After just missing out on claiming the elevated Travelers Championship when losing a playoff to the unstoppable Scottie Scheffler, Tom Kim is the favourite to win this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
Key Stats/Skill Set Required
- Putting Average
- Strokes Gained: Putting
- Birdie or Better
- Par 4 Scoring
- Strokes Gained: Approach
- GIR
- Proximity
- Bogey Avoidance
- Scrambling
- Strokes Gained: Around The Green
The Detroit Golf Club is a Donald Ross design that turns 125 this year. It tends to be a very easy course to score on, ranking in the 13 easiest courses the last five years including three in the top eight. Putting and scoring are the keys to success here.
Key Correlation Courses/Tournaments
- Sedgefield
- TPC Twin Cities
- The Country Club of Jackson
‘Cashmere’ Keith has not won since claiming the 2019 Honda Classic but he is trending in the right direction and looks a great hope in this weaker affair. He has seven Top 20s in his last 12 starts including a last-start T-10 at the Canadian Open. His profile is really nice for here, ranking 6th in Proximity, 9th in Strokes Gained: Approach, 9th in GIR, 9th in Birdie or Better and 13th in Par 4 Scoring. Finished 5th in last year’s 3M Open. Will be right in this.
Aaron Rai
Super-consiistent Englishman Aaron Rai is a regular in these tips and off a Top 20 at the US Open at the most famous Donald Ross course, he can absolutely be in the mix here. Rai ranks 6th in GIR, 7th in Strokes Gained: Approach and 7th on Bogey Avoidance.Finished T-20 in the 3M Open last year. With his putting improving – he has positive true strokes gained on the green in four of his last seven – he will be in the mix for his first PGA Tour crown.
Ben Griffin
No player has better form on the correlation courses than Ben Griffin. He finished 2nd in the 2023 Sanderson Farms, 4th in the 2022 Wyndham and 20th in last year’s 3M while he is 12th in the field in strokes gained on Donald Ross courses. He went down by just a shot in the Canadian Open. Ranking 12th in Bogey Avoidance and 13th in Par 4 Scoring, he looks a great chance to contend.
Daniel Berger
Four-time PGA Tour winner and Ryder Cup player Daniel Berger remains on the comeback trail after a long injury layoff and this is the kind of event he will win when his best does come back. There have been real flashes of late with four made cuts in his last five events including a T-21 at the US Open, a huge guide for here. He has been very good with his irons since returning so if he can get hot on the greens he will have enough opportunities.
Patton Kizzire
Veteran Patton Kizzire is a mammoth price this week. Kizzire has been one of the best iron players on Tour this year. He ranks 3rd in Par 4 Scoring, 4th in GIR, 6th in Strokes Gained: Approach and 9th in Proximity. He has three Top 25s in his last five starts and has a Top 25 here. Love him in Top 10/Top 20 markets.
Kiwi Ryan Fox looks the pick of the six Aussies and Kiwis teeing it up this week. Min Woo Lee is the short-priced favourite but Fox is starting to find his feet on the PGA Tour. The Kiwi star has three Top 7 finishes in his last five regular-season events. The price on offer here is huge. Should be favourite.
We are going back to the well with Taylor Pendrith, who just missed collecting for us last week. Pendrith’s putting is elite, ranking 4th in Strokes Gained: Putting and 5th in Putting Average. Loves Donald Ross courses.