Michigan Golf Journal June 2021

Rocket Mortgage Classic to, and opportunity for, the best Black golfers across America will be contested in Detroit, June 27-28, also at the Detroit Golf Club. Additionally, a one-hour TV special about THE JOHN SHIPPEN will air on CBS leading into final-round coverage of the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Sunday, July 4. The players – invited from a pool of Black male and female golfers from both the professional ranks and collegiate programs – will be competing to earn an exemption into the PGA Tour Rocket Mortgage Classic for the men, and the LPGA Tour’s Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational for the women (in team format). The tournament is named for the first black professional golfer in U.S. history – John Shippen, Jr. – who first worked in golf as a caddie at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York. After playing in his first of 6 U.S. Opens in 1896, was hired as the golf professional at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton, New York later that year. Shippen spent most of his working life at Shady Rest Golf Course in Scotch Plains, New Jersey – the first African-American owned and operated golf club in the United States – where he served from 1924-1960. Shippen was bestowed PGA of America membership posthumously in 2009. Changing The Course: Last year’s early days of the Covid-19 pandemic also triggered a realization for the glaring differences in digital connectivity in the city compared to most other regions. It launched an entirely new way of looking at the charitable resources generated by the tournament: the Changing the Course initiative, where most of the 2020 tournament proceeds were steered. School children’s education and adult job and income searching challenges cropped up the most as ways in which citizens of Detroit are severely lacking in Internet and electronic devices connectivity that keeps them further behind. New this year is a program to support ‘Area 313’ – the three- hole stretch of 14-16 at Detroit Golf Club – which tournament officials hope will become ‘the most charitable three holes in golf’ and will help further fund the Changing the Course initiative. The goal is to raise $1 million from fans who want their images prominently displayed on course by donating to the “Faces of Area 313” program. More money can be raised via two more tournament initiatives: • the Area 313 Celebrity Scramble on Tuesday of tournament week, which both Watson and Varner have participated in before. • Rocket Mortgage’s commitment to award certain scores made by all the PGA pros during competition at holes 14 (an eagle will raise $5,000), Hole 15 (a hole in one will generate $10,000) and on Hole 16 (a birdie will raise $5,000). Last year, with 15 eagles on Hole 14, and 63 birdies on 16, the company’s donation reached $385,000. MGJ For more information on any and all of the opportunities shared in this story, go to: www.rocketmortgageclassic.com Brian Stuard