PGA Tour’s return to Michigan attracts number of top pros

Canadian golfer Corey Conners was just 17 and still a year away from winning the Ontario men’s amateur the last time the PGA Tour rolled through Michigan.

Now the native of Listowel comes into next week’s inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic at the Detroit Golf Club as a tour winner.

Conners headlines the list of Canadians in the field for the June 2730 tournament that includes Mike Weir, Mackenzie Hughes, Ben Silverman, Roger Sloan, Adam Svensson and Nick Taylor.

Conners captured the hearts of golfers across the country when he won the Texas Valero Open in April as a Monday qualifier. The 27-year-old had to survive a sixman playoff just to earn the final qualifying spot.

Winning in Texas also gave him a place at The Masters.

For the new kid on the PGA block, the Rocket Mortgage Classic did OK in attracting a sprinkling of stars to the event.

Five of the top 25 players in the world rankings will play the Donald Ross design so familiar to any Windsor golfers who have teed it up at Roseland or Essex, including world No. 2 Dustin Johnson, former Masters champions Patrick Reed and Bubba Watson, and former PGA champions Jimmy Walker and Jason Dufner.

Gary Woodland, the newly crowned 2019 U.S. Open winner, and fan favourite Rickie Fowler are also coming.

Not in the field is Tiger Woods, who was a fixture at The Buick Open at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Flint until the tournament’s run ended in 2009.

Woods was a pitchman for Buick at the time and always pencilled Michigan in on his playing calendar.

Also taking the week off is world No. 1 Brooks Koepka.

“It’s a great field,” said Adam Wagner, director of golf operations at the Ambassador Golf Club which is hosting its own pro event in July. “A lot of people don’t know what to expect for a first year event, but this field will give it some notoriety.”

Wagner and the Mackenzie Tour have Conners and fellow Canadian Adam Hadwin coming to Ambassador on July 1 for a Canada Day Charity Challenge Pro-am.

“When they announced the Detroit event, our hope was that we would be able to work together to make the field here a little bit stronger,” Wagner said.

Wagner said there are several Mackenzie Tour players looking to play in Detroit’s Monday qualifier and then perhaps stay in the area for Ambassador’s event the following week.

Detroit’s PGA stop features 20 Mackenzie Tour alumni in the field.

Single-day grounds tickets for Saturday’s third round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic are already sold out and Sunday is nearing that point.

Single-day tickets for the final round cost $55 but Tuesday’s practice round can be had for $10.

Kids 15 and under get in free with an adult and each adult can bring up to four kids.

Visit Rocketmortgageclassic. com for tickets. Kids tickets are available at the main entrance box office.

Parking is off-site only with free shuttles. Parking at Michigan State Fairgrounds costs $15 for the practice rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday and $25 per day Thursday through Sunday.

The tournament features the usual pro-ams and concerts. The first official event is the Rocket Mortgage Classic five-kilometre race on Sunday morning in downtown Detroit.

Tuesday afternoon features the Area 313 Celebrity Challenge. The event is anchored by PGA pros Fowler, Johnson and Watson along with Detroit Red Wings players Justin Abdelkader, Jimmy Howard and Dylan Larkin, Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo and NFL Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis.

They’ll split up into teams and play DGC’S three signature holes: Nos. 14, 15 and 16. If anyone records a birdie, an ace and another birdie for a score that mimics Detroit’s 313 area code, the tournament will donate $313,000 to several Detroit youth charities and a charity of the golfer’s choice. That event is slated for 3-5 p.m. on Tuesday.