The penultimate PGA Tour event before the FedEx Cup Playoffs is this week’s Rocket Classic in Detroit, which will definitely be the last Rocket Classic and probably the last Tour event in Michigan for a while. Schedule-wise, this is a very strong field. CBS and Paramount+ will air on weekends.
None of the world’s top three players are playing this week, but four of the top 10 will be, including reigning U.S. Open champion Windham Clark. Multi-time major champions like Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka are all making their tournament debuts. Is it because it’s the last Rocket Classic, which since 2019 has been the only PGA Tour event of the year in the great, golf-mad state of Michigan (I’m biased because I’m from Michigan)?
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However, the mortgage company chose not to exercise its option in 2027, the final year of its agreement as sponsor. Its sponsorship fees reportedly cost the Rockets about $15 million a year, and the lower-tier event never attracted golf’s biggest names like Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy. The complete 2027 PGA Tour schedule has not yet been finalized, but it is not expected to include a stop in Michigan for the first time since the 2009 Buick Open.
That’s also a shame, since Detroit Golf Club’s North Course underwent a $16 million renovation after last year’s event, going from a par 72 to a par 70 (7,328 yards), with Nos. 7 and 17 playing as par 4s of 505 and 537 yards, respectively, rather than par 5s. But winning here requires at least 18 under every year, and 2026 will likely still be close to that.
The highest ranking in the field, world No. 3, is America’s Cameron Young, whose price of +1000 makes Young the shortest career pre-tournament odds to win on the PGA Tour. The only other event in which he was favored was the 2023 3M Open, where Young was priced at +1400 but missed the cut.
His shortest odds for an overall win to date going into the event were +1200 at this year’s Cadillac Championship held at Doral in the spring, one of his two wins in 2026. Young was the runner-up here in 2022, five strokes behind Tony Finau (he also tied for sixth in 2024), and was the runner-up in his last start at the British Open. This was his fifth top-three finish this season and the third-most on tour. BetMGM leads in handles (30.9%) and tickets (9.4%), making Young more likely to win than any other player.
Even if he doesn’t know the course, I like Young, who is in the top 10 at +108, but not as much as Schauffele at +162. Schauffele, who has yet to win this year, has five top-10 finishes. BetMGM has him third most likely to win.
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But I think the two big storylines this week are 20-somethings Jackson Koibun and Aldrich Potgieter. Koibun, 21, won the 3M Open in Minnesota on Sunday in his third start as a professional on the PGA Tour (13th overall). He now surpassed world No. 1 Scheffler.
On Sunday, Koibun became the 16th youngest winner in PGA Tour history at 21 years and two days old, and the youngest American to win a tour tournament by multiple strokes since the 1932 WM Phoenix Open. Koibun is now +2,300 away from winning back-to-back titles, making him the fourth-youngest golfer in the past 40 years to win his second PGA Tour title, joining Tom Kim, Nick Dunlap and Tiger Woods.
Meanwhile, at just 20 years old, South African Potgieter became the youngest player on the PGA Tour last year when he defeated Max Glaserman and Chris Kirk on the fifth hole of the playoff to win the Rocket Classic. At the time, Potgieter was the ninth-youngest winner on the PGA Tour, which helped him earn Rookie of the Year honors. He was the youngest overall winner on tour until Sunday’s Koibun.
Potgieter led the Tour in driving distance in 2025 and led the Tour in driving distance for the second consecutive season in 2026 (330.0 yards, a full-season record). Potgieter didn’t accomplish much, missing nine cuts and finishing in the top 10 only twice. So this week he is likely at +10500.
No one has ever competed in the same race at the Rocket Classic, and only Australia’s Cam Davis has won twice (2021, 2024), his only two Tour wins. Davis is having a miserable year and is +2300 just to break into the top 10 this week. He is the only golfer to have multiple top-three finishes at the Rocket Classic. American Taylor Moore is the only player in event history to finish in the top 10 three times, with one at +810. It’s fascinating.
Three of the last five Rocket Classics have gone 72 holes, so you should probably bet +350 that there will be a playoff. Although sudden death, last year’s five-hole playoff was the longest on the PGA Tour since the 2021 BMW Championship was played over six holes.
