According to ABC 7 WXYZ Detroit, club superintendent Stephen Moynihan informed membership that the 11th and 12th greens on the North course were believed to have been hit with herbicide glyphosate, which essentially kills off weeds and grass. Photos posted on Facebook by MasonGolf show large brown patches in zig-zag and figure-eight patterns on the greens.

Though the grass has suffered severe damage, Moynihan told members that the roots of the grass remain intact. The Detroit Free Press published part of Moynihan’s letter, with Moynihan stating: “The greens will need to remain closed to allow the fastest possible recovery time and to keep any undue stress off the plants. The length of time the greens will take to recover will continue to be weather dependent, the colder the weather, the slower the recovery. I will be working in conjunction with the PGA Tour Agronomy Department to develop an appropriate plan for optimal recovery.”

According to local outlets, police are pursuing leads to track down the parties responsible for the damage, while adding additional security and lights to the club.

Detroit Golf Club was founded in 1899 and features two Donald Ross courses on the property. The club has hosted the Western Amateur and US Mid-Am, and has served as host of the Rocket Mortgage Classic since the tournament began in 2019. The 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic is scheduled to begin in two months. At the time of writing the PGA Tour had no comment on the matter.

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But seriously, this man has made himself impossible to ignore. For the “enough with all the Bryson coverage!” people, you better strap in. It’s going to be a long decade (and maybe longer) for you.

Speaking of too much Bryson coverage, here are our five takeaways from Day 4 of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, three of which are Bryson-related. Sorry, not sorry.

Bryson gets sweet revenge
Incredibly, DeChambeau was 365 days removed from being stunned by Matthew Wolff at the 3M Open. Wolff drained a bomb of an eagle putt on the 72nd hole in Minnesota while DeChambeau looked on in disbelief, his mouth agape, yielding one of Golf Twitter’s greatest memes.

This time, DeChambeau stunned Wolff, shooting a seven-under 65 to win by three on Sunday. Revenge is a dish best served cold, but also with three protein shakes accompanying it. I think that’s how the saying goes.

This is the latest victory that’s also acted as a confirmation of DeChambeau’s process, which seems to be what fuels him. Others play for money or pride or a place in history. DeChambeau plays to reaffirm to himself that what he’s doing is working. That’s why this win wasn’t just revenge on Wolff, it was revenge on everyone. It’s revenge on the “is what he’s doing sustainable?” crowd. It’s revenge on the “let’s see him win this way, first” crowd. Soon, it will be revenge on the “he’s never finished better than T-15 in a major” crowd. Make no mistake, that is changing very soon.

Most importantly, it’s revenge on that pesky cameraman who pissed him off on Saturday afternoon. Kidding … sort of.

RELATED: Our writer spent tried to get big like Bryson … and lived to write about it

Bryson your wedge game WOOF
This has now been tweeted no less than 500 times this week alone, but my goodness if Bryson locks in his wedge game/distance control, it’s a wrap. Of course, this is provided his swing-out-of-your-shoes strategy on the tee is sustainable. That remains to be seen, but so far, so good. As for the approach game (98th in the field in SG/approach), it could use some work. Pretty hilarious to make such a statement after he’s gone T-3/T-8/T-6/Win in his last four starts. Get back in the lab Bryson!

Bryson used the rules to his advantage BIG time on 15
After making his first bogey of the day at the par-5 14th, DeChambeau was clearly shook, nuking his next tee shot over the green on the par-3 15th. His ball came to rest in some thick rough, leaving him with a testy up and down and a potential momentum-killing bogey-bogey two-hole stretch, which could have been disastrous with Wolff charging.

Instead, DeChambeau called over a rules official, pointing out that he might get relief from a sprinkler head in his stance. The rules official obliged, giving him a free drop, which is 100 percent within the rules. He used them to his advantage, just like he should have.

However, and yes I’m typing this with a mountain of salt in my mouth as I bet on Wolff to win, the advantage was SUBSTANTIAL. DeChambeau’s ball went from buried in the rough to the fringe after two drops, the second of which he received because the first went closer to the hole. He changed grass types, which doesn’t feel right in your high school football team’s alumni charity scramble let alone a PGA Tour event. Yet instead of facing a wicked lie, DeChambeau got to put from the fringe and easily save par. What a world.

Matthew Wolff decided he wanted to win too late

Leon Halip

Early on, Wolff went the conservative route. Irons and 3-woods off tees, playing for pars. It’s a fine strategy when you’re up by three strokes at a course where three strokes are hard to make up. It’s a dangerous strategy at Detroit Golf Club, where someone lurking is absolutely going to shoot a 65.

Wolff completely changed his tune on the back nine, letting it rip off the tee and gunning for flags. He wound up shooting a back-nine 33, but coupled with a front-nine 38 it added up to 71, which put him three behind DeChambeau. Wolff decided to try and win the tournament when it was too late. No doubt it will be a learning experience for the 21-year-old, who was playing just his 22nd PGA Tour event. He already has a PGA Tour victory and no doubt will have many more in his future, especially if he steps on necks in the final round instead of playing safe.

Kevin Kisner with the quote of the season

Leon Halip

Following a stellar final round of six-under 66, Kevin Kisner was interviewed by CBS’ Amanda Balionis. If you haven’t noticed these past few weeks, each guy who gets the TV interview has to answer one question after answering the usual ones: “What do you think about what Bryson is doing?” This isn’t a knock on Balionis. People are intrigued by DeChambeau and what his peers have to say about him right now. She should continue asking the question.

But normally it yields pretty vanilla answers. “It’s impressive,” “he’s changing the game,” “he’s doing it his way.” Yada, yada, yada. Not surprisingly, Kisner had a much better answer.

Kevin Kisner with a great line when asked about bulked-up Bryson. “It shows how much time he has on his hands. He needs some kids or something.”

— Alex Myers (@AlexMyers3) July 5, 2020

So good. Unfortunately for Kiz and the rest of the PGA Tour, having kids seems to be the very last thing on DeChambeau’s mind right now.

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Matthew Wolff reacts to his birdie on the 15th green during the third round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. (Gregory Shamus)

By Christopher Powers

The birdie-fest at Detroit Golf Club, also known as the Rocket Mortgage Classic, continued on Saturday, and Matthew Wolff led the way. The former Oklahoma State standout made nine of them, plus an eagle and three bogeys to shoot a second straight eight-under-par 64. He’s alone at the top at 19 under, three clear of the next closest competitors.

One of those guys just so happens to be Bryson DeChambeau, who was stunned and beaten by Wolff this time a year ago on the 72nd green at the 3M Open. Are we in for another DeChambeau dagger?

Here are our five takeaways from Day 3 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Wolff v. DeChambeau, Part II

A year ago this week, Wolff earned his first victory in his fourth PGA Tour start at the 3M Open in Minnesota. If you recall, the man he clipped by one stroke was DeChambeau, who eagled the final hole to reach 20 under, only to watch Wolff also eagle minutes later. It made for one of the great screengrabs of the 2019 golf season:

Now, just imagine a year later, and Bryson about 50 pounds heavier, if Wolff does something similar again. After weeks and weeks of top 10s, this week was supposed to be DeChambeau’s, especially considering how relatively weak the field was. Other than Webb Simpson, nobody coming into Detroit was playing better than Bryson. Wolff, who missed two of his first three cuts post-lockdown, didn’t appear to be much of a factor.

After rounds of 69, 64 and 64, not only is Wolff a factor, but he’s the man to beat at 19 under. Unfortunately, we won’t see them in the same pairing, but DeChambeau will once again finish before Wolff, just like he did at TPC Twin Cities last July. What a bit of deja vu it would be for Bryson to post a number and then lose by one on a 72nd hole Wolff birdie.

Ryan Armour watches shot during third round of Rocket Mortgage Classic. (Stacy Revere)

What a wild finish from Ryan Armour

Heading to the par-5 17th hole, Armour had made only one bogey in his previous 34 holes. He played those holes in 14 under, including making his 14th ace during Friday’s second round. All was well.

That was up until his third shot sailed the 17th green, where he left himself with a poor lie and a difficult chip to get up and down. His fourth jumped out of the rough and rolled 25 feet past the hole, and he three-putted for a disastrous double bogey, seemingly undoing two exceptional days of work.

Impressively, Armour bounced back on 18, rolling in a 21-footer from off the green to salvage a five-under 67, which puts him three off Wolff’s lead and in the final pairing. Prior to the shutdown, Armour missed six consecutive cuts. The two-month break turned out to be just what he needed.

“When we shut down [March 13], I took three weeks to just let my body heal, and I was able to kind of start over,” said Armour, who was going through a grip change before the hiatus. “We were just trying to make the grip a little stronger; it allowed me to get reps. We had a lot of good games at the Dye Preserve [in Jupiter, Fla.], which allowed me to get in the heat of battle a little bit before we got back out here.”

It’s paying dividends so far. Armour finished T-6 last week and now has a chance to spoil the Wolff-Bryson party on Sunday.

Mark Hubbard putts on the third green during the third round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. (Gregory Shamus)

The other spoilers

In addition to Armour, there are a number of guys who can ruin the Wolff-Bryson fun. First up we have Troy Merritt, who is five back and has been known to throw up a few random 61s. He’s more than capable of tearing up this Donald Ross track and waiting in the clubhouse to see what happens. Who knows these days.

Next up is Mark Hubbard, who, despite a rough day on the greens, still posted a 69 and is tied with Merritt at 14 under. Hubbard came close to tasting his first victory at the Houston Open earlier this season, so you know he’s hungry to get it done. Rounds in the low 60s are out there, as we’ve seen.

Finally, there’s Seamus Power and Chris Kirk, both also at 14 under. And that’s before getting to the group at 13 under, which includes Simpson, Viktor Hovland, Wesley Bryan and Matt Wallace. We would not be the least bit surprised to see a member of that group steal one, though it’s going to take something very special.

Oh yeah, how about Wes Bryan?

Bryan shot seven-under 65 on Saturday to be six back and everything this guy does on tour is impressive, given he was once just a trick-shot guy. To come back the way he has after injury might be his most impressive feat yet. On Sunday, he’ll look to lock up his first top 10 on tour since [checking notes] the 2017 John Deere Classic. It’s been a long road back for this guy. Respect the grind.

Being able to hear everything remains the best

Personally, I can’t wait for fans to return to sporting events. Anyone who says golf is better without fans is a prisoner of the moment at best, and flat out foolish at worst. Would Tiger’s Masters win have been better without fans? Spieth’s walk-off chip-in at Travelers? Gary Woodland’s chip on the 17th green at Pebble?

But being able to hear everything these guys say is tough to beat. It wasn’t the greatest soundbite, but I really enjoyed a quick conversation between Wolff and his caddie at the 17th hole. Wolff pulled his drive into the left rough, robbing him of any chance of going for the green. “I’m expecting this to come up 20 yards short of that right bunker,” said Wolff, pointing to the bunker he was aiming at. “Then I’ll just chip up from there.”

Wolff then went on to execute the plan exactly as he mapped it out, hacking one out short of the bunker, chipping up to two feet and rolling in his ninth birdie of the day.

There was another funny exchange caught earlier in the round when Wolff hit a shot and said with a laugh, “I heard the ice cream truck.”

Wolff swore afterward that the music from the truck stuck in his head and helped him.

“I think I have to give credit to the ice cream truck that was circling the property. I’m not joking, actually,” Wolff said. “Just had that little like ice cream truck song in my head, and I think that helped me just not think about the speed or the line or anything [on putts]. Just keep my head free, which I’ve been giving a lot of credit to this week.”

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By Ryan Herrington
Plenty of courses have notable three-hole stretches that are intrinsically connected to a PGA Tour event. The Bear Trap at PGA National and the Honda Classic, the Snake Pit at Innisbrook and the Valspar Championship, the Green Mile at Quail Hollow Club and the Wells Fargo Championship and, of course, Amen Corner at Augusta National and the Masters.

Detroit Golf Club, site of this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, is hosting a tour event for just the second year, but it’s hoping to replicate what the others have done—while giving it a charity kick. Tournament officials are highlighting the 14th, 15th and 16th holes on the Donald Ross layout, a par-5, par-3, par-4 stretch, and are challenging tour pros to shoot 3-1-3 on the holes, which corresponded to the primary area code in Detroit.

As part of the AREA 313 Challenge, for any tour pro who makes an eagle 3 on the 14th hole, Rocket Mortgage will give $5,000 to the tournament’s Changing the Course initiative. A hole-in-one on the 15th garners a $25,000 donation, while a birdie 3 on the 16th means another $5,000 pledged. All the proceeds will be funnelled into the Connect 313 Fund, a program that aims to improve access to the internet and digital resources to parts of the Detroit metro area where there are gaps in coverage. Officials are estimating the initiative will raise more than $200,000.

Meanwhile, if any one golfer goes 3-1-3 over the stretch of holes, $313,000 will be donated to the cause. That’s a tidy sum, although given how rare an accomplishment it would be, perhaps Rocket Mortgage might chip in a little more.

The PGA Tour says that 318,658 rounds have been captured since 2003. Only three times has a player in a single round made an ace-birdie-eagle combo in any order in three straight holes with the birdie on a par 4, ace on a par 3 and eagle on a par 5: Kevin Stadler, 2005 Shriners, first round; Jason Dufner, 2015 Memorial, second round; and Keith Mitchell, 2019 Sony Open, second round.

Never, however, has a player gone eagle-ace-birdie in a three-hole stretch in that time.

Fans can contribute when players post a 3-1-3 with online donations being taken.

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By Christopher Powers
In 32 career starts on the PGA Tour, Nate Lashley has zero wins and has finished in the top 10 only once, and that result came in an opposite-field event earlier this season at the Puerto Rico Open. On Sunday, he’ll enter the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic with a six-shot lead following his second round of nine-under 63 on Saturday at Detroit Golf Club.

Lashley, 36, does have previous winning experience, his lone professional victory coming at the 2017 Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. He’s made only one bogey this week, and his 24 total birdies are the most of any player in the field.

While the tournament is not over yet, Sunday could very well be a victory lap for Lashley, whose heartbreaking backstory came to light following his Korn Ferry Tour win in 2017. During his junior year at the University of Arizona in 2004, Lashley’s parents and his girlfriend visited him in Oregon while he competed in the 2004 NCAA West Regional. Afterwards, Lashley returned to Arizona, while his parents and girlfriend flew back to his hometown of Scottsbluff, Neb. Days later, Lashley was informed that they had been killed in a plane crash near Gannett Peak in Wyoming.

“It was pretty tough for quite a while, definitely for a few years,” Lashley told the Lake County News Sun in 2016. “I tried to use golf in college as something to do other than always think about it. Golf is very mental. It was difficult to play and tough because you always are going to think about it.”

Fifteen years and one month later, Lashley has a chance to notch is very first PGA Tour win.

The next closest competitor is J.T Poston, who fired a six-under 66 to reach 17-under 199. Cameron Tringale is alone in third at 16 under, while Patrick Reed is in solo fourth at 15 under.

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The Rocket Mortgage Classic is a new event on the PGA Tour schedule, so it’s fitting that Ping is introducing a new club to its tour staff this week, the Glide 3.0 wedge.

The wedges, which are being shown to the company’s tour staff at Detroit Golf Club, have four sole options. In addition to the company’s TS (thin sole), SS (standard sole) and WS (wide sole), there also is a Eye2 version which features the high toe, dished sole and tapered head-to-hosel transition of the original Ping Eye2 sand wedge design. Also from photos, there is the half-groove on the bottom of the face for added spin.

While the tour pros get their first look (and likely will put some in play) this week, consumers will have to wait a little bit for the Glide 3.0. The official launch date is July 15 with availability in early August.

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By Dave Shedloski
The shakeup of the 2019 PGA Tour schedule has created challenges for tournaments and players alike. It also has created openings. These next two weeks feature new events in markets that have been home to major championships and senior golf but now are stepping up to the major leagues.

This week, Detroit gets its first taste of a regular tour event with the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club. The $7.3 million events is sponsored by Quicken Loans, which for the last few years as title sponsor of the tournament Tiger Woods-hosted outside Washington, D.C. Immediately behind it is another newbie, the $6.4 million 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in suburban Minneapolis, not to be confused with the 3M Championship, a PGA Tour Champions event held at the same site the last 18 years.

Though Minneapolis hosted the Ryder Cup in 2016 at Hazeltine National, site of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship that ended Sunday, it last saw a PGA Tour event in 2009 when Y.E. Yang upset Woods in the PGA Championship at Hazeltine. Detroit’s last taste of tour golf was the 2008 PGA Championship and the 2004 Ryder Cup, both at Oakland Hills. The area also held the Buick Classic up the road in Grand Blanc until 2009. Meanwhile, the Senior Players Championship was held in nearby Dearborn from 1990-2006.

Both events have drawn decent fields despite the unknowns that go with inaugural outings. The Rocket Mortgage Classic has Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler (a Rocket Mortgage spokesman), Bubba Watson, Ernie Els, and newly minted U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland. Commitments to the 3M Open include Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed.

Not a bad start for either when you’re selling promises and ideas to the game’s top players, many of whom are creatures of habit to an almost obsessive degree and tend to enter the same tournaments year in and year out. They have their favourite courses and locales, and, of course, purse size matters, too.

“Tour players have 46 places they can call their home each year and they choose 20 or 25 of them to make their home,” said Jason Langwell, executive director of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. “They want to know why they should go to a new place to call home for one of those weeks. It’s a challenge.”

A Donald Ross course helped tour pros be more comfortable committing to play at Detroit Golf Club. (Courtesy of Detroit Golf Club)

In Langwell’s case, he has the recently upgraded North Course of Detroit Golf Club, originally designed by Donald Ross and located close to downtown. “None of them has played here, but they all have played a Donald Ross course, so they know what to expect,” he said. “We also offer a downtown experience—a revitalized downtown experience that is unique compared to most tour stops that are mostly in suburbia.”

It didn’t hurt having Fowler talk up the tournament, though the five-time tour winner insists his role was minimal. “I actually haven’t done much, really,” Fowler said. “It’s mostly been just answering any questions and encouraging guys to come, but I wouldn’t say I recruited anyone.”

The wheels were set in motion for a tour event in Detroit when Quicken Loans became the title sponsor of the Quicken Loans National. While enjoying his involvement in the D.C. tournament, Quicken Loans founder and chairman Dan Gilbert was determined to bring the tour to the city where his company is headquartered. Similarly, 3M is based in Minneapolis. Yep, follow the money.

But that’s where the similarities end.

“We’ve had 13 months to put this together when the tour said you need 18-20 months,” Langwell said. “Unlike 3M, we had no ticketing infrastructure, we had no program in place to segue into. The scale is different for them obviously, but they had a base to build from [after being a long-time PGA Tour Champions venue]. We did not. We had to build awareness and consensus, build our brand from scratch. We needed to find that 25th and 26th hour in the day to make it happen.”

For Peter Mele, tournament director of the 3M Open, the challenge has been about making everything bigger, including the golf course. The TPC Twin Cities, originally designed by the late Arnold Palmer, has been given a serious upgrade at the hands of Minnesota native Tom Lehman, who oversaw what was called “a competitive enhancement project” in which the par-72 layout was stretched from 7,164 yards to more than 7,500 yards with par reset at 71.

Mele, the former tournament director of the Northern Trust, the FedEx Cup playoff event in New York area, never previously had to recruit a field. So that was a new twist in his job description. That fits in with the theme of the 3M Open. This is a new ballgame here.

“One of our big challenges is communicating that this is not the 3M Championship, this is the 3M Open, this is the PGA Tour,” Mele said. “We want it to have a different look and feel when fans step on site. We want to have a great show and give them a lot of things to get engaged in.”

TPC Twin Cities has experience with big tournaments, having hosted a PGA Tour Champions stop the past 18 years. (Icon Sportswire)

And because the first round of the tournament lands on July 4, Mele hopes to provide a special experience for players, a real celebration that goes with the national holiday, including a concert on Friday night featuring the Zach Brown Band.

One intangible 3M Open has in its favour is Hollis Cavner and his Pro Links Sports, which operates the event as well as others, including the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte. “Hollis has a reputation for running a quality event with quality amenities for players and caddies and their families when they come to his events,” Mele pointed out.

Another is the community, which appears ready to welcome the game’s top talent. “There is tremendous excitement here,” Mele said. “We realized that early on when we opened our volunteer registration. To our amazement, we hit our numbers in mid-April. Usually, you need 800-900, but we needed 1,800 for new event. That was an indication of the enthusiasm this event was generating. We were all thinking there’d be a lot of excitement. But you never know until you have the tournament.”

Likewise, Langwell said ticket and corporate hospitality sales for the Rocket Mortgage Classic are exceeding expectations. The curtain goes up on Monday with practice rounds. Apparently, he found enough 25th hours in the day to have everything in place.

“We feel ready. A few finishing touches and edges to smooth, but we feel pretty good given the preparation time,” he said. “The euphemism we use around here is ‘blessed stress.’ It’s stressful to put anything together for the first time but we’re blessed to have it.”

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