Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap: All Along the Potgieter

This article is part of our Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap series.

What were you doing at age 20? Frat or sorority party? Working at a bagel store? Scrolling Twitter? We're not even gonna ask what you were doing at 17 or 19.

Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa won the British Amateur at 17 and became the youngest Korn Ferry Tour winner in history at 19. His age-related list of golf accomplishments grew even more impressive on Sunday, when as the youngest current player on the entire PGA Tour he won a tournament at age 20.

Potgieter captured the Rocket Classic in a three-man playoff on the fifth extra hole at Detroit Golf Club, besting 30-year-old Max Greyserman and 40-year-old Chris Kirk.

If he celebrated with an adult beverage, we don't even want to know about it.

The winning score was 22-under-under in one of the biggest birdie-fests in years. It wasn't so much the winning score – this tournament has been won at 26-under and other events have been won in the 30-unders – but the sheet number of golfers going low. You needed 19-under just for a top-10, 16-under for a top-25 and 11-under just to crack the top-50. On such an easy course at Detroit Golf Club and in such a weak field, it's hard to truly gauge where this week leaves everyone -- whether they did great or missed the cut.

But that shouldn't detract from Potgieter, whose victory placed him in some lofty company:

• In the past century, there have been only five international winners on the PGA Tour under age 21: Seve Ballesteros, Rory McIlroy, Joaquin Niemann, Tom Kim and Potgieter. That tidbit came courtesy of @JustinRayGolf on Twitter/X, who added this next one too:
• Potgieter is the third-youngest winner of a PGA Tour playoff in the past half-century, joining Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods, who was 10 days younger than Potgieter is now at 20 years, 9 months and 16 days.
• He's the seventh-youngest winner on Tour (since 1983): Woods, Spieth, Kim, Phil Mickelson, Nick Dunlap, Matthew Wolff.

Some other fun facts about Potgieter: He's the absolute longest driver on Tour, averaging 327.4 yards. At the Rocket, he had drives exceed 370 yards (that wasn't the most; Jake Knapp had 8). He had a near-miss on tour back in February, losing the Mexico Open in a playoff against the Tour's shortest driver in Brian Campbell.

Potgieter won the 2022 British Amateur at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, besting current DP World Tour player Sam Bairstow, 3&2, in the 36-hole final. In January 2024, he won a Korn Ferry tournament in the Bahamas. That included a 59.

Before going too far overboard in listing Potgieter's accomplishments, it's important to note this was just the fifth cut he's made all season, in 14 starts. But in just those handful of cashes, wow! He has this win, the playoff runner-up, a T6 at the Charles Schwab, T15 at the Farmers and T47 at the Valero Texas Open.

That can happen when you rank 142nd on Tour in driving accuracy, 110th in Strokes Gained: Approach, 93rd in greens in regulation and 160th in SG: Around-the-Green – and those numbers are after Sunday's win. So before you invest heavily, or even a little, in Potgieter, know that he needs a big wide-open ballpark to withstand his shortcomings. But he's also an excellent putter, ranking 29th on Tour.

On the other hand … Potgieter ranked sixth in approach for the week after debuting a new set of irons.

With just those five made cuts, Potgieter now sits 36th in the FedEx Cup point standings – a playoff certainty and close to Tour Championship territory – and 49th OWGR.

He said his biggest goal this year was "to make the playoffs, secure the card and then come back next year with all the knowledge of the courses. And schedule wise, you can pick a little bit what you want to play, so that's a really big deal. And maybe make the top-50 into the elevated events, so that's also huge so definitely try and push for that."

Potgieter hasn't accomplished all his 2025 goals just yet, but his breakthrough win took care of most of them.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Max Greyserman
Greyserman is still searching for his first win. Sure, this stings, but it continues a great season. He hasn't missed a cut since March – that includes three majors – and this was his ninth top-25.

Chris Kirk
This has not been a great season for the veteran. He needed this result just to get inside the top-70, which is the playoff cutoff point. But Kirk may be turning around his season. His two best results have come in his past two starts. The first one was a T12 at the U.S. Open. So if you can do well at Oakmont and Detroit, your game can handle most any situation.

Michael Thorbjornsen
Thorbjornsen is pretty young himself, just 23, and had a share of the lead late on Sunday before settling a shot back in a two-way tie for fourth. He hasn't had many high finishes – just three top-25s that have doubled as top-10s. But he's missed only six cuts, which is a good sign for a young player seeking consistency on Tour.

Jake Knapp
One of the biggest hitters on Tour thrived on the wide-open fairways in Detroit to tie for fourth. This week did a good job of getting Knapp well inside playoff position at No. 54 in the point standings.
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Nico Echavarria
This was Echavarrai's second top-10 of the season and the first one came way back in January. He now sits 60th in the point standings – not quite secure to make the playoffs but looking in decent shape.

Jackson Suber
Finishing tied  for sixth matched Suber's best finish all season, with the other T6 coming in his first start at the Sony Open. We shouldn't take too much away from this week – weak field, easy golf course.

Collin Morikawa
Sporting his third caddie in two months, Morikawa finished in a five-way tie for eighth. As the best golfer in the field, this is what he should do at the very least – finish in the top-10. There's a lot going on with Morikawa, so it's hard to take too much from this week.

Matt Fitzpatrick
It's been a subpar season for Fitzpatrick, though this tie for eighth moved him into the top-70 and continued a recent trend of better play. He's made six straight cuts with four top-25s, two of them top-10s, with the other one coming at the PGA.

Min Woo Lee
Lee opened with a 63 and ended up T13, by far his best result since winning the Houston Open in March. Very often, a golfer, especially a younger one, takes a step back after his maiden win. Lee may be ready to resume the rest of his career now. We shall see.

Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama has done next to nothing since winning the season-opening Sentry. This T13 was his best result since February. Coming in such a weak field, it's hard to call this a turning point for him.

Ben Griffin
Tying for 13th gives Griffin a sixth straight top-15 performance. This would've been a very easy week to sleep-walk into a missed cut. But he kept his foot on the pedal. That's what the best golfers do.

Harry Hall
Hall tied for 13th and now has six straight top-25s.

Keegan Bradley
Bradley tied for 41st a week after his big win at the Travelers. He's never done well at Detroit, so this result matters little. Keeping his commitment to the tournament was an honorable choice when he probably would've enjoyed a week to relish his win.

Will Gordon
Gordon needed not even one full FedEx Cup point in the final start of his medical extension. Basically, he needed to make the cut. He did so with a tie for 51st, birdieing his final two holes on Friday.

Aaron Wise
This was Wise's first made cut in more than two years. He tied for 51st, but that's not what's important. After leaving the Tour midway through 2023 to work on his mental health, Wise played only once in 2024. This was his third start in 2025.

James Piot
Piot is a former LIV player who sat out more than a year in a PGA Tour suspension. This was his first start back. The former Michigan State star was in on a sponsor invite. He hadn't played a Tour event since the 2022 U.S. Open and this was the first time he ever made a Tour cut. He tied for 73rd. Pilot had been playing in Asia and made one Korn Ferry start this year (MC).

MISSED CUTS

Wyndham Clark, Max Homa, Rickie Fowler, Tom Kim, Cam Davis. Clark, Homa and Kim continue along in bad seasons. Davis was the defending champion and is a two-time Rocket winner.

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