Paulie’s Picks: 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic

The Korn Ferry PGA Tour returns this week with the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club. After a grueling three-week stretch which included two signature events and a major, many players have chosen to take this week off. That leaves us with a fairly weak field and the opportunity for some longshots to contend.

Detroit Golf Club will once again yield plenty of birdies and low scores. The course will be a bit soft, and players will be hitting driver off the tee on most holes. We will see a lot of easy birdies on par 5s and plenty of wedge opportunities on par 4s. You are going to have to go low to contend. Let’s take a look at a few players to target this week:

Min Woo Lee Top 20 +115

Min Woo is a bomber off the tee who can fill the card up with birdies. In what has been a brutal situation for Lee, he sits 36th in the world but struggles to get into the signature events that he deserves to be in. He has flown a bit under the radar the last few months while finishing between 21st and 26th in each of his last five starts, a stretch that included all three majors of the year. He now faces a much weaker field on a course that suits his game perfectly.

Taylor Pendrith Top 20 +130

Pendrith is working his way towards a Presidents Cup bid. In his last eight starts, he has six top-23 finishes, including a win at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Most of these events had much stronger fields than he will face in Detroit this week. He has played this event each of the last two years, finishing 14th and second. Don’t overcomplicate things this week. Bet on a player in great form whose game fits this course.

Keith Mitchell Top 20 +160

Similar to Lee and Pendrith, we are closing things out with another bomber who is quietly playing some great golf. Mitchell is a poor man’s Scottie Scheffler this week, as he leads this field in approach and off the tee. Now, yes, he struggles with his chipping and putting. But this course really deemphasizes the short game compared to other courses on Tour, as the greens are easier to hit but, being the work of Donald Ross, not easy for anyone to make putts on. In his last 11 events, Mitchell has gained strokes off the tee and on approach while finishing inside the top 20 seven times, many of which came against stronger fields. Take the +160 and watch Mitchell contend this week.