PREVIEW: 2022 PGA Tour – Rocket Mortgage Classic

2021/2022 US PGA Tour
Rocket Mortgage Classic
Detroit Golf Club, North Course, Detroit, Michigan
28th- 31st July

Finau flying and the scramble for FedEx Cup points

Tony Finau is starting to enjoy this whole winning thing. Two wins in less than a year must feel pretty heady for a man oft-accused of not converting his opportunities.

He- along with the rest of the tour- will now be travelling 700 miles east from Minnesota to Michigan. This will be the penultimate event leading into the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Bubble boys hovering just outside the top 125 will be desperate to pick up some points this week before the last chance saloon in Greensboro.

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This will be the fourth staging of the Rocket Mortgage Classic and every renewal has been held at Detroit Golf Club.

It replaced the Quicken Loans National on the PGA Tour schedule and is the first PGA Tour event in history to be hosted completely within the Detroit city limits.

This year’s event feels particularly significant given LIV Golf’s concurrent event hosted at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.

Detroit Golf Club – the North Course

Opened in 1916, this Donald Ross-design is a traditional parkland-style venue with tree-lined fairways. Interestingly, this course was chosen to host the 1941 Ryder Cup which was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II.

This isn’t a severe test and you can expect a host of birdie opportunities week. This is an exceptionally flat course that just invites the bombers to let loose.

Cameron Davies won last year while Bryson held off Matthew Wolff in a nuclear arms race in 2020. But there are multiple ways to skin this cat. Nate Lashley won in 2019 and Kevin Kisner has performed well in Detroit.

So, this isn’t exclusively the province of massive drivers. Players with limited length off the tee will just need to putt fantastically to keep up with the likes of Cantlay and Finau.

The Contenders

Patrick Cantlay remains one of the most dangerous players on tour outside of the Majors. He has finished no lower than fourth in eight of his last 12 non-Major starts.

That’s incredible. His combination of driving strength and putting acumen make him an ideal fit for this course. Given his reputation, it would be a lot to expect Finau to make it back-to-back titles in Detroit. But his length from the tee should make him a factor this week.

Cameron Young is coming off an amazing runner-up finish at St Andrews and his power from the tee-box could prove formidable this week. Will Zalatoris tends to play his best golf on challenging golf courses and he may struggle to keep up with this low-scoring challenge.

Elsewhere, the likes of Cameron Davies and Max Homa cannot be underestimated.

Past Winners

2021: Cameron Davies (-18) *playoff
2020: Bryson DeChambeau (23)
2019: Nate Lashley (25)

To Win Outright:

Patrick Cantlay 12/1 | Tony Finau 14/1 | Will Zalatoris 16/1 | Cameron Young 20/1 | Max Homa 25/1

Value Bets

Cam Davies- To Win 30/1 | To Place 13/2

Defending champion Cam Davies returns to the scene of his greatest triumph with some form to his name. He has been playing some fantastic golf since the Masters. He finished third at the Heritage, seventh at Colonial, eighth at the John Deere, sixth at the Barracuda and 16th in last week’s 3M Open. He has a very solid tee-to-green game and he gives himself a host of birdie opportunities. And who can forget his dramatic playoff victory from last year? He defeated Troy Merritt on the fifth playoff hole after Joaquin Niemann dropped out of the three-man playoff.

Cameron Champ- To Win 60/1 | To Place 13/1

This is me following the distance mantra to the limit. Champ has endured a disappointing campaign: he only has two top 10 finishes thus far. He has been an incredibly frustrating, sink-or-swim player over the years. The three-time winner tends to pick up his victories out of nowhere. His victory at last year’s 3M Open is a perfect example of this. Leading into that event, his best performance of the season had been an 11th place finish at the John Deere. And his T16 finish at last week’s 3M Open was extremely encouraging. He shot a poor opening 75 that put him in serious danger of missing the cut. But he rallied to make the cut, gaining 2.9 strokes off the tee and 6.3 strokes putting in the final three rounds.

The Man to Beat- Patrick Cantlay- To Win 12/1 | To Place 26/10

Currently sixth in the FedEx Cup rankings, we are approaching the time in the season when current FedEx Cup champ Patrick Cantlay starts to run hot. He is really a player that creeps up on you. As I noted earlier, he has eight finishes of fourth or better in his last 12 non-Major starts. He leads the tour with nine top 10 finishes this season. It hasn’t really felt like that (maybe that’s due to the emphasis we all put on Major Championship golf). He was in the mix at St Andrew’s until he faded badly on Saturday. But his tee-to-green game automatically puts him into the conversation this week. But perhaps more crucially, Cantlay has gained between three and seven strokes putting in his last five events. 12/1 looks a steal for Cantlay.