The Rocket Mortgage Classic made its debut as a PGA Tour event held in Detroit in 2019, and the impact has been immediate. The outreach to the metro Detroit community and its efforts to achieve diversity is well known.
By Herschel Caldwell
Rocket Mortgage (a subsidiary of Quicken Loans) is the nation’s largest home mortgage lender, reporting more than $350 billion in volume in 2020. Rocket Mortgage is known for innovation, using digital and state-of-the-art technology to create a welcoming environment for homebuyers across the country.
Fortune’s list of 500 companies lists Rocket Companies, Rocket Mortgage’s parent company, as #5 on their list of top 100 companies to work for.
PGA Tour golf’s return to Michigan has not gone unnoticed by the golf-hungry patrons of the “motor city.” Very understandable, Tiger Woods would not be in the 2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic field at the Detroit Golf Club.
It’s been over ten years since the last PGA Tour event was held in Michigan. That was in 2009 when the last time the Buick Open was played at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club. It was also the last year Tiger played professional golf in Michigan. Tiger’s personal circumstances later in 2009 precipitated his hiatus from golf.
Although Tiger and VJ Singh owned professional golf in Michigan with three wins each, VJ was the only player to win back-to-back. It was Tiger’s 69th PGA Tour victory, and he would not see another until the fabled 2013 year of multiple victories.
The Buick Open, Michigan’s prior PGA Tour stop, was played from 1958 through 2009, but in a few of those years was not an official PGA Tour tournament. In 1970-71, no tournament was played. The Buick Open returned in 1972 but was not part of the PGA Tour from 1972-76. In 1977, it returned to the PGA Tour schedule and remained through 2009.
In the first round of the 1987 tournament, Dewey Arnette tied the PGA Tour record for most consecutive birdies with eight in a row. Too bad for Arnette that Robert Wrenn was busy setting the 72-hole tournament scoring record en route to victory that year.
When Chip Beck won in 1990, he started the fourth round eight strokes off the lead. That makes it one of the biggest final-round comebacks in Tour history.
And another great scoring performance: Billy Mayfair shot 27 on the back nine in his final round at the 2001 Buick Open. That ties for second-best on the PGA Tour’s list of lowest 9-hole scores.
Tiger Woods holds the PGA Tour record for most consecutive cuts made, and his streak of 142 straight began at the 1998 Buick Open.
Billy Casper won the first Buick Open in 1958.
Tony Lema was the first two-time winner and the first back-to-back winner with victories in 1964-65.
The PGA Tour and Quicken Loans are teamed up to host a professional golf tournament inside the city limits of Detroit for the first time. Hosted by the Detroit Golf Club, starting in 2019..
The first Detroit tournament was held the last week of June — June 27-30 in 2019 — a prime spot on the PGA Tour’s calendar, leading to the participation of marquee names. Rickie Fowler, one of the most popular golfers, is a pitchman for Rocket Mortgage, a subsidiary of Quicken Loans, and thus would figure to headline the field.
This year’s event was held on June 28-July4. Featuring Ricky Fowler and Bryson DeChambeau. The inaugural John Shippen Invitational preceded this year’s event. (see Shippen Invitational story in “Black American Men department”) ed.
