Rocket Mortgage Classic: Dark Horse Candidates in Detroit
Brian Stuard – 150/1
Brian Stuard comes into the Rocket Mortgage Classic as a hometown favorite. He grew up in Jackson, which is within an hour and a half of Detroit Golf Club. With the event being played at a new course, the comfort of playing so close to home could help Stuard out this week.
2019 has been a pretty good year for Stuard so far, as he has made the cut at 17 of 24 events that he has played at. Already over $1 million in earnings on the season, his status for 2020 is in the books, as every golfer who makes over $1 million gains tour status for the upcoming season.
Similar to Conners, Stuard finished in the top ten at both The Valero (T-4th) and at The Sony Open (T-8th). He does have a handful of top 25’s to go along with those finishes, showing flashes of making runs at The Honda Classic, The Valspar, and The RBC Heritage.
Stuard plays a little bit of “old man golf”. He doesn’t hit it far, averaging a shade under 275 yards off the tee, ranking 200th on tour. he is one of the most accurate though, hitting 70.93% of fairways, good for 7th.
He makes up for that lack of distance by being pretty good on approach shots and really good around the green, ranking 58th and 31st, respectively. He is one of the better scramblers on tour as well, getting up and down just over 65% of the time, good for the fifth best rate of anyone.
With his ability to recover and avoid going on some bad runs, sporadic birdies throughout the week could be the reason for Stuard to slowly climb the leaderboard. Looking for his second career win, there would be no better opportunity than in Detroit. With a weak field, home field advantage, and consistent play, I like Stuard as the final dark horse of the week.
Next. Jason Day: Hiring caddie Steve Williams looks like the perfect move. dark
That’ll wrap up this week’s edition of dark horse candidates. Best of luck to everyone playing in the inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit!