Rocket Classic One and Done Picks
2026 marks the eighth and final edition of the Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club. In recent years this event has been a staple of the mid-summer swing on the PGA Tour known for being a birdie barrage with an average winning score of 22-under-par. Rocket has been a longterm PGA Tour sponsor, but will exit the sport after this season, leaving some questions about the future of golf in the Detroit market.
The good news is that they were able to draw the best field in event history for this sendoff with 10 of the top 25 in the OWGR teeing it. Cameron Young -- ranked third -- leads the way off his close call at The Open. Chris Gotterup (7th) and Wyndham Clark (9th) have both won multiple times this season and are looking to bag another victory.
With the One and Done season starting to wind down, check out the strategies, picks and fades from RotoWire's golf experts for the penultimate event in the FedExCup regular season.
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Course Tidbits
- Course: Detroit Golf Club (7,328 yards, par 70)
- Location: Detroit, Michigan
- Purse: $10 million -- $1.808 million to winner
- Defending Champion: Aldrich Potgieter (-22)
- 2025 Scoring Average: 69.588 (-2.412)
- 2025 36-Hole Cut: -6
- Average Winning Score Last 5 Years: -21.6
While there is no clear future for Detroit Golf Club hosting a PGA Tour event beyond this season, that did not stop the club from investing in a complete restoration of the golf course. Immediately after the final putt dropped last year, ground was broken and Tyler Rae led the restoration process. The course is expected to play tougher with the two easiest holes being converted into par-4s from short par-5s. The now par 70 is chalk full of long par-4s and a very diverse set of par-3s. Bunkers were added and expanded, greens were restored to the original Donald Ross design and fairway angles are expected to be much more important creating some actual strategy off the tee.
Detroit Golf Club got the reputation as a bomb and gouge competition. The changes should neutralize some of that strategy, but distance is still expected to be pretty important given all the lengthy par-4s. Unfamiliar greens should also put the advantage in the hands of the ball strikers. SG: Off-the-Tee, total driving, SG: Approach and proximity from 175-225 yards should be some of the most important metrics to success this week. The green complexes are also more difficult that in past years, so precision iron shots will be rewarded more. Players should also find scrambling slightly more difficult.
Visit RotoWire's PGA earnings report to find total winnings and winnings per entry via our fantasy golf stats pages.
RotoWire One and Done Tools
- One and Done Rostership
- Tournament History/Current Form
- Projected Player Schedule
- OAD Strategy
- OAD Full Season Planner
Rocket Classic: One and Done Picks
I had the wrong Jackson last week, and I'm hoping to right that wrong. I realize Koivun will be popular, but I'm running out of time to use him and I'm not sure I'm comfortable deploying him in the playoffs. It's one thing to win the 3M Open, it's another to do it against a stacked field. Yes, I realize he fended off the best player on the planet in Minnesota, but outside of Scottie Scheffler, there wasn't a lot to be worried about. Koivun gets a fairly light field to work against again, and if he keeps his head he should be able to contend. I realize it's a big ask to play well one week after his first PGA Tour victory, but I'm banking on him remaining to roll. --Greg Vara
Clark tracked as No. 1 overall in my model, even with his missed cut at The Open. In the six tournaments before that, he had two wins, two other top-5s and no finish worse than T13. Ranking top-25 in SG: Approach, Tee-to-Green, Around-the-Green and Putting is next-level stuff. --Len Hochberg
Looking back I wish I would have used Knapp at the beginning of the season when he finished T11 or better in seven of his first eight starts. Since then he has battled a left thumb injury and has been trying to get back to that form ever since. We saw our first glimpse of that last Sunday when he shot a 28 on the back-nine to post a 62 in the final round and climb up to a T13. This feels like the perfect time and course to take a shot on Knapp. He finished T4 last year at Detroit Golf Club, missing the playoff by just one stroke. Knapp was third in SG: Approach at the 3M Open and his combination of distance and putting has been one of the deadliest on Tour this season. --Ryan Andrade
If you're facing an uphill battle with only a handful of events remaining on the OAD schedule, consider a low-owned dart like Thompson to make a sneaky, late move up your leaderboard. He's gained an elite 1.233 strokes per round on approach throughout his past three starts, and Thompson is coming off a T7 at the 3M Open where he paced the entire field in both SG: Tee-to-Green and fairway proximity. Additionally, Thompson tied for second at the 2024 Rocket Classic when he posted the third-best SG: Ballstriking performance of his career. --Bryce Danielson
Akshay Bhatia
I'm choosing this tournament to deploy the Tour's top-ranked putter, particularly with Bhatia finishing T2 in Detroit two years ago. Bhatia has fared well here both off the tee and on approach, so all the makings are there for his second trophy of the season. --Kevin O'Brien
Rocket Classic: One and Done Fades
I always worry about motivation at events like this. Why is this person playing here? Much like Scheffler this past week, I think Schauffele is in Detroit to avoid taking three consecutive weeks off prior to the FedEx playoffs. That doesn't necessarily mean that he'll fare poorly, heck, Scheffler almost won this past week, but when a golfer is clearly using an event just to stay sharp, I wonder about his drive. Sure, everyone wants to win every time out, but there are a lot of quality players in the field that definitely want to be here and have plenty of experience on this course while Schauffele will be playing it for the first time this week. --Greg Vara
Seems like fading a player of Schauffele's caliber is not the smartest move. Let's call it a mini-fade, thinking he won't match his position as the second favorite in many betting circles. Schauffele actually hasn't had a top-10 in two months -- since the PGA Championship. He's played only five times since then, but one of them was even a very rare missed cut for him. --Len Hochberg
Schauffele is the layup pick here. It's really tough to pick a guy to avoid outside of him. A T29-T11-T51-MC-T18 stretch might not sound bad for most guys, but that's certainly not the level of play we have come to expect from the two-time major champion. The putting and iron play have been a struggle of late, two things you'd like to have working well going into a place that has been a birdie barrage. This will also be his first ever trip to this golf course. Even if you want to go chalk this week, there are certainly many better options at the top. --Ryan Andrade
Matsuyama was generally avoided in OAD last week when he shouldn't have been (e.g. deflated ownership and improved accuracy off the tee), but he's now gaining steam as a more popular target at Detroit Golf Club after notching his best finish since early February's WM Phoenix Open with a T3 in Minnesota. However, he relied almost entirely on his short game at TPC Twin Cities, where he was especially bad with his approach play from 175-plus yards while falling to 62nd of 66 in SG: Approach. Matsuyama is just 85th among the Rocket Classic field in SG: Ballstriking over his last 20 rounds, and I want more driving distance in Detroit as well. --Bryce Danielson
Schauffele has been rather pedestrian of late, particularly with the putter and on approach. If you still have him available, it's best to hope he gets back on track with an eye on using him in the playoffs when more money is on the line. --Kevin O'Brien
Don't get burned by late withdrawals. Visit RotoWire's PGA tournament field page for a live-updated summary of the field for the current week and list of players who have dropped out.
