With just two events left in the regular season, The PGA Tour heads to the Motor City to cap off its Midwest Swing as the world’s best take on Detroit Golf Club. A staple on Tour since 2019, this Donald Ross design has routinely been yet another birdie fest ripe for the taking as technology has passed it by. However, over the last 12 months Detroit GC has undergone a massive restoration complete with overhauled fairways, bunkers, and green sites to bring it back to Ross’s original design after decades of nips and tucks to try and keep it relevant in today’s game. While the golf course should still allow for plenty of scoring, having all new green sites should result in rather firm putting surfaces that could certainly impact scoring as they will not be as receptive as past years. The largest alteration to the course comes by way of the scorecard. Detroit GC has always played as a par 72 with two rather scorable par 5s on each side that most if not all players could reach in two. In its new form, both the 7th and 17th have been transformed into long par 4s stretching out to over 500 yards. This should certainly keep cheap birdies and eagles off the card while also adding a few extra long irons to this week’s test. No different to nearly every week, distance off the tee is a must, but solid iron play and a tidy short game to navigate Ross’s undulating greens is the primary focus this week in order to contend.
This weeks field has all the makings of boom or bust. Surprisingly, and suspiciously, there is a ton of talent at the top of the board with 20 players ranked inside the top 50 and 4 of the top 10 including Cam Young, Russell Henley, Chris Gotterup, and Wyndham Clark. On the flip side, the field enters the “value” section rather quickly, which is why Cam Young is one to be had here. Scottie topped pricing north of $14K last week in one of the weakest fields of the year and now Young is top billed at just over $10K. Cam is smack dab in the middle of a career season and there is no reason to think he won’t be the cream of the crop this week as well. He has two wins to his name already, made 15 of 15 cuts, and five top 10s on top of that. He hit a bit of a lull through May and June where the putter went cold but was right back in contention two weeks ago at The Open. He has made three starts at The Rocket in his career, T2 in 2022, T6 in 2024, and a lowly T46 last year just two weeks before he won the Wyndham. After his heartbreaking miss two weeks ago to grab his first major, this week sets up as perfect spot to show why he is the number 3 players in the world.
Staying near the top, there is little reason to think that Wyndham Clark won’t be in contention on Sunday with the season he is having either. Two wins on the year with one being a US Open, and from May 24th to July 12th he did not finish worse than T13 any time he teed it up. You can’t put too much stock in The Open with how volatile links golf can be so his missed cut across the pond is water under the bridge. He also played pretty well but missed the cut by a single shot with a couple blowup holes that killed him. What is most encouraging about Wyndham is that he has really made a leap with his putter this year. The flat stick was a lifesaver for him during the US Open and the one club in the bag that got him across the line. He gained strokes putting in 9 straight weeks from Heritage to the Scottish Open, with two standouts performances at Travelers with +2.34 strokes gained putting and +3.05 strokes gained putting in his win at the Byron Nelson. With the rest of his game intact and the distance that he has, there is little reason to believe he won’t be in the hunt at yet another putting contest.
One more guy we like in the upper tier is Patrick Cantlay, who has recorded two top-20 finishes over his last five events and is coming off a 28th-place finish at The Open. Cantlay has played this event twice and has already shown that his game is a strong fit for Detroit Golf Club, finishing 2nd in 2022 and 32nd last year. Cantlay checks a ton of boxes this week, ranking 4th in the field in Tee-to-Green, 8th in SG: Par 4, and 11th in SG: Total. Detroit Golf Club rewards precise iron play, consistent birdie-making, and the ability to take advantage of scoring opportunities, which are all areas where Cantlay can excel. With his strong statistical profile and previous success at this course, we see Cantlay as a player who not only has top-10 upside but also has a very good chance to pick up his first win of the season this week.
Next up in the mid-tier, we have another golfer who has put together a solid season in Akshay Bhatia. He already has a win this year to go along with three top-five finishes and four top 10s. Although he missed the cut at The Open, he entered that event in strong form after finishing 5th at the Travelers and 17th at the U.S. Open. Bhatia has also had success at Detroit Golf Club, finishing 2nd here in 2024 and 26th last year despite losing strokes on the greens. While consistency can sometimes be an issue for Akshay, these types of birdie fests where the winning score usually reaches the high teens are exactly the kind of tournaments where he can excel. Look for another strong week from Bhatia as he tries to bounce back and put himself in contention once again.
Another guy more in the middle of the pack sits Jake Knapp. Knapp was off to a killer start this year as he tore up the west coast swing through the Masters, but was plagued by a wrist injury that derailed his spring and major season. Despite a missed cut at The Players, Knapp’s worst finish through his first eight events was T11. Last week’s T13 at the 3M was a great sign that the guy we saw early this year might be back, especially after his Sunday 62 to cap off the week. Even through the injury, Knapp continued to leverage his silky smooth swing to bomb it out there and his approach game never faltered. He finished T31 here in 2024 and improved on that last year, just one shot out of a playoff behind eventual winner Aldrich Potgeiter. With Knapp back in form after the long layoff, this is a perfect spot for him to contend yet again and salvage his season before too much ownership starts flocking back to him.
In the value section this week, we have Davis Thompson, who was impressive in his most recent start at the 3M, finishing 7th while gaining 2.76 total strokes on the field. He also checks several important statistical boxes, ranking 14th in the field in Tee-to-Green, 14th in SG: Par 4, and 5th on par 4s measuring over 500 yards. Thompson is another golfer whose game fits Detroit Golf Club, as his previous results have shown. He has made the cut in all four of his appearances here, including a runner-up finish in 2024. With a price tag that provides plenty of flexibility when building lineups, combined with his recent form and strong course history, Thompson stands out as one of the better value plays this week and offers plenty of upside.
Dipping down a little lower on the board, Jackson Suber is still hunting for his first career PGA Tour win. Suber, now in his sophomore season, has shown a bit of inconsistency week to week, but when he is on, he’s on. Missed cut or in the hunt with a T4 seems to be the recipe of his 2026 season. He has gained on approach each of the last three weeks, including his stellar week at The Open where he held the first round lead with a blistering 65 to kick off the week. His approach game is top notch and is ranked 19th in the field in tee to green. Suber finished T6 here last year with positive strokes gained across the board, so it seems like it’s a comfortable place to play for him. He has been on the “up and coming” list for some time now, and like Koivun last week could be primed for a coming out party in the midwest.
At the bottom, Chandler Phillips is a great way to round out a lineup if you are looking to leverage the few top talent players higher up on the board. Phillips is now in his third season on Tour, and currently sits 86th in the FedEx Cup rankings and is on the outside looking in for a playoff spot. His year leading up to June has been less than desirable as his iron game from February to May was pretty poor. However, June brought new beginnings for Phillips as he started to see progress in all facets of his game, including continued prowess in his short game and putting, which is by far his best asset. He rolled into the Canadian Open coming off three straight missed cuts in a row, but since then has managed three straight T15s and a T3 last week at the 3M, with his only missed cut coming at the US Open. He is an above average Par 4 scorer in the field and ranks 22nd in the field in Par 4 BOB%. He finished T13 here last season with three of four rounds in the 60s, one of which tying the low round for round three at 65. If he can continue his improvement with his iron game and show up with the same short game he normally has, there aren’t many better options at this price to balance your build.