DETROIT — The Rocket Mortgage Classic will be the only golf game in town.
But it won't be the only golf game that draws eyeballs and intrigue late next month.
The PGA Tour's fourth Rocket Mortgage Classic will be played July 28-31 at Detroit Golf Club — and will be held opposite the third event of the new and controversial LIV Golf tour. The Saudi Arabia-funded LIV tour, which has thrown hundreds of millions of dollars to so far land eight of the top 50 golfers in the world, will compete that same week at Bedminster in New Jersey.
Among the players who have gone to the LIV are Rocket Mortgage Classic regulars Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and, most recently, Matthew Wolff.
Still, there has been otherwise minimal impact on the field for next month's PGA Tour stop in Detroit, said Jason Langwell, who, as executive director of the Rocket, is the chief recruiter of players. Few of the top players who left for LIV have been prime Rocket recruiting targets, Langwell said.
"I suppose when Bryson went to the LIV tour, we had a conversation about it. For us, he was someone we were expecting to play here," Langwell said of DeChambeau, whose financial partnership with Rocket Mortgage was quickly severed by the Detroit home-loan behemoth after he bolted for LIV.
"We really haven't seen an impact beyond that from a recruiting standpoint. … That's not really an impediment from a recruiting standpoint.
"The conversation never really goes there. It's always been about the same things: 'Tell me about the city, tell me about the golf course, tell me about the experience.'"
The 156-player Rocket Mortgage Classic has been slow to develop, because of a variety of factors — LIV being one, and the tournament's new place on the schedule, held shortly after the Scottish Open and the British Open and right before the FedEx Cup playoffs, being the major one.
Still, the tournament has landed some marquee names to get ticket sales on the uptick, including Will Zalatoris, Tony Finau, Justin Rose and, on Monday, Patrick Cantlay and Adam Scott, among others.
Also in the field, of course, is defending champion Cam Davis. A year ago, he won his first PGA Tour tournament in Detroit. He called it a "life-changing moment" on a tour he grew up dreaming of playing.
That's why he's still on the PGA Tour, despite overtures from the Greg Norman-led LIV.
"I mean, the PGA Tour is where I grew up watching the best players in the world," Davis said Monday, standing on the 15th tee at Detroit Golf Club. "It's what my goal has been, to see that pathway to being the best golfer I can be. For me, it's a pretty easy decision to be here. It was trying to be the best golfer I could be, that was the driving factor and not the financial side. This is where I feel comfortable."
Still, as the days go by, the PGA Tour inner circle is getting a little less comfortable, with daily rumblings and headlines about who's going and who's staying.
The LIV tour's biggest gets have been Dustin Johnson (paid a reported $175 million), Phil Mickelson ($200 million), Brooks Koepka and DeChambeau, with three of them previously saying they had no intention of leaving the PGA Tour. Mickelson was always expected to go after comments dropped in February where he advocated for the rival league while criticizing a PGA Tour that has made him tens of millions. Of those four, only DeChambeau played Detroit more than once; Koepka never played the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
The LIV Golf Tour also has targeted just-out-of-college guys, and got Michigan State grad James Piot, the 2021 U.S. Amateur champion who received a low seven-figure signing bonus to play LIV for two years. Piot, of Canton, eventually will make much more than that, with last place in the 48-man, 54-hole, no-cut events paying $100,000-plus, taking that over a likely sponsor's exemption into his home-state event.
It remains to be seen if Rickie Fowler eventually leaves the PGA Tour for LIV; he has expressed interest but has said he's staying with the PGA Tour for now. He has been a Rocket Mortgage spokesman for several years, but his visibility ahead of this year's Rocket Mortgage Classic has been pretty low. He wasn't at Monday's media day, his name was well down the list of the tournament's initial commitments when they were announced last week, and his name also was well down the list of commitments talked about during Monday's press conference. Part of that could be his standing in golf these days — he's down to 152nd in the world rankings, hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 2019, and didn't even qualify for this year's Masters or U.S. Open. He did tie for 23rd at the PGA Championship. Part could be his fence-sitting regarding LIV. Fowler, whose profile rose dramatically with a series of funny TV spots (first for Quicken Loans, then for Rocket Mortgage), has served as the unofficial host of Detroit's PGA Tour stop since it debuted in 2019.
Every week, the PGA Tour's top stars have had to answer the LIV questions, and some are getting sick of it — Koepka was one, going off on the media at the U.S. Open before bolting the next week; Collin Morikawa being another, though he's insisted he's staying. Rory McIlroy is the major exception regarding willingness to speak his mind, which advocates say is shaking up golf and that's a good thing, while critics say the cash is essentially blood money. McIlroy has become the PGA Tour's biggest booster in recent weeks.
Davis, meanwhile, didn't duck the LIV questions Monday, and acknowledged it's a tricky time in golf.
"It's a very divisive environment right now with everything going on," Davis, 27, of Australia, told The News. "If guys want to go, it's up them. I'm hoping to see eventually that all the best players can play together again, more than just in the majors.
"Something is gonna eventually be sorted out. I would like to see something sorted out rather than the game get split. We'll see how it goes the next year or two, and see if something can get figured out."
As for whether the PGA Tour-LIV tour showdown is breaking up friendships in the golf world, Davis said he's not close enough to anyone who has departed for LIV to know for sure.
"At the same time," said Davis, "I'm sure a lot of guys have felt like someone they didn't think was gonna go is gone. … I mean, you've got no idea what's going on behind closed doors with everyone."
The PGA Tour was quick to ban all the players who left for the LIV, though some of the players preemptively resigned instead, like Johnson and Kevin Na. The European tour recently suspended and fined players who've left that tour.
The four major championships, so far, are allowing LIV players to compete, though unless the LIV is awarded Official World Golf Rankings points, eventually many of the bigger names no longer would be eligible.
As notable names have kept leaving for LIV (Abraham Ancer is another), the PGA Tour also has responded by promising the players who stay that the current wraparound season will be shortened to actually provide the players an offseason. The PGA Tour has been pumping up the available money for players, as well.
Langwell said he doesn't anticipate a shortened season would have a drastic impact on the Rocket, which last year was extended through 2027.
If anything, the shortened season could be a positive in Detroit, with more players potentially looking to add an event or two to their schedule to make up for the abbreviated slate.
"All my opinions are on the Rocket Mortgage Classic. We trust our partners at the PGA Tour. They're obviously very focused on continuing to make this the best tour in golf," Langwell said Monday. "But anytime the players are feeling better about the tour they're a part of, that's always a good thing. … I think the changes are good for the tour."
And, for all the passionate debate about the PGA Tour vs. LIV, it has beefed up the national narrative about the game of golf. Langwell points out that before all this — the LIV tour debuted in early June in London — golf would be lucky to land one story on ESPN's home page.
Now, some days, there are more than one at a time.
"There's a lot more conversation about the game of golf," Langwell said.
"That's really been a massive benefit, a net benefit."
Rocket Mortgage Classic
When: July 28-31
Where: Detroit Golf Club
Defending champion: Cameron Davis
Tickets: RocketMortgageClassic.com
