Rocket Mortgage Classic: Three longshot bets for the PGA Tour stop at Detroit Golf Club

The PGA Tour schedule undeniably (and understandably) will take its foot off the pedal over the next couple of weeks. After a few busy weeks on and off the course, the schedule hits a little bit of a lull until the Open Championship in the middle of July.

That may not sound like a great way to sell a tournament preview, but never forget that the money you win on the Rocket Mortgage Classic counts the same as the money you win at the Masters.

Since most of the game’s elite players are coming off a busy stretch, it’s not surprising that the field for the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club is lacking in headliners. Defending champion Tony Finau is the betting favorite at +1200, but this tournament is wide open with Rickie Fowler (+1400), Justin Thomas (+1600), Hideki Matsuyama (+1600), Max Homa (+1800) and Collin Morikawa (+1800) all priced under +2000.

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Although Nate Lashley won the inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club, it is pretty clear that this course favors players who can launch the ball off the tee. Bryson DeChambeau lifted the trophy in 2020, when he was at the peak of his powers, Cam Davis won it in 2021, and then last year it was Tony Finau who outplayed a chasing pack of Cam Young, Patrick Cantlay and Taylor Pendrith by five strokes. All of these players have one thing in common: They can hit it a mile.

The other thing to keep in mind that is that this tournament has seen winners from both ends of the betting board in its four-year existence. Lashley was an alternate-entry when he won in 2019 and Cam Davis went off at +10000 when he won in 2021, but the other two victors, DeChambeau and Finau, were +600 and +1400 respectively.

After nailing Keegan Bradley at +9000 last week, we’ll continue to focus on the longshots:

Perhaps this one is too simple, but you can’t ignore Cameron Champ’s driver at Detroit Golf Club. The form is not pretty — Champ has made the weekend just four times in his last 12 starts — but that’s not really the point for this bet. This course is easy enough that any PGA Tour player can tear it apart and punting on someone who can bomb-and-gauge like Champ makes sense when his price is this high. Champ is a three-time winner on the PGA Tour so it’s either boom or bust here.

At some point Akshay Bhatia will get his first PGA Tour win and the most likely scenario is that it happens in a tournament like this. Bhatia has already come close in similar events — he was the runner-up at the Puerto Rico Open and finished T4 at the Mexico Open — so I’m happy to take this number on a supremely talented player who isn’t in bad form at all.

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It was not long ago that the betting community was circling Vincent Norrman as a potential breakthrough player. But as is often the case in golf betting, as soon as the hype became palpable, it was too late. Norrman has now missed three cuts on the spin and his odds reflect his poor form. So what do we do? We buy back in. Not only is this field there for the taking, but Norrman is long off the tee and should have every chance of going low here. If he was worth a shot at half the odds a few weeks ago, he’s certainly worth it now.

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