From the Buick to The Rocket: A Michigan Golf Love Story

We have officially entered the part of the PGA TOUR season where events begin to blur together. There are no more signature events, three majors have come and gone, and we are all counting down the days till Royal Portrush.

As a certified golf sicko, the period from the US Open to the Open Championship is my favorite stretch of the season. When thinking about my favorite Majors, the US Open and Open Championship are 1a and 1b, but what makes this part of the calendar truly great is all the filler in between.

The order of events varies from year to year, but this is the time of year where we see events like the John Deere, ISCO, Barracuda, 3M (which falls just after the Open this year), and last but certainly but not least, my dearly beloved Rocket Classic.

On paper, these events may lack the star-studded fields and architectural prestige that you find at Pebble Beach and Riviera. But this is exactly what makes them special. It’s a place where budding professionals can get their breakthrough win that slingshots them into stardom. It's a place where lifelong connections to game are formed, and not just because of hype and status.

Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa celebrates after winning the Rocket Classic 2025 at Detroit Golf Club. (Photo by Raj Mehta/Getty Images)

In a time where money and star power headline every conversation surrounding the professional game, these events would be first on the chopping block when looking at shortening the marathon schedule that the TOUR puts on each year. There are sanctioned PGA TOUR events in 11 of the 12 months. By all accounts, this is too much.

The TOUR just announced their new CEO in Brian Rolapp, who comes to the TOUR after over a decade of experience in helping run the NFL, the most popular American sport. A sport whose popularity can most likely be attributed to its scarcity. 18 weeks of regular season games and four weeks of playoffs. I'm hoping one of the first things he looks at when he takes the reins is what he can do to make the schedule more interesting.

I will be the first to tell you that there are far too many events in the PGA TOUR’s season, and if they were to shorten the schedule, these events are likely casualties. But before we cut them off, let's ask ourselves: what are we really losing when we lose events like this?

I can tell you from experience.

I was 13 when I truly fell in love with the game of golf. I had just started to take golf seriously, and my dad took me to the final round of the 2009 Buick Open at Warwick Hills, the last professional golf event in Michigan before the Rocket began a decade later. An event that, if it weren’t for Tiger Woods, would have succumbed to a similar label as the other aforementioned tournaments.

Tiger Woods lines up a putt on the 18th hole during the final round of the Buick Open at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club. Woods won the tournament with a total of 20 under par. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

However, I didn’t fall in love with professional golf because I got to see Tiger play. Was it cool to see him? Absolutely. But what I still take from that day is the 9 holes I followed Jason Gore and Nathan Green that Sunday morning. There was no one else following them, so I got a front row seat. The margins in professional golf are razor thin.

Everyone obviously wants to watch the superstars up close. However, getting a front row seat to the Jason Gores of the world is why I fell in love with the game. Watching them work their way around a golf course in ways I didn’t know was possible. I went home and immediately wanted to grab my clubs and try to replicate everything I just watched.

Jason Gore putts during the first round of the 2009 U.S. Bank Championship at the Brown Deer Park golf course in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

I made a point to do the same thing this week and follow some of the “lesser” known players around the course, and what I saw was a glimpse into my golfing past. I have seen multiple parents taking their sons and daughters out to follow players like Aaron Wise and Luke List. I spoke with some of them and they too noted that this was their first time bringing their kid to a professional golf event. And you could see the magic of this game going to work; their eyes widening and letting out an audible “woah” as they watched the ball take off like a rocket ship.

Context in golf is so important, and is what I believe separates our sport from the rest. When you watch an NFL game, you can watch your favorite QB throw a game winning pass, but you have no idea what it feels like to be on the field when it happens. For me this week, I watched Max Homa hit shots on a golf course that I have played multiple times, shots that I knew exactly what was going to happen if he missed slightly. I watched James Piot, someone I grew up playing against in AJGA and other junior golf events play a PGA TOUR event in our hometown. Something that wouldn’t be possible before the TOUR announced it was coming back to Detroit in 2019.

James was always “that dude” growing up in the junior golf scene, and continued to be that dude when he won the US Amateur in 2021 at Oakmont. He then went on to play in the Masters and the US Open at The Country Club in 2022. Oakmont, Augusta National, and The County Club are a murderers row of venues, but when I asked James after his final round today what it was like competing on a course we know so well, his eyes lit up and a smile formed before simply saying “It’s frickin' awesome”.

James Piot during the first round of the Rocket Classic 2025 at Detroit Golf Club. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

There are many so-called “swings” on TOUR. The Florida Swing. The West Coast Swing. The Texas Swing. There are states that get multiple events every year. And granted, places like Texas and California are much bigger than Michigan (both in size and in markets), so I can see the rationale behind having more than just one event in those states. I just think there is so much being left on the table in golf starved states in the midwest. We don’t get golf year round like Florida, Texas, and California, so when we do get golf, we don’t take it for granted. And that is well on display this week at the Rocket Classic. Year in and out, you see fans lining the fairways to get their look at the world's best, and those fans have been rewarded with the best field this tournament has seen.

The TOUR could majorly capitalize on the “untapped” market of Midwest golf. If they are looking to shorten the season, I may suggest starting it later in the year. Start it right after the Super Bowl and end it right before Week 1 of the NFL season, with events like the Rocket and John Deere falling in the middle. Heck, throw us a bone and slap a “Signature” title on one of us and watch people flood the fairways to see the world's best. We are just getting to the heart of golf season in this part of the country, something doesn’t sit right that the TOUR's season is close to wrapping up as soon as ours begins to ramp up.

The term “grow the game” has been worn out over the last couple years, but events like this are actually doing it. Talking with people on the grounds, there are many whom this is the first time they’ve stepped foot on a golf course. This could be the catalyst for them to pick up a club and head to their local driving range and see what it’s all about. I saw people in full scripting, some even equipped with rangefinder, ready to nerd out on shot selection and angles. Most importantly, I saw multiple kids who reminded me of myself when I went to the Buick Open all those years back. The look of wonder on their eyes as they watch Min Woo Lee hit a drive that goes so far it's seemingly impossible. They've got the bug.

Erik van Rooyen of South Africa gives a young fan a ball after completing hole 18 during the final round of the 2025 Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club. (Photo by Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The Future of the PGA TOUR will undoubtedly look different. And honestly, it should. But if Brian Rolapp and the TOUR begin to cross out certain events on tour, I hope they don’t overlook what's happening in places like Detroit.

Here, these “second tier” events feel like the main event. There where kids like me get their first taste of professional golf. It's where local kids like James Piot, Joe Hooks, and Brett White can tee it up against the best in the world on a course they have a history at. It’s where fans will pack the fairways like it's a Major championship, because to us, it is.