The New Detroit Golf Club North Course Set to Host Final Rocket Classic
By Tom Lang
A recent trip to Detroit Golf Club was filled with many bittersweet moments.
The club revealed it’s all new renovation on June 15 – and the result is absolutely astounding.
Stunning.
Positively dumbfounding, in a good way.
Mere words nor photos can tell the true story. But we will try. Truthfully, people have to experience it in person to appreciate it.
Of course, as a private club you need an invitation to play it. But for people who ardently appreciate the history of the game, anyone can attended the final Rocket Classic, July 30 – August 2 to see for yourself what original designer Donld Ross created.
That’s the ‘sweet’ part.
The ‘bitter’ part is no more PGA Tour events at the club going forward unless a new sponsor steps up. Most everyone knows by now that Rocket has chosen not to renew the contract that brought the first ever PGA Tour event inside the City limits of Detroit.
For the final Rocket Classic, at least three of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking plan to compete in Detroit – No. 3 Cameron Young, No. 8 Russell Henley and No. 10 Xander Schauffele, a two-time major champion, have committed to play in the 2026 tournament – as well as recent U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark and past Masters Champion Hideki Matsuyama. Keegan Bradley, 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain, has also committed to the field and will be joined by past Rocket Classic champions Rickie Fowler (2023) and Tony Finau (2022).
“The restoration or renovation is something that’s been in the works for a couple of years. So, I was excited when it all started coming together,” Fowler said. “The golf course visually looks a lot better. They’ve done a great job of giving it some more character. It was a great old school spot before but maybe lacked some definition or some character, and enhancing the golf course, so I’m excited to get back up there.”
Here is a flavoring of the biggest changes on Ross’ North masterpiece:
No. 18 tee was shifted far to the right, taking out the dogleg left element so players can see the entire hole laid out before them with one last chance to score. And the green was redone – like virtually all greens were – to remove the drastic right side valley that dropped many balls off the green.
Two par fives were shortened to par fours. No. 17; and on the front nine Hole 5 (for members)/ Hole 7 for the tournament. Both were fairly plain holes that now have a lot more bite. No 5/7 green used to be to the far left near housing, behind a huge tree. Now it’s pushed right and further up the hill golfers climb to the next tee.
Bunkers are everywhere, with an added visual and tactical element of heather grass trimming the outer edges.
Every green was restored to the shape Donald Ross originally designed but had been tinkered with over the last 100-plus years.
The pond on 14 was removed. It was not original, having been added about 40 years ago.
Redesigns over the years filled in many of the ‘ditches’ that Ross created for proper drainage. Those have been restored to fix water runoff flow and add a new feature for golfers to avoid.
“This was an infrastructure driven project,” said course designer Tyler Rae. “The drainage and the ditches were an integral part of removing water from the playing surfaces, the fairways, the greens, the approaches. Drying out the land. That was not something new for Donald Ross. Over at Roseland Golf and Curling Club (in Canada), he did the same thing. Flat land. He did it wherever he had flat land. He cut in all the ditches and networked all the ditches to, number one, drain the land. But also use that dirt to perch up the greens. It was really brilliant.”
If anyone thinks the restored design softened the course in any way, they couldn’t be further from the truth. It looks very playable, but will take a lot more thinking by any level of player to get around the course. And shortening it to a par 70 will bring down the under-par scores. One estimate for a winner this year is 13-14 under par, instead of all the scores in the 20s each year.
I’m confident the Rocket staff and volunteers will create a wonderful atmosphere for fans to enjoy friends and family – and some great PGA Tour golf. Better parking choices and shuttles have been added, plus new features for fans like free deck viewing and cooling stations access. Michiganders can make this is best tournament yet in the final year of the Rocket Classic as we know it. More info at: https://www.rocketclassic.com/
