1 PA 35
T2 Patrick Cantlay -21 DD 5 DA 38 GIR 33 SC 11 PA 7
T2 Taylor Pendrith -21 DD 22 DA 16 GIR 8 SC 58 PA 2
T2 Cameron Young -21 DD 7 DA 18 GIR 17 SC 5 PA 6

2023

1 Rickie Fowler -24 DD 24 DA 62 GIR 4 SC 71 PA 5
T2 Adam Hadwin -24 DD 64 DA 51 GIR 45 SC 7 PA 1
T2 Collin Morikawa -24 DD 44 DA 1 GIR 19 SC 1 PA 7

And here are the top-three and ties with the Strokes Gained stats - SG: Tee, SG: Approach, SG: Around the Green, SG: Tee to Green and SG: Putting.

2019

1 Nate Lashley -25 TEE 31 APP 6 ATG 13 T2G 3 PUTTING 2
2 Doc Redman -19 TEE 25 APP 18 ATG 11 T2G 10 PUTTING 11
T3 Wes Roach -18 TEE 32 APP 9 ATG 5 T2G 1 PUTTING 31
T3 Rory Sabbatini -18 TEE 9 APP 25 ATG 39 T2G 14 PUTTING 10

2020

1 Bryson DeChambeau -23 TEE 1 APP 51 ATG 26 T2G 4 PUTTING 1
2 Matthew Wolff -20 TEE 13 APP 16 ATG 37 T2G 10 PUTTING 5
3 Kevin Kisner -18 TEE 24 APP 10 ATG 48 T2G 13 PUTTING 11

2021

1 Cam Davis -18 TEE 34 APP 9 ATG 5 T2G 4 PUTTING 22
T2 Troy Merritt -18 TEE 23 APP 33 ATG 29 T2G 17 PUTTING 2
T2 Joaquin Niemann -18 TEE 7 APP 24 ATG 31 T2G 7 PUTTING 8

2022

1 Tony Finau -26 TEE 2 APP 6 ATG 9 T2G 1 PUTTING 15
T2 Patrick Cantlay -21 TEE 10 APP 8 ATG 17 T2G 7 PUTTING 12
T2 Taylor Pendrith -21 TEE 7 APP 5 ATG 52 T2G 8 PUTTING 10
T2 Cameron Young -21 TEE 3 APP 45 ATG 2 T2G 4 PUTTING 24

2023

1 Rickie Fowler -24 TEE 30 APP 2 ATG 16 T2G 3 PUTTING 12
T2 Adam Hadwin -24 TEE 80 APP 10 ATG 6 T2G 20 PUTTING 2
T2 Collin Morikawa -24 TEE 8 APP 7 ATG 13 T2G 2 PUTTING 24

The stats don't tell us an awful lot but unsurprisingly, given the event is essentially a straightforward low scoring birdie-fest, putting has been key.

The first two winners ranked first and second for Strokes Gained: Putting and four of the top-five in the Putting Average rankings finished inside the top-five and ties at both of the first two renewals.

Troy Merritt ranked second for both SGP and PA when finishing second in 2021 and Taylor Pendrith, who finished tied second 12 months later, ranked second for PA. And all three playoff protagonists putted superbly last year.

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Is There an Angle In?

Form at Donald Ross courses often transfers well so check out results at East Lake, home of the Tour Championship, Sedgefield Country Club, which hosts the Wyndham Championship, and Aronimink, which staged the BMW Championship in 2018, won by Keegan Bradley, as well as the National way back in 2010 and 2011.

Last year's US PGA Championship was staged at the Ross-designed Oak Hill and the US Open two weeks ago was staged at Donald Ross' masterpiece Pinehurst. And that was won by the 2020 winner here - Bryson DeChambeau.

And two years ago, form at the Knoxville Open on the Korn Ferry Tour came to the fore.

The recent Houston Open winner, Stephan Jaeger, who also contended at Pinehurst a fortnight ago, won the Knoxville Open at the Ross-designed Holston Hills in 2018 (also second in 2021) finished fifth here and the 2016 Knoxville Open winner, J.J Spaun, finished eighth, but the Wyndham Championship is arguably the best tournament to ponder.

Sedgefield specialist, Webb Simpson, led here at halfway in 2020, the 2021 Wyndham winner, Kevin Kisner, clearly loves it here, one of the Tour's lesser lights, Doc Redman, has form at both venues, and Tom Kim won the Wyndham last year, one week after finishing seventh here.

The Country Club of Jackson - home to the Sanderson Farm Championship may also be worth a close look.

Although they fell away a bit over the weekend, three SFC winners were in the top-ten at the halfway stage in the first edition of this event - Cameron Champ, Ryan Armour, and the 2013 Knoxville Open winner, Peter Malnati, and the runner-up at the SFC back in 2021, Nick Watney, who very rarely contends nowadays, sat second after round one here in 2019.

Cameron Young boosted the link in 2022 when he finished second in this event, nine months after finishing runner-up in the Sanderson Farms.

The composite used at Jackson for the SFC was designed by Dick Wilson so it didn't come up in my initial research five years ago (looking at other Donald Ross courses) but it was extensively remodelled in 2008 by John Fought - a designer described as being heavily influenced by Ross - so form there might be worthy of close inspection.

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Is There an Identikit Winner?

We've only had five editions and it's been a mixed bag so far. The first and third editions were dominated by outsiders but the 2020 winner, Bryson DeChambeau, is now a two-time major winner, and the last two editions have been dominated by top quality players.

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Winner's Position and Exchange Price Pre-Round Four

2020 - Nate Lashley - Led by six 1.222/9
2020 - Bryson DeChambeau - T2 and three off the lead 3.55/2
2021 - Cam Davis - T3, trailing by a stroke 8.07/1
2022 - Tony Finau - Tied for the lead 1.865/6
2023 - Rickie Fowler - Led by a stroke 2.0421/20

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In-Play Tactics

This will be a low scoring event and making up lots of ground will be extremely difficult.

Lashley won the first edition wire-to-wire, DeChambeau and Cam Davies were never far away, Finau almost led from start to finish and seven of the top-eight last year were inside the top-nine places at halfway.

All five winners have been inside the top-three places with a round to go and three of the five were leading or tied for the lead.

Concentrating on the leaders from very early on will probably play dividends.

I'm on holiday this week so I won't be taking the usual look at the market leaders or spending enough time on the event before the off to make any selections but Matt Cooper will be along with the Find Me a 100 Winner column and I'll be back later in the week with the In-Play Blog.

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Read my Italian Open preview here

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*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter

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