Rocket Mortgage Classic: Can Fascinating Trend Continue In Detroit?

Will a developing trend at the Rocket Mortgage Classic continue this time around?

The Rocket Mortgage Classic will be hosted by Detroit Golf Club this week for the fourth consecutive year.

The PGA event, which first debuted in Detroit back in 2019, has seen an intriguing trend start to develop since the tournament’s inception three years ago.

That trend has been established by two of the last three champions of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, both of whom became winners on the PGA Tour for the very first time in the Motor City.

It began in 2019 when eventual winner Nate Lashley got into the event as an alternate before proceeding to go wire-to-wire en route to an emotional first PGA Tour victory.

The then 36-year-old Lashley won by six shots after being the last player to have gotten into the field back in 2019.

Nate’s story at the very first Rocket Mortgage Classic event in Detroit is not too dissimilar from that which Will Zalatoris alluded to during his pre-tournament press conference this week when speaking about one of the key things that makes the PGA Tour different from the controversial LIV Golf series.

Something that, at least currently, is not offered by LIV.

“I would say that any person on these grounds could have Mondayed in yesterday and won this golf tournament and over there it’s the same 48 guys playing over and over and over,” Zalatoris said on Tuesday.

Last year Australian Cameron Davis earned his first PGA win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Davis continued the trend last year when he earned his breakthrough victory at Detroit Golf Club, the Aussie outlasted both Joaquin Niemann and Troy Merritt in a three-man playoff last July.

In between Lashley and Davis, DeChambeau won the 2020 edition of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, it was Bryson’s first win of the season but his sixth victory on the PGA Tour at the time.

So the question is, will this trend extend to three first-time PGA Tour winners at this year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic?.

Last year’s PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Will Zalatoris and one of this year’s leading candidates for the award, Cameron Young, will certainly hope so.

Breakthrough coming for Zalatoris or Young at the Rocket Mortgage Classic?

Both players have now been runner-ups in majors without having yet won on tour, for Zalatoris he continues to pile up runner-up finishes at major championships whilst still searching for that breakthrough victory.

Will has compiled seven top 10 finishes this season without having yet recorded a win, three of which came at three of this year’s four majors.

Despite the multiple close calls though, he remains confident saying “My time’s coming, I’ve just got to stay patient and just let the first one get in the way.”

Zalatoris was 77th on his debut in Detroit last year and he comes into this year’s event as one of the favorites to be holding the trophy come Sunday evening. Perhaps a trip to the Rocket Mortgage Classic is exactly what is needed for Will to get off of the ‘winless’ mat.

Meanwhile, Cameron Young has six top 10 finishes of his own this season with impressive performances at the Genesis Invitational and two of this year’s majors.

The 25-year-old, who is probably the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year, came up just short at the 150th Open Championship a couple of weeks ago where he finished runner-up to eventual winner Cameron Smith.

All in all, Young has recorded four runner-up finishes this season with six top 5 finishes overall.  It would be fitting for either one of Zalatoris or Young to earn that first win at an event that has yielded two first-time winners in three years.

Only time will tell if this is all truly a trend at the Rocket Mortgage Classic or merely a coincidence.