Rocket Mortgage Classic: Player Pool
My hometown event
This years Rocket Mortgage field is, to put it mildly, sub par. Last years version had a lot more fire power, in part because they didn’t completely massacre their schedule and allowed for a lot of our golfers to take additional rest instead of two signature events and a major.
So that leaves us with Tom Kim & Cameron Young, both of whom I like a lot, as our headliners.
But, still, this spot holds a special place in my heart being as I live in the greater metro Detroit area & make the trek down I-96 to Detroit Golf Club to tilt in person. I took my 4 year old son there yesterday for the practice round and Good Guy Vibes awards go to Neal Shipley, Luke Clanton, Garrick Higgo, Davis Riley, Gary Woodland, Nicolai Hojgaard & Robert MacIntyre.
More actionable advice here is that it’s no secret this event is a birdie fest and this year will be no different. The rough is long-ish, but wispy, the course is absolutely soaked from storms we got yesterday and overnight and early weather indications are that it’s going to be on the cooler side during tournament time so the guys aren’t going to be pouring sweat walking down the first fairway. There will be plenty of scoring opportunities.
But, in situations like this, we like that. A full field with no truly dominant figures standing in the way and a true 36 hole cut means we’re in business. With clicks centering around 5-10 golfers, it’s going to be easy to get different.
You’ll notice at the very end of the player pool I kept Will Zalatoris in. He probably shouldn’t have made the player pool, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t include him just to show where his score is comparative to the rest of the guys that did make the cut. There’s also no Rickie Fowler because for a while I thought he had found his game, but it doesn’t appear he has. What I will say is that Rickie is being very underclicked at a fair price given talent to field comparisons at an event he won last year and has been the unofficial host of since it’s inception with his business ties to Rocket Mortgage. He has very strong course history here.
The only defense that Detroit Golf Club really provides is it’s greens, and even though they’ve lost some of the original Donald Ross luster, they still carry plenty of undulation, slopes & do you make you work for it. Otherwise, the biggest correlations to success at DGC remain overall tee to green play & ball striking.
No surprises to see Tom Kim take the mantle here. I’ve been talking the last several weeks about how he’s found it, flag planted him last week only to come up just shy because Scottie is a cyborg. He’s great. I will say, this is his 9th straight event and he’s firmly in all the big events he needs to be in coming up and he’s the most clicked player in the field. Apathy might be our biggest barrier.
Rai will also be chalky, but he’s perfectly fine. Can’t putt, though.
Luke Clanton gets a huge score from his insanely good showing at the US Open and he’s one of the tippy top amateur players in the country. He should be able to find success here on another Donald Ross design (albeit nowhere as tough as Pinehurst.)
Lee Hodges is fine! He did well for us last week at Travelers at a depressed price and won the 3M Open before in a similar birdie fest-weaker than normal field.
Thompson & Mitchell are both more than ok, comes down to putting for them, but at price and only projecting low to mid teens, they’re fine!
Great Alex Noren rebound spot as this course suits him, he’s one of the least clicked of the bigger salaried names up top & has two top 10 finishes here at DGC.
Min Woo, Matt Wallace & Akshay are all really good plays as well, but they all carry clicks, with Min Woo & Akshay getting into the 20% plus range and Wallace in the mid teens given price point.
Robert MacIntyre might be my favorite play on the board. He has the best blend of everything we’re looking for and now that he’s been back stateside for a couple weeks, I’m not concerned on rest or travel. I feel the same way about MacIntyre this week as I did about Kim last week & DeChambeau at the US Open, if that gives you any indication of where I’m leaning. Plus, it seems like no one is clicking him, opting for Rai/McNealy in that range.
Speaking of McNealy, he’s next, and again - he’s fine! Chalky though, big time. And his putter leaves a little something to be desired.
Pendrith - good course fit, good course history. Again, going to be high teens/low twenties in clicks.
Kraft seems … fine! Super low price and absolutely no one is clicking him, so you have that going for you. Sample size might be a bit wonky.
Very big into both Neal Shipley & Ben Griffin - Shipley has shown us at multiple stages now that he can play & still no one is clicking him. Griffin is mid single digits and does a lot of things well that this course asks for (have a pulse being one of them).
Mac Meissner can’t putt, so that’s a pretty big red flag here, but at price & clicks, he’s worth taking a shot on especially in multi-lineup entries.
Of this group, I really like Kohles, Lashley, Michael Kim & Troy Merritt as pieces that will go un-clicked (I guess Merritt could catch a little heat, maybe 4-6%).
Lashley has won here before & Merritt has outstanding course history. Kim has had some swings, but has placed two top 20’s in his past three starts.
Coody I think is fine.
Zalatoris was again highlighted to show you his score compared to the rest of the field.
Cam Young is just a lot more talented than most of the field and has had success here before, logging a T-2 in the only year he played here.
These are more your filler players and I don’t have too much to say otherwise.
I will be again walking around the Detroit Golf Club tomorrow as I feel free to tell me who I need to go heckle for you if they aren’t getting out to the start you want.
Good luck - let’s get 6/6 through!