2025 Rocket Classic Picks, Bets, Course Preview
QUICK BETS
Clark +4000
Min Woo +5000
Thompson +5000
BOMBS
Woodland +10000 (8 Places)
Valimaki +16000 (8 Places)
ITALIAN OPEN
Guido +8000
HOT LINKS
Rocket Classic 2025 Picks & Bets, One & Done | Keegan Wins, Fleetwood Gags, Travelers Recap
Cust Corner 53 LIVE - Experience Camps, Youtube Skip Button, Best Parent Rankings, 1st Class Travel
2025 Rocket Classic
Field: 156 Players
Cut: Top 65 & Ties Make The Cut
First Tee: Thursday, June 26
Defending Champion: Cam Davis
Eric Cole, Kevin Yu and Charley Hoffman all WD’d Monday. Si Woo Kim is still listed in the field despite WDing at The Travelers with a back injury. Keep an eye on him throughout the week.
Also, a Michael Thorbjornsen update…
KEY STATS
Opportunities Gained
Strokes Gained: Off The Tee
Eagles Gained
Par 4s Gained 350-400 Yards
Putting 5-15 Feet
Mayo’s Key Stats powered by FantasyNational.com
COURSE
Detroit Golf Club
Yardage: 7,370
Par: 72
Greens: Bentgrass/Poa
Number of Sand Bunkers: 87
Number of Holes Water is in Play: 1
Average Fairway Widths: 30 yards
Par 3's (4): Average distance – 192 yards
- Cam Davis had a Par 3 birdie in each of the final three rounds
- The two longest Par 3’s play as two of the four toughest holes on property (Hole #11: 23.5% over-par rate)
Par 4's (12): Average distance - 429 yards
- Cam Davis only had three back-9 Par 4 birdies for the week, two coming on #18
- The four highest birdie rate Par 4’s all come within the first 10 holes (Holes 12 and 18 serving as the two toughest 4’s for the week)
Par 5's (4): Average distance - 580 yards
- Cam Davis birdied all of the Par 5’s on Friday and had multiple Par 5 birdies in all four rounds
- The four easiest holes on the course. The long #4 is the only of them holding a sub2% eagle rate
DFS Streak
There are birdies to be had and streaks will happen, but not with regularity on either turn. When playing front-to-back, Holes 9 and 11 are two of the four toughest on property, both carrying a sub-12% under par rate. Playing it backwards isn’t much more friendly: Holes 18 and 2 rank among the six hardest on the course (sub-17% under par rate).
If you’re breaking ties, I’m going back-to-front to get access to Hole 17, the easiest on the course with a 50.3% under par rate, but I’m not prioritizing starting hole in a major way for the first two days.
PAST WINNERS
2024: Cam Davis (-18, one stroke clear of Min Woo Lee, Aaron Rai, Akshay Bhatia, and Davis Thompson)
2023: Rickie Fowler (-24, playoff win over Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin)
2022: Tony Finau (-26, five clear of Patrick Cantlay, Taylor Pendrith, and Cam Young)
2021: Cam Davis (-18, playoff win over Joaquin Niemann and Troy Merritt)
2020: Bryson DeChambeau (-23 three clear of Matthew Wolff)
2019: Nate Lashley (-25 six clear of Doc Redman)
2024: Cam Davis (+6000)
- There are different ways to pay off fantasy price tags. Rico Hoey and Eric Cole finished T-6th on the leaderboard, but Hoey scored 16.5 more DK points)
- Five of the top 7 putters cashed top-10 checks (Rico Hoey and Dylan Wu did it in a week they lost OTT and ARG)
2023: Rickie Fowler (+1200)
- None of the top 16 finishers lost ground for the week on the Par 3’s
- The top 13 finishers all gained with the flat stick (the five best putters all cashed top-10 paychecks)
2022: Tony Finau (+1400)
- 11 of the top13 finishers gained distance off the tee (Wyndham Clark led in distance, finished T-8 despite being the ninth worst in fairways)
- The top 5 finishers all gained over 3 strokes putting, JJ Spaun was the best putter for the week (T-8 finish despite losing off-the-tee)
2021: Cam Davis (+10000)
- 9 of the top 11 finishers gained on approach from 175-200 yards (Davis and Niemann both gained from 150-175, 175-200, and 200+)
- 7 of the top 8 putters for the week cashed a check inside the top-15
2020: Bryson DeChambeau -23 (+600)
-Bryson was one off the pace after a Thursday 66 and his 65 on Sunday was the best on the course (he entered the day three back of Wolff who shot a 71)
-Bryson was the best off the tee AND with the flat stick for the week ... not a bad combo!
-For what it's worth, the top-3 finishers all lost in proximity from 200+ but gained from 100-125 yards out
2019: Nate Lashley -25 (six clear of Doc Redman)
-Lashley's 63 on Thursday was tied for the best of the week ... and he did it again on Saturday. Lashley's coasting to the finish line on Sunday was the only time a top-4 finisher this year didn't card a round in the 60's
-Each of the top 20 finishers were a net positive in putting from 5-15 feet (Lashley gained 6.3 strokes from 5-10 and another 2.9 from 10-15)
FIRST ROUND LEADERS
2024 ROUND 1
64 – Akshay Bhatia (progressively got worse: 64-67-68-72)
65 – Taylor Montgomery (a Saturday 77 took him out of the mix) and Michael Kim (his only round in the 60’s)
2023 ROUND 1
64 – Taylor Moore (first of four rounds in the 60’s) and Peter Kuest (followed it with a Friday 70)
65 – Seven-way tie that included Ludvig Aberg (13 shots better in Rounds 1-2 than Rounds 3-4)
2022 ROUND 1
64 – Tony Finau (67 or better in all four rounds) and Taylor Pendrith (tied with Finau entering Sunday, fell off with a 72)
65 – Five-way tie that included Webb Simpson (his only round in the 60’s for the week)
2021 ROUND 1
63 – Davis Thompson (his only round better than 72, finished 58th)
65 – Four-way tied that included Joaquin Niemann (four rounds in the 60’s) and Roger Sloan (Friday: 75)
NOTES
Now that the Pete Dye portion of the schedule has been completed, we move on to the Donald Ross phase. With Detroit moving a month ahead on the schedule this year, the Ross course won’t be played in rapid succession like other years. Ross courses include:
Detroit Golf Club (Rocket Mortgage)
Sedgefield CC (Wyndham Championship)
East Lake GC (TOUR Championship)
The Rocket Mortgage Classic is an amalgamation of both courses at Detroit Golf Club. There has been some re-routing for the tournament, including using a hole from the South Course. The South’s first hole will function as the tournament’s third hole and will be played from the North Course’s first hole tee box. Meanwhile, the regular eighth and ninth holes will be No. 1 and No. 2 for the tournament.
One of the most generous courses on TOUR off the tee, the field has hit over 50% of its drives over 300 yards at Detroit Golf Club while finding the short grass at a 65% clip. Unsurprisingly, this is where Bryson tested out the strategy that resulted in him hoisting the cleverly named U.S. Open Trophy later in 2020. Bryson became the first PGA TOUR winner to lead the field in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (+6.7) and Strokes Gained: Putting (+7.8) during the ShotLink era. And yes, Bryson also led the field in Driving Distance (351 yards)
It was unclear at the time whether or not this strategy would hold up or if it was just a Bryson thing. But in the three years since, big gains driving has proven a pathway for typically poor iron players to find success. As long as the putting comes with it.
Despite its 7,370 yards in total, Detroit Golf Club is actually much shorter. I talk every year about Riviera having hidden distance because of elevation and a lot of yardage saved on one Par 4 and the Par 5s, but DGC is kind of the opposite. There are four Par 4s measuring between 450 and 500 yards, but since the average driving distance is around 300 yards, those holes don’t actually play that long. Add on three of the four Par 5s which can’t protect themselves from eagles, and you have an average approach distribution that resembles the Travelers from last week, a course that came in just over 6,800 yards. The majority of approaches will be coming from 175 yards and in — that’s scoring time.
Easier courses can allow more of the field to challenge for a win. There’s a reason the U.S. Open leaderboard is a who’s who of elite names while the Byron Nelson is an event where no one can run down KH Lee. So, using Fantasy National Golf Club, and sorting by “Easy Relative to Par” over the past 24 rounds from the last 2 years, you’ll find …
PICKS
Min WOOO Lee & Wyndham Clark — Two high ball speed players who have the green light to fire away off the tee. If one of them, can roll a hot putter for the week they’ll be hoisting a novelty check.
Davis Thompson —A runner up at this site a year ago, DT finally broke out of his iron slump in a big way at Travelers. Thompson was third in the field approach (+5.6), marking the first time sine Augusta he’s been better than +0.2 in a tournament. The putter remain cold, but he has gained on the greens each of the past two years in Detroit.
Gary Woodland — If the man could chip or putt (preferably both), he wins in Hartford by 10 last week. Alas, he couldn’t. He actually led all players in approach at TPC River Highlands whiling making it his fifth straight positive performance off the tee. He just happened to lose a combined eight strokes between chipping and putting. Now, the chipping is no surprise. He’s one of the worst on TOUR. However, the horrendous putting could be a blip. Woodland’s actually been quite good one the greens in 2025. He’s slightly above average in most starts with two massive spikes which coincided with his best two finishes of the year. It’s good to know he still has that in his back pocket.
EXTRA
If you’re into players and their clubs, Jack Humphreys put out a cool recap of the winners this season, taking a look at what’s in their bag.