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The Detroit Golf Club plays host to this year’s edition of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. This is the 5th edition of this event at this venue. In the past the name of the game has been to go real low all four days in order to win. The winning scores have been 18, 23, 25, and 26 under in the previous editions of this event. Look for that to not change this week as the course was subject to heavy rain storms earlier in the week making this already getable golf course even softer. This is a Donald Ross designed course that is the flattest stop on the PGA Tour with almost no elevation changes on any of the holes. The course is not particularly long or short, coming in around 7,200 yards from the tournament tees. With the stage being set, let’s get to our picks for the week! Per usual we will stick with our format of one player from the top, middle, and bottom of the odds board. Let us begin at the top.
Sungjae Im
While not exactly in a peak run of form, we like Sungjae for a big week at The Rocket Mortgage. He is an average length player off the tee, but every other part of his game is significantly above average in quality. This week is all about going low. It has a similar spirit to it of the Travelers last week in which he placed T29. Obviously T29 isn’t overwhelmingly impressive, but he was statistically below his averages in all categories in regards to strokes gained. It also shows an uptick in form from his MC at The US Open. Sungjae is one of the most talented players in this field by a significant margin. His history at this event is positive, having finishes of T21, T53, and most recently T8 to his name, there is reason to believe he can find success at this venue. Look for Sungjae to be carried by his precision approach play and make birdies in bunches this week on his way to grabbing the win this week at The Rocket Mortgage.
Gordon Sargent
If you look at the past winners of this event three of the four have one thing in common: They can absolutely bomb the golf ball off the tee. Leaving out Nate Lashley, we have Bryson Dechambeau, Cam Davis, and Tony Finau. Now few people in the game today can touch the ball speed that Gordon Sargent can produce. He cruises routinely in the 180’s and even dips into the 190’s from time to time. He put up the low AM performance at The US Open and is carrying positive form into this event. He is playing at a true strokes gained average per round above the PGA Tour average right now despite being an amateur. Between his combination of positive form and the fact that he fits the mold of recent winners at this event, look for Gordon Sargent to have a big week. Gordon Sargent will finish inside the top 10 on the leaderboard this week at The Rocket Mortgage.
Chesson Hadley
This is purely a form pick. Chesson has not had a good season this year. He currently sits at 143 in the FedEx Cup rankings and has 14 missed cuts this season. In his last two starts however, he has made the cut and has finishes of T43 and T24 respectively. With his T24 coming at The Travelers last week, another birdie fest PGA Tour stop but with a stronger field that this week, there is reason to believe he could improve on that performance. What has held him back a lot this season is really poor performance around the green. At Detroit Golf Club, there is a lot of the heavier rough closer to the green which sort of caps the importance of highly skilled chips and pitches. The putter was hot for him last week and hopefully that can carry over to this event. We think Chesson will put up a top 20 finish this week at The Rocket Mortgage.
