2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic Preview

Steve Schirmer of the Golf Gambling Podcast previews the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club.

this episode of the golf gaming podcast and the sports gaming podcast network is brought to you by Underdog fantasy you can win up to 325 times your entry with a new pick eight sign up with golf sgn to claim your special pick plus firsttime deposit offer up to $250 in bonus cash on fantasy.com promo code golf s gpn and we’re also brought to you by Rhythm get the best data driven props and picks from Rhythm claim your 7-Day free trial today by going to sportsg podcast.com rthm that’s sportsg podcast.com mm all right Deens welcome back to the golf ging podcast I am Steve Shermer joining you solo this Sunday morning I had to do the recording a little early Boston kapper is off I believe at Universal Studios possibly with the family so unfortunately I could not lock him down uh as he’s in Harry Potter World building his own wand uh hopefully to you know maybe break some cold streaks as far as nail it and outright for uh for both of us but um it’s just me today uh we are going to go over the rocket mortgage excuse the rocket mortgage classic uh Detroit Golf Club a golf club golf course that I think I like a little more than other people in the community mostly because it reminds me of a lot of golf courses I play growing up obviously you have Rochester New York Donald Ross connections all of that stuff but uh there definitely are things that need to be changed about this golf course and improved upon hope luckily they’re going to be doing that uh starting next year that I’ll talk about in a little bit but for now this is kind of the dog days of summer for the PGA Tour uh we are past the US Open a very exciting US Open even though we have a signature event going on at The Travelers it is a birdie Fest it is hot it is soupy you know great leaderboard but not really a lot of Buzz at least for me maybe it’s different for you but you know right now we have Scotty sheffler up near the top I am kicking myself I had an inkling maybe I should either bet without Scotty markets this week or just single bullet Scotty maybe I should start listening to my gut I also probably should stop uh listening to very stupid narratives I make up in my head about why you know for example what Tom Kim this is eighth straight tournament he’s got to be tired even though he’s perfect for this golf course it had nothing to do with a chart it was that uh maybe I should just turn my brain off sometimes and just uh go in my gut on this stuff um but he’s actually in the field again this week uh Tom Kim ninth straight tournament at the rocket mortgage uh he’s one of the highlights in this field I he has a top 10 finish couple years ago the year I think Tony Fina won this tournament this was before he won the Windam but you would think Assuming he’s not tired you know he’s a 22y old guy that this would be a great Golf Course for Tom Kim obviously really good with the short irons he makes a lot of birdies he has won a couple birdie fests he’s won the Shriners twice he’s won Windam so we’re talking about and obviously he’s in the mix this week at um um The Travelers so you know 20 under 25 under probably he’s going to get it done again this year at the rocking mortgage he would be a great fit uh to win this thing also in the field uh our favorite Whipping Boy at least my producer’s favorite Whipping Boy he is fully fading cam young today after his 59 but he’s in the field cam young trying to go for his first pga2 or win he has a top five finish here I think he’s going to be massively popular next week because there is a bit of a narrative about how bombers Prevail here and do very well and that’s mostly true last year it definitely did not hold but you know there are opportunities at this golf course to even though it’s very narrow and tree lined to cut d dog legs really shorten it up it’s a lot wider and generous than it might look like at least from the Google Earth uh overhead and the fact he come off 59 people are going to buy into him being able to go low he’ll probably be a very popular pick but he’s also highlighting this field but other than that though these guys need a break and you had the memorial you had the US Open everyone except for Rory had to basically show up for travelers a signature event EV and there’s not really a whole lot of meaningful golf between now and the open and guys are going to take their summer vacations unless they have some sort of sponsorship commitment to go here and the rest of this field it’s pretty weak you got oxa batia you know pretty good young name but you know that’s probably the third best player in this field you will Alis Horus who showed a little bit of promise at The Travelers in the first round really faded badly but other than that though your best player is MW Lee who I also expect to be very popular this everyone loves betting him uh makes a lot of bird he’s big bomber I definitely can see guys getting behind him uh Steph Jagger here as well Robert McIntyre Ricky Fowler who was the Bane in my existence last year they’ll go over we talk about the 18th hole Alex norin Taylor pendra Taylor Moore Ryan Fox I got a little bit of interest in this week I think uh Ben Griffin the these are the types of names that are highlighting the field and just going towards the back end of this field we’re filling out with guys like Jimmy Walker Martin trainer Harrison Endicott Scott gski who isn’t even he doesn’t even as his PG card that the the uh exemptions that they’re dipping into is actually from the DP World Tour corn Ferry Q school reshuffle at this point and for guys who just don’t have their carded uh you got bud collie you know major medical here uh Michael ch tby oron’s in this field though The Talented uh rookie you just turned pro at Travelers uh you know we I remember L leig last year played here and played very well the first two tournaments actually was one of the reasons why he got his rder cup spot so maybe Michael tur bjon Canna do that but otherwise though a lot of kind of crap in this field um sorry to say that sorry if that offends people but this is not a very strong offering it’s going to be this week and next week very weak uh tournaments but then we end get the Scottish open then we in the open and then the Olympics which I’m actually I think a little more excited about than our people so yeah so that’s the field uh Nala star power I would expect the golf tips chart to probably have Cam young and Tom Kim and oxe minwu probably uh Taylor Moore probably on that list as well even though he’s not playing all that great at The Travelers he’s done very well at Rocky mortgage for a lot of reasons that we’ll talk about in a little bit so I would expect probably a lot of popular names to be uh um you know touted this week based on the last couple winners has been very popular picks so maybe don’t shy away from that this week because there just isn’t a lot of talent in this field but hey you know who knows it’s golf it’s been weird this year we’ll see what happens so uh why don’t we take our first break and then I will show you uh Detroit Golf Club show you what it’s all about if you’ve never seen it before just kind of forget and uh yeah we will do that right after this short break but first we are going to talk about Underdog fantasy and pick 8 is now live an underdog fantasy you can create entries with up to eight picks and Underdog will automatically double flex your entries so you can miss up to two picks and still win your entry and that’s very useful in golf with how variable and unpredictable can be so gives you a little bit of a wider margin to maybe miss a pick or two and still make some big money over on golf with more picks to make there are extra ways winning excitement is higher than ever and the best part you win it up to 325 times your original amount so you can use your specials and boost on all your Flex plays so if you put one together for The Travelers hopefully he was on guys making a lot of birdies because that’s what everybody’s doing at this so-called not obsolete Golf Course anymore at because they added a couple mounds and tighten a couple Fairways so don’t miss your chance try it out before it’s gone sign up today using promo code golf SGP and to claim your F special pick plus first time deposit offer up to $250 in bonus cash arof fancy.com from one code golf s gpn okay let’s pull up Detroit Golf Club in all of its unfortunately uh we talk about obsolete golf courses uh sadly this is now obsolete uh at least for now so this is the Detroit golf club is the overhead here uh there are two golf courses on the property you have the North Course which is north and kind of the uh e East part of the property and then the South course so most of this tournament is going to be played on the North course they do it a little differently though to kind of um to I don’t I’m not really sure why I know part of it’s part of to lengthen it but they end up starting this tournament actually on the North course’s eighth hole here and the ninth and then they go down the South course here on the third I think believe this the opening hole on the south course and then they proceed to go back back through the North Course so this was built in 1899 uh William Fen designed the original golf course and originally it was just a six-hole design and eventually expanded up to nine holes and golf is very popular in Michigan there’s a lot of great Golf Course a lot of Rich history of good golf in Michigan and uh you know as uh the automotive industry started to make uh you know boom in Detroit uh a lot of businessmen wanted to take up Golf and so in 1913 Donna Ross is brought in survey the land he determined uh that you know he could through additional land Pur purchases he could create a full 36hole layout of two golf courses and that’s what he did uh Donald Ross laid the specs out and built the North Course and the South course and what’s funny is well not funny but we’re just coming from a Donal Ross golf course in Pinehurst and it looks nothing like a traditional Donald Ross Golf Course to me personally when I think of a Donald Ross golf course I think of exactly like Detroit Golf Club Parklands narrow Tree Line very linear very classic small greens slow back to front and that’s not what we got at all at Pinehurst but that is what we’re going to get uh this week at Detroit golf club and so starting off here let’s go to the first hole which is actually the eighth hole very short par for to start uh 397 yards and this is why I think Bryson made a quote a couple years ago about why he was just lighting this place up when he won this and he actually apologized to Donald Ross but he can just hit it over all the bunkers and this is a great example why the first hole here there are two Fairway bunkers over here which you know classic Donald Ross bunkers you know with the uh flat bottoms here the grass faces looks very much like it but it only takes a drive of 267 to carry and once you carry over this bunker here you know it’s supposed to ball neck here to about 25 yards once you carry this bunker though over on the left farway winds up a little bit to about 35 yards and you know even though it’s very tree lined here if you CLP a tree it’s probably going to come straight down it’s not going to go in really bad directions so you know some guys especially longer hitters like playing tight narrow Tree Line golf courses like this because it kind of Narrows their focus it gives them good aiming points also a lot of opportunities kind of cut dog leg as well and as you can see here with these two bunkers if you just carry over over it the golf course really widens up and especially when in the summer when it’s really hot Turf can be kind of firm you know we’re getting some rain here this week but overall in the Northeast and New York and Michigan has been a ton of rain ground’s pretty firm Ball’s going to roll a lot so um but this is what part of the reason why is Golf Course unfortunately can just get overrun every single year is because there really isn’t a lot of adversity off the tea uh there’s no water hazards again these bunkers can easily be carried if you clip a tree it’s going to come straight down and even if you have 4 inch Blue Grass rough you know these greens let’s zoom in here they open right in front and you know they they they traditional Donald Ross greens they slope pre from back to front here you know uh top the back of the green is about that 650 in elevation front of the green is about 646 so about four feet 3 feet four feet in um um drop uh basically the slope here but you see how how it’s open in front so even if you’re you’re in the rough you can get out with a and then um you know you should be relatively okay so that’s the first hole here and and honestly I don’t really need to go through the a lot of the rest of the holes here because they look very much the same second hole same story I’ll flip it around over here again you got you know tight tree lined uh 35 yard Fairway and there’s a couple bunkers over here but it only takes a drive about 250 to carry it so guys are just blasting over everything you got a Center Line bunker that if you really are going to get a hold of it you could potentially run into there’s another bunk over here about 350 but otherwise though if you just St short of everything you’re going to set up you know a wedge into the green again and even if you’re in the rough again same story everything’s really open up here this is very flat as well you’re not going over Hills or Mounds or anything you can bounce the ball up to the green towards the front here and if the pin’s in front great look at birdie even if you’re in the rough so there just isn’t a lot of defenses to this golf course um I personally like this is the type of golf I grew up with obviously this is there’s lot of uh similarities at least in the layout of it to Oak Hill up here pre Andrew Green renovation so I sympathize a lot of this stuff you one of the things I I I like about this golf course too is I the you know Donna Ross always creates a very good set of par 3es usually have a lot of variety to it and you know the Detroit Golf Club has you know um a good variety of part 3es so there’s two short ones this this is one example here the fifth here and this is a pretty classic Donald Ross Green here you know you got falloffs on all sides kind of a tabletop green here this reminds me a lot of the fifth hole that they created at oakill um the green is a lot less complex to it but there’s still you know some pretty good undulation to it very small Target reminds me a lot of the the fifth at Oak Hill that they created near the entrance you know short par three you got some bunkers are set well below the putting surface here small Target um you know they got a couple like that um on those golf course they also have a couple long par Theses the ninth here long 207 yards you can bounce the ball up to the green here that’s the difference between the the fifth here but you have some short par 3s long par 3s classic Donald raw screens uh that need a renovation but you get all that here uh another interesting part of the golf course is the uh you’re going to hear a lot about that week is the 313 Challenge and you know listen all golf tournaments and it’s kind of lost with just how much money is being pumped into the sport irrational money I would like to say but there is a good charitable um effort here at the rocket mortgage it’s called the 313 challenge obviously 313 is the area code of Detroit and the 14th 15th 16th year which is actually a very good place to watch golf everything is really Consolidated here you got the 14th green 15th is you know the short par three over here another kind of tabletop par three with bunkers set well below the surface and then the 16th is um you know Par Four with actually some bunkers that do actually do challenge these guys off the te you got two cross bunkers that really narrow it once it gets about 312 so that actually is a well defended um part four but if you get a three or an eagle on the 14th year with the water hazard uh short left of the green here uh $2500 will go to charity if you get a hole in one on the 15th every Ace is 10 grand which it’s very rare that happens and then for every birdie it’s on the 16th hole here you’ll get another $2,500 to charity and if one golfer during the course of a tournament man manages to Eagle the 14th Ace the 15th and make a birdie on 16 here then they will win $313,000 towards the charity of their choice and look like you’re going to hear a lot about it next week it’s gonna be pumped on social media it’s very probably not feasible uh I I think listen to some other podcasts there are some maybe some shady elements towards maybe the people who are running this effort but the intention of it is good and anytime you’re going to get some a challenge that puts money into charity pockets it’s all good all right then you got the 18 old uh the bane of my existence and this last year and I I’ve made reference to this tournament a couple times since then um this was my worst outright loss my most devastating outright loss ever is what happened last year’s Rock and mortgage and last year around this time if you remember Ricky Fowler was starting to play pretty good golf you know he did really well the at Lac he was getting a bunch of top 10 hitting the ball really good obviously he has his rocket mortgage connections uh so and you just had narrative Street just all week that this was Ricky’s time he’s gonna win you know it’s Mr rocket mortgage I you know 15 to one Ricky Fowler who never wins golf tournaments that’s a great bet and everybody bet Ricky I think I’m pretty sure he was the most Tipp guy last year and me being the contu and I am I said well you know look um you know Kore Cal is starting to putt pretty well he putts pretty well in bent POA surfaces and you know this n notion that he can’t hit a lot of birdies he’s not a great putter well you know he should have won kaaloa last year he can make a lot of birdies so I bet him at 20 to one and I also bet Adam hawin who’s been pretty good at this golf course and good putter good short iron player makes a lot of birdies so I was on morawa and hadwin was not on Ricky and I was a little annoyed through most of Sunday to start because Ricky had a lead and it looked like he was gonna win but then just Ricky’s typical Sunday choke job just comes rearing back and he starts Bogey and parring down the back n meanwhile Adam hawin starting to make a charge morawa I think had a Sunday 64 really charging up the leaderboard and I was feeling pretty good um you know it’s it was looking like morau and Habor go to a playoff obviously having outrage on both is pretty great um and then moral hit went about 18 feet on 18 here and he had a big breaking left to right putt but he would putting really good all day and I was I just had this feeling like this is going to go in and he’s goingon to win the tournament and the putt lipped out so he tapped in for par uh got in I think 24 under or so you also then have Adam hown who had just birdied the 17th year to moved to 24 under as well TI for the lead and you had Ricky just I think one back at this point but he was leaking oil he was looking pretty bad so you come in the 18th year and it’s kind of a you know it’s kind of a split hole it’s split by this ditch that uh runs through the middle of the hole here and you don’t see it over on the right here but all of this in um in regulation Ricky send his t- shot it wasn’t very good he overcooked it uh a little left here but he was bailed out because there’s a lot of thick rough here and just ended up here and stopped short of going in the ditch which would have been he’s not getting out he’s not making birdie but it ran to the rough here the ball was sitting up really good so he got lucky there and then he hit his about 11 feet a hit the putt got in the playoff so I’m already starting to feel annoyed like okay I got more C I got hadwin but still still feeling pretty good it’s Ricky Fowler what can he really do I got two guys in the playoff both them playing well we’re doing fine how unfortunately um he also had an opportunity to get a bur could not he end up leaving a short right here did not hit a great iron shot ends up tapping for par then we go back to the 18th Ricky’s first up and Ricky hits a awful Drive absolutely horrible Drive blocks it miles right absolutely miles right had when and mor get in they put right in the middle of the Fairway no problems Fowler is over here so first off though we had moral and hwin they go first hawin hits it about maybe like 25 feet not a great iron shot but he’s sa on the green morawa wedge in hand like this is like gozone for him and the greens are running a little firm he Flags it but he hits it a little too far past the pin and this is a very you know signally sloped back to front green here that if it just held the green here it would have trickled back to tap and range unfortunately it took a little bit too big of a hop and hopped in this rough back here and now I’m starting to get the bad feelings because then they showed Ricky who gets Tio because of the all the bleachers over here and everything is trampled down because of the the fans and he has an absolutely perfect look to the green with a clean lie and sure enough Rick hits it to three feet hits the putt community’s happy I’m not and the worst part of it was this was before I was going to go on break and have a kid I this was my just the last thing you heard of me before I took a break and it would have really been nice to hit the outright here send me off into a break feeling pretty good uh did not congrats everybody who thought Ricky Fowler 151 was a good bet turns out it was uh I end up going for a long walk after this around the neighborhood took a break uh and fortunately I look back at this this was kind of because I’ve had a lot of bad luck with stuff over the last year with outrights maybe it started here and maybe I need to hit the winner here to exercise the demons because I look back at this tournament I’m just like [ __ ] th this was a bad one until Rory a couple weeks ago up two at the US Open with five to play but all right that’s the Detroit golf club now the one thing I I want the last thing I want to mention too is I I I keep mentioning is a very absolutely golf course now and it is you know they they need something done well fortunately starting in 2025 they’re going to renovate the golf well not renovate they’re I don’t know exactly what it’s called a ration baby maybe like when it’s a restoration but it’s a renovation regardless they’re going to do some similar stuff what they did to oakill in town here they’re not going to do is drag what they did they’re not gonna I don’t think they’re create new holes basically what they’re going to do is they’re going to rebuild all the bunkers and I would suspect they’re going to move the bunkers out to B make it a little more challenging for these guys off the te where they just can’t blast it over everything uh they’re also going to rebuild the greens too and you can see how you know with this rough just creeping into the greens with mowing patterns greens just shrink and Shrink over time and you end to losing pin positions so I would hope you know maybe they can do similar stuff to what they did kill you know Square Off the edges here expand the greens create some more interesting pin positions you know and actually put a little bit of more teeth in this tournament or golf course you know not too much probably still going to always play pretty easy but you know at least make it look like you know a goodlook Donald Ross course that doesn’t look very tired you know maybe cut some trees down as well improve the Agronomy really helping for that I’m looking forward to seeing what they end up doing with this place but for now though this is the same Golf Course we’ve been seen the last couple years birdie Fest um and even though there is a bomber narrative there really isn’t a good course fit for this place it really is just G to come down to just guys who can just hit a lot of putts and I’ll show you all that after this but we’ll take another ey break and then we will uh go over the stats go over What’s um done well here what’s not done well here mostly if you have a bad putter you don’t do very well uh we’ll take a break and then we’ll talk about all that so let’s talk about Rhythm though if you’re if you’re uh if you plan on watching The Rock and mortgage classic uh next weekend then you need to download Rhythm rhythm’s golf features make it easier than ever to find the best betting opportunities for the rocket mortgage classic by letting users create custom betting models and instantly see bet recommendations for outright winners top five top 10 and top 20 finishers Rhythm presents these bet recommendations in a menu likee format making it very easy to see where your models agree and helping you feel confident in your betting decisions Rhythm also features an AI caddy which gives betters a chance to see every single golfer in the field simulate performance thanks to rhythm’s powerful AI algorithm and you can use this to find huge plus money betting opportunities throughout every tournament so rhythm is the ultimate golf betting and DFS Companion download now and start a free 7-Day trial and bet smarter for the rocket mortgage classic claim your 7-Day free trial today by going to sports gaming podcast.com rthm That’s Sports scaming podcast.com r i t hmm okay let’s get rid of Google Earth let’s get rid of that let’s go to the gcsaa tournament fact sheet always love starting here this gives you a little primer about the yardage greens Agronomy all that stuff so like I mentioned this was uh you know Donald Ross the full um the full 36 hole layout finished in 1916 all also has had uh Renovations over here by Robert Trent Jones um not a surprise Robert a lot of Robert Trent Jones golf courses you know there are Park ones in the Northeast very narrow thick rough tree lined this looks a lot like that um and then you know a couple other uh you know other touchups from a couple other guys over the last years and then Tyler Ray next year is going to be doing the uh the renovation so looking forward to that average green size 5,150 50 square fet pretty small a lot of that has to do with you know Donald Ross greens are small in nature but also with the mowing lines with the rough coming in that has eliminated some pin positions um also important to keep in mind too that these are classic Donald Ros screens I showed you these are not the turtleback greens you saw in Pinehurst these are slope back to front some undulation to it you can bounce the ball up to the up to the pin positions you couldn’t really do that Pinehurst a couple weeks ago so don’t make be confused about guys who putt well at Pinehurst do here think more Sedgefield uh types of guys who do well in those types of greens uh very similar design greens uh between Detroit Golf Club in Sedgefield uh 7,370 yards par 72 but as I kind of showed you with warm air and the opportunity to kind of T cut some dog lights you can really shorten up this golf course a lot so uh as a par 72 you know just under 7,400 yards not all that long either so um you know definitely not one where a shorter hitter is just dead from the start even though you know you got some thick rough these guys is very manageable as far as Agronomy goes the greens are a bent poem mix just like last week at The Travelers now one thing I want to uh talk about though and this will be in my preview article is it was a great video series that I think it was it was the I think they were called the course reporters and they they were doing a series of videos of tourn of golf course uh previews in 2019 they were doing they did a really good job and they would it was just Total golf nerd stuff they would talk about they would talk to the superintendent about course setup aromy uh you know how the greens were constructed all this stuff it was really a lot of useful information especially for a guy like me and they stopped doing the video series for whatever reason I’m not really sure why I was it would start to come back but the Channel’s dead now but they actually did one for the rocket mortgage and the one thing they were talking about with the superintendent was yes it’s a bent POA mix but these greens are mostly POA I think it’s 80% POA they said now it’s not quite the PO that you see in the west coast but anytime you’re putting on poana surfaces it is a little more difficult and the the ball doesn’t roll quite as true as they would on a regular B grass surface so that’s something to keep in mind and actually kind of bears out in stats that’ll show a little later that this actually these greens are not all that easy to putt on I guess that’s the defense quote unquote but these are bent POA greens definitely more POA though in uh in composition colors are also bent POA as well po approaches bent POA rough it’s a Bluegrass mix four inches but because the mouths of the green are open and the golf course is very flat if you’re in the rough and you you know got a relatively decent lot you can bounce the ball up to the front of the green pretty easily so um it there’s not much of a penalty for hitting in the rough that we I’ll show you in a little bit it’s actually one of the lowest penalties for hitting it in the rough uh for an offline drive so but I think that’s the big reason why is that even if you in 4 inch rough you have an opportunity with a relatively short iron bounce it up to the green and be perfectly fine let’s go to the course table here one of the easiest golf courses on the PGA tour average score uh Rel pars is about minus two last couple years last year was minus 2.3 minus 1.7 2022 um played about 200 par in 2020 and just you know compared to just other golf courses they’re really easy you know so here’s Detroit here K Valley Trinity Forest TBC Deer Run Austin Country Club Sherwood Country Club Capal uh Craig Ranch so lot of birdies are flying around at this place you know it’s not as easy as like you know the sum club which is three under uh or well I mean it’s probably gonna play qu just as easy as Travelers this week you know I mean I think the average score is like minus 2.2 wouldn’t be surprised if we’re going to see something similar as that this week but uh very easy golf of course a lot of birdies if you look at just the difficulty of um the par F fours and threes I think this out of 90 or so golf courses uh it’s 65th most difficult so about the 25th easiest for par fives about the 10th easiest for par fours 12th easiest for Par 3 so just not a lot of adversity and challenge for these guys they I’m I’m hoping the I mentioned this ear I’m hoping the renovation really um improves a lot on the you know the difficulty of the golf course probably not but anything I can do to make it a little easier let’s talk about the uh different categories though I mentioned very easy tgreen golf course off the te not a lot of adversity not a lot of challenges because there’s no hazards you can carry a lot of the bunkers you can shorten up holes by cut hitting over the trees if you hit it to certain lengths it really widens the golf course up it’s usually pretty warm here no water hazards as I mentioned and this is one of the easiest golf courses off the tea even if it’s you know tree line and you got to you would think you got to just hit it dead straight every time just isn’t a lot of adversity uh it is probably the seventh easiest I don’t know exactly how many golf courses they have in this database but uh 84th toughest let’s put it that way and it’s one of the bottom to uh top five easiest off of te in three the last five years out of 45 golf courses they played last year on the PG tour it was the sixth easiest off the te so and we’ll go a little bit more into that so C the values here average driving distance 297 guys are just ripping driver here all the time and at relatively High Fairway uh driving accuracy rates too you know last year the field average was 67% that it was the fifth highest clip of Fairways hits so even though 35 yard Fair wide Fairways trees you know these guys are still hitting Fair ways a lot here um just very easy driving conditions that they have here at least off the T no deter to not hit driver High rates these guys that that’s a perfect recipe to just really eat up a golf course and especially because just missing Fairways not a big penalty at all uh average Fairway width about 35 yards so you know relatively generous corridors to work with Miss Fairway percentage only 0 three difference between your score on a hole if you hit the Fairway and your not it’s not a very significant penalty no real penalty for hitting it in the rough even though it is 4in Blue Grass it’s because you can bounce the ball up to the front of the green relatively easy so not a big difference in rough uh and very low penalties uh only 1% of all Miss Fairways incur a penalty basically it’s nonexistent you either have to hit the ball into a part parking lot out of bounds maybe into that ditch on 18 that I wish Ricky hit it into but say lovey so no real Verity off the te at Detroit Golf Club you’re pulling driver a lot you’re hitting it long ways hitting the Fairway relatively High clips more than you would think with a driver but no no real reason not to do that all right approach play so again also very easy approach shots so uh this probably it’s the 75th most difficult for approach shots in the PG T since 2015 so with about 90 golf courses in their database about 16th easiest um you know the not very difficult approach shots from under 150 or over 150 very high green and regulation rates as well 73% for the most part again I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that if you miss a fairway here there is a very good opportunity to still get the ball onto the green From the Rough um you can bounce the ball up to it obviously in the Fairway there’s a lot of shorter irons here uh most of the length on this golf course is either in their par 3es or the par fives so even if you miss a green uh on the par five you still get on in regulation if on the longer par 3es you’re hitting from a clean y on a t your Chan of hitting the green are higher so and and then there’s kind of a dead zone between shots between like 125 and 175 I’ll show you in a little bit and then a lot of shots under 125 and under 150 so high green regulation rates at this golf course um again another reason why the birdie RAC and scoring is just so good here um around the green again not all that difficult as well uh you know it’s a little tougher it’s probably eyeball this 30th toughest p youber but still uh below average difficulty turns it around the green um you know from the Fairway one of the easiest to get up and down probably because you can use putter uh from the front of the green there to get up to the green bunkers not very difficult get up and down from I guess From the Rough it could be a little difficult but that’s only really one year maybe you’re just missing from the wrong side maybe it’s more luck dependent but again not a lot of adversity off around the green where there is a little bit of difficulty is with the greens uh 29th most difficult greens to putt on since 2015 and I would I would equate that to um the Donald Ross nature of the greens that is you know severely slow back to front uh if you’re even if you’re pin High there’s usually a lot of break to your putts so not very easy to get it online there also with the PO as well I think that’s a little tricky too so that would would be why I would think putting here is a little more difficult is because you don’t have a lot of straight putts there’s going to be a lot of undulation I think back to Mor how was putt last year on 18 that was pin high but had a lot of break to it so um you know good Putters uh can definitely have an edge here because there’s a lot of birdies if you’re rolling in rolling it pretty good that week it definitely gives you an edge because otherwise though T de green just not a ton of adversity uh at this place so uh let’s go with the course fit tool for Detroit Golf Club Let’s uh get this loaded up here it is taking slow lost me for a little bit okay here we go let’s get rid of TBC River Highlands here so the so there’s a narrative about bombers uh this is a bomber track and it’s very easy to look at the past winners and say okay that makes sense you know you think back to 2020 uh 2020 you have Bryson and Matthew wolf separating themselves at this golf course they were the longest guys they hit it over everything it was funny how this go this tournament actually was a preview and appetizer which was the US Open at Wingfoot which kind of has a lot of similarities in hindsight it was you know Parklands you could carry over dog legs obviously a lot more difficult Wing flip because you couldn’t hold greens but you could bounce the ball to to the Green in hindsight that makes a lot of sense why uh Bryson and Matthew wolf for one2 at the rocket mortgage end up being one two at Wingfoot a couple months later but at least for data golf there’s a lower correlation between guys who hit it farther and success of this tournament um I I think it’s because you know it just isn’t very challenging off the te if you are a shorter hitter even if you hit it into the rough you have a very good opportunity to get it into uh onto the green there’s a lot of shorter irons I think it’s more there’s just a lot of things about Detroit that shorter more accurate hitters tend to do a little better than bombers you know short game wedges all that stuff that give them an edge here so that’s why I think you know this whole distance thing well obviously distance is a um a big Edge everywhere and some winners have had a lot of length you know you still have your Nate Lashley with W here Adam hadwin was in the mix last year Mor how was in the mix you know you definitely have your shorter hitters still doing very well at this tournament because there just isn’t a real penalty for when they miss so and you know got they’re hitting it the fairways at very high rates they just hit the ball very dead straight everything is very dead straight here the bunkers are not in play for them even for the shorter hitters so not a big there isn’t a big correlation with with driving overall same thing with accuracy either you know that’s where your bombers come into play there’s no penalty for them to miss a fairway it’s relative they can shorten up the golf course so not a correlation there and even with iron play around the green putting there is a lower correlation to success in any of those areas than the typical PG for up and actually if I do click this relative importance it basically shows that nothing matters here nothing is correlated there is no course fit like this toggle basically makes everything even everything is just below average so you could have a bad Iron player here and do very well you could have a guy who isn’t long do very well here you got have a guy who’s a bad Putter and they still find success so you know it just kind of speaks to how this golf course is really challenges these guys any professional these guys are really good and any professional go out and make a lot of birdies uh at this type of golf course and doesn’t matter who you are so it does the fact that there’s not really a whole lot of difficulty degree in conditions it really shrinks the gap between the best players and the worst players so it’s kind of why you get a skill set model that looks a little bit like this um let’s go over some lers and this kind of I think actually shows how there is a lot of parity at umro uh uh generated so let’s go back to the results page here let’s get rid a couple Windows because this is running slow this annoying all right come on here we go okay last year you had Ricky Fowler Adam how morawa at 24 under in a three-way playoff here you know two relatively shorter hitters Ricky’s got a little bit of Popp I wouldn’t describe him as a big bomber just kind of a well-rounded player Lucas Glover shorter player Taylor Moore bomber Peter cous bomber Adam shank’s got a little bit of Pop Justin low shorter hitter Brian Harmon Alex Norman or Norman Peter Milady Steph Jer who was starting to bombit Aaron Ry a lot of different types of guys here you got some bombers you got some shorter players not a lot of consistency as far as the type of player you’re looking for this year 2022 this one I think this is where the bomber narrative came out a lot of big hitters did very well phenow Klay pendrith young joerger Moore Windham Clark Scott Stallings lot of length in this leaderboard you know sure you had your Tom Kims and spawns and Russell Henley you know and you know Troy Merritts sewo those guys you know they can do pretty well here but this is where the bomber narrative came out uh came to existence and then the next year just completely kind of shattered it like it was kind of all over the place uh 2021 this one was a little bit more all over the place you had Cam Davis bomber you know wins it Troy Merritt short hitter Neeman longer hitter nin short hitter levota short hitter Bubba big bomber bran heggy big bomber Sheamus kind of a Shor hitter kizner Mark Anderson sunj again a little more diverse leaderboard um not a big consistency here 20 20 again another bomber year Bryson and wolf just completely separate themselves but behind them Kevin kizner Ryan armor Danny Willet Adam hwin Terell Hatton Webb Simpson Troy Meritt again se straka you know the bombers separated themselves but right behind them were a bunch of short you know acur players and then 2019 you had Nate Lashley who won this thing by like a billion Strokes uh he won by six over doc Redmond back when doc Redmond was a thing I’ve Wast a lot of money on Doc redond in my career that’s how long I’ve been doing this Rory sabatini West roach who I barely know Ted Potter bran Saker so overall with the winners length is generally prevailed I mean Ricky Fowler had some pop feno obviously has pop uh Cam Davis has pop but as far as positionals and DFS definitely don’t R out your shorter hitters because they can find success here uh because it just isn’t very challenging to Green they’re not going to get punished if they miss a fairway they generally are pretty good Potters for the most part and then let’s go over two last things here let’s go over the proximity chart and just how guys separate themselves so last year off the te not a great way to separate yourself when you have a golf of course it’s driver heavy not very penal off the tee High driv ACC race you’re not going to separate yourself with distance you’re not really going to separate yourself more than you would with you know hitting more Fairways hitting Fairways is more important than distance to this place because there is a little bit of a penalty if you just are spraying it everywhere but it’s not all that extreme um basically last year was if you had a great iron week you had a great putting week then you generally did pretty good and you can see that here you know not a ton of Strokes be gained off the team not a ton of Strokes to be gained on the field around the green but a lot of Strokes with your approach a lot of Strokes with the uh with the putter when you 67% driving accuracy rates and guys uh hitting at 297 with 73% green regulation rates that’s how you get essenti with a lot of shorter irons that’s how you get kind of a wedge mid iron potting contest um in 2022 as well you had little bit more similar story Fairways were more important to hit this week maybe it was playing a little fir armor um you know Drive ACC rate was only 62% it’s a little tougher to hit the fairways so finding Fairways are a little easier or a little more difficult that was more of a premium but again if you hit your IRS really good and Putt relatively pretty well you know you had a better chance of separating yourselves more than the average PG t stop and again you kind of see you know fale a lot of these guys the bombers had big driving weeks but for the most part lot of field they weren’t gaining a lot of Strokes off the you know off the but big Iron week big putting weeks that was you’re separate yourself overall and that’s what most of the top guys did uh at this tournament again lot of short irons a lot of shots from under 150 a higher proportion over uh 225 that would be mostly your par fives and a couple of the par 3es it’s not gonna be on your par fours those are relatively short so in 2021 this one this tournament was basically you know kind of scrambling putting Affair even though you know Drive ACC rate was 68% 72% green ration rate I’m not really sure how this came about and why it was a little tougher maybe it was a little firmer but again though you know irons and putting is basically the most important thing like most PG events but that’s the most important thing this week um you know a lot of guys had big putting weeks towards top of the leader birth so basically if you putt great you did pretty well uh 2020 this one this tournament even though um Bryson and Matthew wolf W won it was actually more important to hit Fairways that week um you know kind of shows with some of the shorter hitters that were behind them again though big putting week so that’s really what’s going to come down to this week um I know I went 50 minutes I can’t believe I went 50 minutes I thought this was gonna be probably a 30- Minute Podcast because like I just spent 50 minutes talking about how there really isn’t great Proto type fit for this place you can be a short hitter or a long hitter doesn’t really matter te green it doesn’t really matter here the Green’s G be kind of difficult to putt on it’s gonna be a birdie Fest if you basically just look at guys who are playing relatively well lately and look at guys that make a lot of birdies if you just use that as your betting card you’re probably going to do pretty well this week that’s probably I’m going to do I’m going to look at guys who you know tend to hit their shorter irons pretty good make a lot of birdies maybe do kind of well at some of these other big low-scoring events um that’s really it that’s that’s all there is to it um I can’t again I can’t believe I went 50 minutes for just to come to that conclusion but that’s really what it is there there’s no real Secret Sauce to this thing U unlike some other tournaments where like you really got to focus on one particular thing this is just 24 25 unders going to win whoever gets a hot putter is probably gonna win that’s really about it so all right so that’s the show um thank you for joining me and thanks for putting up with uh 51 minutes of talking about the rock morage a uh big birdie Fest uh if you haven’t done it already please subscribe to us the golf gaming podcast on Apple or Spotify give us a revieww by the way we haven’t gotten a lot of reviews lately um leave a review it helps us out if you do that if you haven’t done it already also subscribe to our YouTube channel um you know obviously you see a lot of the visuals that I use for this uh you know I try and do a good job talking about it and speaking what I’m showing you in spoken word if you’re not watching on YouTube but obviously watching on YouTube helps a lot and subscribe to us we give a lot of free content uh go follow us on Twitter go follow us on Tik Tok and with that uh we will be back on Tuesday Boston kapper and I for our last show until we go on a little break uh we usually take the Fourth of July off kind of recharge the batteries it’s John Deere after this but we’ll do our betting show uh hopefully we can get a winner at this thing uh I can exercise some of the Demons I have at this tournament and uh we’ll go from there so thank you for listening we will see you on Tuesday night night