At least two Michigan natives – Jackson’s Brian Stuard and Mt. Pleasant’s Ryan Brehm – in the field
(Note: An extremely limited number of media will be allowed to attend this year with no fans, and Michigan Golf Journal is one of the select few who will be onsite providing daily reports for rounds 1-4 – so check back daily.)
Jason Day committed on June 24 to join many other stars of the PGA Tour. He did not play in Detroit last year. Day’s most prestigious PGA Tour titles are the 2015 PGA Championship and 2016 PLAYERS Championship, which helped him conclude the 2016 season as the world’s top-ranked player. The affable Australian finished T5 at the 2019 Masters and represented the International Team over four consecutive Presidents Cups from 2011-2017.
World No. 17 Tony Finau recently committed to play as well at Detroit Golf Club, marking his debut in Detroit. Finau, age 30, made the U.S. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
A winner at the PGA TOUR’s 2016 Puerto Rico Open, Finau posted his three best major championship finishes – all top-5 results — within golf’s last seven majors. He was fifth at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club (NY), T5 at the 2019 Masters and third in the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club. Finau, who turned pro at 17, posted three top-10 results in golf’s 2018 majors, combining his U.S. Open result with a T10 at The Masters and T9 at The Open Championship.
The tournament’s 156-player field will be confirmed as final on Friday, June 26.
MICHIGAN CONTIGENT:
Jackson native Brian Stuard (T5 last year) is qualified for the field, and Mt. Pleasant native/Traverse City resident Ryan Brehm is registered to compete. Brehm could be bumped if too many higher-ranked players ahead of him register last-minute.
“I’m confident Ryan will be in the field,” tournament executive director Jason Langwell said on June 23. “We as a tournament want to see him in the field one way or another… here in Detroit.
“I know Brian is pumped to be in it again. Brian and I were talking about the rough and the way the course is versus to last year. It will be a similar set up. Hopefully it will play firm and fast like it did on the weekend (last year).”
Finau’s and Day’s commitments adds to earlier recommitments from notables in the field like:
- Patrick Reed– World No. 7, 2018 Masters champion and eight-time PGA TOUR winner.
- Bryson DeChambeau – World No. 11 and five-time PGA TOUR winner.
- Rickie Fowler– Five-time PGA TOUR winner and World No. 31
- Bubba Watson– The 2012 and 2014 Masters champion and 12-time PGA TOUR winner.
- Nate Lashley– Inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic champion in 2019.
- PGA Tour Veterans like Davis Love III, Charl Schwartzel, Vijay Singh and Brandt Snedeker.
COURSE SET UP and SAFETY FEATURES:
Langwell went on to explain that – despite lots of talk that the rough will be grown longer here in year 2 – the set up will be very close to last year, maybe with a little more grass in the rough. He indicated wanting to wait for a second year of ShotLink data to be collected to have two years’ worth of numbers to evaluate, before working with the Detroit Golf Club to decide if they narrow the fairways or grow the grass longer in future years, for example.
Langwell went to the PGA Tour’s season ‘reboot’ event at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth Texas in mid-June. He said it was very helpful to be there and to see the PGA Tour’s safe distancing – or ‘player bubble’ as it’s been called – plan in action.
“It’s one thing to have the process down on paper and it’s another thing to see that process in action,” he told Michigan Golf Journal. “An example I can give was seeing how their (practice) range worked with players driving themselves to the range. It will be similar to here, where they’ll pick up a cart at (Detroit Country Club’s) 18 South and go to our range. It was very similar at Colonial, but they realized down there they had all these carts and they didn’t have a lane (separation) where they would drop off a cart versus where you’d pick one up. So, some players started to go towards a cart that had just been used, before it had been cleaned and disinfected.”
Langwell went on to explain that Colonial staff quickly made an adjustment and had players drop them off in one location, then go to a second lane to pick up a new, cleaned cart. He said on paper, the process was right; “but then seeing it come to life – you make minor adjustments like that, where you grab a couple extra (orange) cones and make slight modifications.”
CHARITABLE OPPORTUNITIES:
Having multiple sponsorships and thousands of fans in attendance is what drives the charity engine at pro tournaments. Without that feature this year due to Covid-19, it makes raising charity dollars more difficult. Covid-19 also exposed even more harshly the ‘digital divide’ within the City of Detroit, particularly when students had to begin online learning with virtually no advance warning.
So, the Rocket Mortgage Classic announced the beneficiaries of this year’s PGA TOUR event with the launch of the Connect 313 Fund, a new organization that will coordinate digital inclusion strategy across the City of Detroit as part of the Rocket Mortgage Classic’s “Changing the Course” initiative.
The Connect 313 Fund was developed in partnership with the City of Detroit and key stakeholders from private and nonprofit organizations, and is rooted in the City’s visionary “Connect 313” program. In addition to coordinating a city-wide, data-driven digital inclusion strategy, the Fund will make investments into Detroit-based nonprofit partners to increase access to technology, internet and digital literacy resources.
“While the COVID-19 pandemic certainly magnified the digital divide, the reality is that nearly one in three Detroit families have lacked access to internet and digital resources for decades. It’s important to our entire organization, and our founder and chairman Dan Gilbert, that the Rocket Mortgage Classic serves as a driver of lasting change,” Jay Farner, CEO of Rocket Mortgage, said in a news release. “The Connect 313 Fund, alongside other primary beneficiaries, will allow us address long-lasting gaps in access to healthcare, education and employment, which are a consequence of the underlying lack of digital connectivity.
“By ‘Changing the Course,’ we can collectively and collaboratively bridge the digital divide in Detroit once and for all.”
Additional primary beneficiaries identified by the Rocket Giving Fund for the Changing the Course initiative include:
- The Children’s Foundation – which will work with youth-centric nonprofits to bridge the digital divide within their programming. Partners include 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic beneficiaries Detroit Police Athletic League, First Tee of Greater Detroit and Midnight Golf.
- Greater Palmer Park Community – a collection of seven neighborhoods around Palmer Park and the Detroit Golf Club dedicated to the holistic improvement and advancement of the entire area.
Funds will be generated to support the Changing the Course initiative in a variety of ways. Among those are the AREA 313 Challenge, the Rocket Mortgage Classic’s online merchandise store, a virtual tee time experience that allows partners access to exclusive online player chats, and the Rocket Mortgage Fall Classic – a re-imagined golf outing and culinary experience planned for September.
The Rocket Mortgage Classic’s ‘AREA 313’ will also serve as a driving force toward generating donations. Per Detroit’s famed area code, the AREA 313 Challenge focuses on holes 14, 15 and 16 at Detroit Golf Club. PGA TOUR golfers will strive to make an eagle, hole-in-one and birdie (3-1-3) on those holes during the four rounds of play Thursday-Sunday. If any player registers scores of 3, 1 and 3 on those holes over the four days, the tournament will make a $313,000 donation in their name toward Changing the Course.
Golf fans and philanthropists alike can also participate in the AREA 313 Challenge while watching the tournament on television. Fans can join the competition by donating when your favorite golfer scores a 3, 1 or 3, and help end the digital divide in Detroit by visiting ChangingTheCourse.RocketMortgageClassic.com or by texting “AREA313” to 243725 – now through the end of play on Sunday, July 5.
