OT: Rocket Mortgage Classic experience
Anyone else hit up the Rocket Mortgage Classic at the Detroit Golf Club today? How was your experience? Pretty cool to see the PGA in southeast Michigan.
I'd never been there before, but I wandered around on the front 9 and it was like a typical old school country club course - gorgeous mature trees, tight fairways, and smaller greens. Loved the old mansions lining the course as well.
I mainly followed the DJ/Patrick "foot wedge" Reed group and the Snedeker/Woodland group. Woodland was getting a lot of love from the fans. DJ is just an animal off the tee. It's even more absurd in person. The other thing that stood out to me was the touch that they all have on odd-distance shots (i.e. 55 yard pitches). Crazy good distance and spin control.
I’m headed this weekend! Seems like just yesterday I was watching Tiger at the last Buick Open.
It is the most humbling experience ever to watch these guys hit a golf ball. I thought I was a good golfer until I watched a practice round at the '96 US Open at Oakland Hills. I wandered over to the driving range and watched ball after ball after ball just striped....by all of them.
I went today. Had fun and the crowd was impressive for Thursday. Dan Gilbert did a great job and this tournament will be a smashing success.
My only gripe is the course is so boring. Every hole is the same...Straight, flat, long. Would be so much more interesting to see how the best players in the world would be able to navigate Oakland Hills, Indianwood, or Shepherds Hollow.
But it's excellent to see the PGA Tour back in the Detroit area.
I will be there Saturday but I completely agree. I wish this was at another course.
Would be sweet to get a PGA event at Arcadia
Lot of great courses. Crystal Downs would be awesome. Just no hotels near any of the special ones up north
Most tour stop courses are more or less that way. Don’t get me wrong, they are all unbelievable players, but rarely do they play the most difficult track in a given area with the exception of majors and a few other tournaments. There is a reason they take it to like -26 under on a given week. Your regular old “Brand Name Open” is often played at a particular course for parking, concession, and gallery reasons.
Jack Nicklaus did an interview once where he said that regular weekend players often play more difficult courses on a weekly basis than pros do (trees, forest, OB and laterals everywhere) and the difficultly ends up chasing them away instead of just playing a muni and posting a decent score.
My first ever PGA event and I enjoyed it. I was there the bulk of the day. Followed Rickie/Kisner in the AM and bounced between Woodland and DJs respective groups in the PM. I enjoy watching on TV but watching guys this good, this close is another level of impressive. Course seems to be playing easy with the leader at -9 already. We’ll see if things level out over the next couple days. Looking forward to tomorrow and the weekend!!!
damn. thought this was going to be a thread about mortgages....
mortgages i know. golf is something i used to have time for....
lets just say my clubs are older than every member of the michigan football team.
Can't I interest you in a massive balloon payment.
I was hoping for Paige Spiranac photos.
Overall, a good experience and thrilled the PGA is in Detroit. That said, a few gripes/warnings for those attending this weekend:
1) Parking is at the state fairgrounds. The only entrance to park is on East State Fair Ave (not clear on parking ticket) and due to there being only one gate open, there was quite a line to get in.
2) Cell phone service was atrocious. It will only get worse as more people attend.
3) Sunscreen was not available at the concession stands; only at the Fan Zone. This is partly on me for forgetting mine but still was a bit of an inconvenience.
The parking would have been closer, but Mother Nature intervened. There's a recently shuttered golf course and plently of grass across the street from the Detroit Golf Club that was supposed to be used for parking. The ground is still too unstable to handle the weight of all those cars so the state fairgrounds had to be the only option.
I was at the clubhouse for an offsite meeting once, and I was able to walk around a bit at that point, and I agree, it's a great old school course in the middle of a very nice established neighborhood (Palmer Woods and its nice old school mansions).
Actually, if you want to sneak over to Palmer Woods to take a look at the houses, find the Bishop Gallagher House, which might be even more famous locally for having been once owned by John Salley. It's a rather impressive Tudor Revival home, I will say that.
Just an aside, if this is the first time the event has existed-it isn't a f#!%ing classic!
Sorry, just an pet peeve that increases as I get older and less accommodating to stupid marketing tactics.
Parking suggestion: For those going Saturday/Sunday, park in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood to the north of the golf course and walk 20 minutes to the golf club. I live in SF and I noticed people doing that this morning.
I'm going Sunday. Pretty disappointed that both Woodland and DJ are about to miss the cut, but should be a fun time anyways. I'm hoping Hovland has a bit of a surge today and makes it to the weekend.