Birdies were flying in the first round of the 2025 Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club. With afternoon thunderstorms skirting the area and little wind around teh course, players had their way with the Donald Ross design as the field scoring average came in at nearly three strokes under par in Round 1.
That wasn’t enough for Aldrich Potgieter and Kevin Roy, however, as both men signed for 10-under 62s, good for a share of a new course record at Detroit Golf Club. The duo shares the overnight lead and heads into Friday’s scoring bonanza one stroke clear of Min Woo Lee, who tied the prior course record in the morning wave a 63 (matched by Mark Hubbard and Max Greyserman later in the day).
“I feel like I’ve been playing pretty well the last few weeks. I had a good finish up in Canada,” Roy said. “I’ll be honest: I wasn’t really happy with how I struck it yesterday in the pro-am, but I came out, had a good practice session and kind of had the same feels that I had in Canada where I drove it and ironed it really well. Just kind of took that out to the course and, you know, worked out.”
Potgieter started in a blaze with six birdies and an eagle in his first 10 holes, while Roy raced through the finish line with an eagle-birdie exclamation point to polish off his round. The performances could not have come at a better time for both men as they find themselves on two different bubbles with the PGA Tour season’s end quickly coming into view. Potgieter entered the week No. 73 in the FedEx Cup standings, while Roy checked in at No. 100.
“That’s probably the biggest goal this year, to make the playoffs, secure the card and then come back next year with all the knowledge of the courses,” Potgieter said. “And schedule wise, you can pick a little bit what you want to play, so that’s a really big deal. And maybe make the top-50 into the elevated events, so that’s also huge so definitely try and push for that.”
They will need to keep the pedal to the metal over the next three days as a bevy of big names have lined up behind the leaders. Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Ben Griffin and PGA Tour rookie Luke Clanton all opened with 66s to climb start inside the top 20. Meanwhile, last week’s winner, Keegan Bradley, settled for a 68 with playing partner Collin Morikawa doing one worse.
The leaders
T1. Aldrich Potgieter, Kevin Roy (-10): Potgieter saw the morning scores and knew from the jump that this golf course was more than gettable. He reached 8 under through his first 10 holes, but a string of pars in the middle of his round put a potential course record in jeopardy. Two more circles were penciled onto his scorecard across the final three holes to squash any concerns and give him a share of the record alongside Roy, who signed for his own 62 just moments before.
In his first start since the week following the PGA Championship, the young South African known for his prodigious distance impressed with his scoring clubs instead. During his four weeks off, Potgieter returned to his home country of South Africa, put a new set of irons in the bag and decided to place a new golf ball in play. The time off to recharge combined with the changes in his gear proved beneficial on Thursday as he searches for his first win in his first season on the PGA Tour.
“We needed some more spin to keep the ball in the air a little bit,” Potgieter said. “You wouldn’t have thought that with the driving distance to add more spin, but it kind of keeps the ball in the air a little bit longer. When I hit that knuckle one, it kind of comes off a little hot. So through the year I’ve been long over the green a lot, so trying to take that spin off shot into the wind. Now it’s a little bit easier that it has that bit of spin so I’m not thinking about it too much and I can just hit the shot now.”
Contenders
T3. Min Woo Lee, Max Greyserman, Mark Hubbard (-9)
6. Andrew Putnam (-8)
T7. Lee Hodges, Zach Johnson, Hayden Springer, Kris Ventura, Michael Thorbjornsen, Henrik Norlander, Chris Kirk, Philip Knowles (-7)
Since breaking through for his first PGA Tour win a couple of weeks before the Masters, Lee has struggled to again summon that magic. Without a top-40 finish in his last seven starts — including missed cuts at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open — Lee mentioned how happy he was to get to a golf course like Detroit Golf Club where misses may not be penalized as harshly.
Known for his distance off the tee and ball speed throughout the bag, the electric Australian coupled that firepower with a red-hot putter on Thursday. Cycling through various weights and various models, Lee has found a wand he can wield with confidence and to potentially his second win this season.
“It’s been, honestly, very bad,” Lee said. “I didn’t feel great on the course, especially playing at a course where when you hit it in the rough you’ve literally got to hack out. Oakmont, Memorial, most of the signature events are just very, very tough. And you’re nearly playing — instead of four majors, you’re playing more majors because they’re trying to make it as tough as possible. I was really excited for this week; I wanted to get to hit in the rough and actually hit onto the green.
“I wouldn’t rate it anything because it was pretty average. It seems so close, but I don’t even think I did that much different today and I scored 10 times better than what I have been scoring. At the end of the day, just got to keep your head up and keep going. In the long term, you want to play the signature events. You want to play those events, and you want to hit as accurate as possible, but yeah, still trying to figure out driver. Driver was a big part of that, not knowing where the ball was going. Yeah, hopefully the PGA Tour can have more courses like this, it would be a bit more fun and less stressful. “
Morikawa set to make another change
It’s been an odd summer for Morikawa, and it only got stranger ahead of the Rocket Classic as he got into a back-and-forth with a reporter regarding his caddie situation. Back-and-forth he goes not only in front of the microphone but also on the greens as Morikawa plans to make a change with the putter ahead of his second round.
“I hit it good enough to play well. Putted like a blind man, honestly,” Morikawa said. “It’s just an uncomfortable feeling shoving everything and not being able to square up the face. It’s tough. On greens that are you’ve got a lot of poa growing in, you have to just be confident with your stroke, and there was just no confidence today after seeing a couple miss.”
Morikawa fired an opening 69 to put him seven strokes off the early pace, and it was largely due to the lack of confidence on the putting surfaces. He ranked second in strokes gained tee to green and dead last in the field in terms of putting losing nearly five strokes on the greens and having all three of his bogeys coming via three putts. As for what will be changed on the greens, Morikawa hinted at a possible grip change but left it somewhat open ended.
“Very highly likely for tomorrow,” Morikawa said of changes coming on the greens. “We’ll see what pops up.”
2025 Rocket Classic updated odds, picks
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook
- Max Greyserman: 7-1
- Aldrich Potgieter: 9-1
- Min Woo Lee: 9-1
- Kevin Roy: 11-1
- Patrick Cantlay: 14-1
- Mark Hubbard: 14-1
- Ben Griffin: 16-1
The race is on, and despite shooting 5 under in his opening round and striking his irons beautifully, Matt Fitzpatrick still stands at his pre-tournament price of 45-1. That’s good enough for me as the Englishman ranked fifth tee to green and fourth on approach while getting nothing out of his putter. He will need at least one in the low 60s over the next three days, and that should come once the turnaround on the greens does.