2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic Course Distribution – Detroit Golf Club

2024+Rocket+Mortgage+Classic+Course+Distribution+%26%238211%3B+Detroit+Golf+Club

As we wrap up the shortened, signature events portion of the PGA Tour’s season, I think it’s somewhat refreshing to preview a full-field event with a traditional format and many of the names we extreme golf fans have learned know. and love. There’s something about watching players compete for a potentially life-changing career moment that’s always intriguing. This week, Detroit Golf is set to once again host the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic

Located just 20 minutes outside of downtown Detroit we have a very traditional park style golf course with tree lined fairways and thick rough areas. We have seen that the year’s winners have different skills, as the course offers players a challenge that can be met in different ways. The course is relatively simple, but we’ll delve into some specific elements that I think could be exploited by certain players given the way the course is traditionally set up for the week.

I wanted to use this piece to hopefully highlight a few different angles and elements that may be less talked about in order to provide some value in this course preview. I’m hopeful that you can use this to build lineups and create your statistical models to give you the best possible chance of success this week. Without further ado, let’s dive right into the history of Detroit Golf Club and how I think we can use data from the course to help us find the winner!

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An Introduction to the Detroit Golf Club

Detroit Golf Club has now been in existence for 125 years. It was founded in 1899 just outside downtown Detroit, MI, during a time of economic boom in the region as a place for the elite. The golf course is a historic Donald Ross design that incorporates several traditional elements that coincide with a Ross design, but with the volume reduced slightly compared to what we just saw at Pinehurst No. 2. The main priority was to develop a club that was built for its members, and only recently started hosting PGA Tour events.

The club originally had a modest six-hole course, but as it began to grow in popularity they eventually commissioned Ross, who built two 18-hole courses, the North and South courses, which he completed in 1916 . The North course was revered by those in the area for its more challenging layout and traditional tiered, undulating Donald Ross greens. In 2019, the club began hosting the Rocket Mortgage Classic, which has produced several major winners in its first five years as a host venue, such as Rickie Fowler, Tony Finau and Bryson DeChambeau.

The pros again play on a composite course that mainly consists of the North Course, but also uses the third hole of the South Course. It’s a very classic design that doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles that make it all that memorable. Scores have been low over the years, with the winning score exceeding the -23 under par mark in four out of five years. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re having a good old fashioned Midwest bird party!

The 2023 #RocketMortgageClassic will forever be iconic. Shall @RickieFowler making back-to-back wins in the 313? pic.twitter.com/9T9qqULi5A

— Rocket Mortgage Classic (@RocketClassic) June 10, 2024

Score card:

Course Specifications

Detroit Golf Club will play on a par 72 course measuring 7,370 yards. That’s definitely a short course by PGA Tour standards. While the course is significantly longer in terms of overall distance than we saw at TPC River Highlands last week, it actually plays much shorter as it allows players to deploy Driver off the tee much more often. This allows players to hit a lot of wedges into the greens. In 2023, 58% of all approaches came from within 175 yards of the hole, and more than 25% of all approach shots came from within 125 yards.

The greens are medium in size, but are the biggest defense mechanism for professional players as they have different levels and undulations. You also get a slightly toned-down version of the Donald Ross runoffs that are much less severe than Pinehurst No. 2, but will come into play on certain holes to protect pin locations. The grass on the greens is the standard mix of POA and Bentgrass that we have become accustomed to on the PGA Tour this season.

The fairways are wide, averaging more than 35 yards wide at 300 yards. This obviously encourages a bomb-and-meter approach that we’ve seen used successfully in the past by winners like DeChambeau, Cameron Davis and Tony Finau. The rough is a four-inch bluegrass, but seems less thick and punishing than we see at other tour events. As long as you don’t get stuck behind a tree and can avoid the only water hazard on the course, players are more than okay with simply hitting it as far as they can and dealing with the rough stuff if they miss.

Statistical considerations

As long as significant weather and wind are not a factor, this course is “point and shoot” for the pros. It’s ranked as one of the easiest courses on Tour every year, so I’m going to filter in SG: Total data from courses with easy scoring conditions. The reason for this is because this is a different style of golf that will be played. It requires constant aggression and does not reward the patience and precision we have seen in recent weeks. In Detroit, it’s been gas pedal to the floor all week.

The most correlated individual metric for 2023 success was SG: Putting, which is known for these types of setups that play at -25 under par. Four of the top eight players in the final rankings were in the top-5 in stroke gains for the week. Rickie Fowler, the winner, dominated on approach and also finished the week with +4.5 strokes gained on the somewhat tricky Donald Ross greens.

The emerging trend I noticed over the first five years of the Rocket Mortgage Classic was the pure bomber advantage. It’s a relatively straight route to the top of the leaderboard if you’re one of the tallest players in the field, evidenced by DeChambeau’s approach as he was boosted to the limit and managed to beat Matthew Wolff who used a similar approach to dismantle Detroit Goldclub. Total driving distance And Carry distance will play a heavy role in my statistical model.

Some other stats I put in are approach the proximity of 50-150 meters. As shown in the DataGolf chart below, you will hit a greater number of shots within this range than at a typical PGA Tour event. I’ll watch too Par-5 score, good drives achievedand sprinkle a little of it History course to complete my model.