00:00Get to your phone calls coming up here on Carson Anderson, but Gator mentioned we have some breaking news in
00:06the world of Detroit sports and kind of sucks.
00:08It does. This comes from Tony Paul, the Detroit News, who has an article that says the Rocket Classic will
00:15be held for the eighth and final time later this summer.
00:19This is the news has learned and rocket companies and the PGA Tour have confirmed the 2026 tournament is still
00:25going to take place coming up at the end of July, July 30th through August 2nd.
00:30At Detroit Golf Club, but amid imminent changes to the PGA Tour schedule, sagging attendance and the struggle to draw
00:36marquee players in recent years, Rocket has declined to exercise its option for 2027.
00:43So Rocket is ending this. Yeah, they could have played next year as well.
00:48They're saying no, they're not going to. And this kind of sucks.
00:52This has been a 13 year relationship that Dan Gilbert has had with the PGA Tour, that he has been
00:58a tour sponsor.
01:00Um, but this is, uh, they're not going to, they're not going to continue after, after this one.
01:06Um, it's disappointing to me. I I've enjoyed, um, the tournament on TV, love watching it, um, been participating in
01:15media day and all that, because you get to find out the stuff that goes on behind the scenes.
01:19And they've raised millions of dollars over the years. The benefits, the direct benefit to the city of Detroit and
01:27specifically for schools and, and trying to get, you know, every family with, with internet capabilities and everything.
01:34It's, it's, it's been a really nice, uh, gesture from, uh, from Rocket and what they've done with this.
01:41So it is sad. And it's, uh, we saw Mark Hollis yesterday out at Oakland Hills and he is the,
01:48the Rocket tournament director.
01:50Um, and he's quoted here saying after nearly 13 years, his PGA tour, uh, title sponsor, including eight years in
01:56Detroit, 2026 will mark the rocket, the final rocket classic.
02:01So this is the second PGA event in my lifetime that has run its course in our state with the
02:11Buick open, uh, which was in a grand blanket Warwick Hills for a long time.
02:17I don't remember when it, when it, when it died, but, um, you know, like the last 15, 10, 15
02:23years or whatever it was.
02:24I was going to say, I remember being there, um, doing a show there with Tony Ortiz.
02:29Cause you were out and Tony and I did the show and it was the day after the Pistons drafted
02:33Rodney Stuckey, I believe.
02:36So big, big day indeed.
02:38So he had that. So that's what, 2007 or something like that.
02:412009 was the final Buick open.
02:43So then we get the, the rocket class, he said for the last eight years, now that is run its
02:48course and died off, which is really,
02:50now we do have an LPGA event that's actually this week in Midland and we still have a senior tour
02:55event.
02:56Um, what are the details?
02:59I know we do that.
03:00The ally challenge now is at Warwick Hills and has been there since 2018, but is it seem strange
03:08that a state that has like the most golf courses per capita in the country can't consistently support a PGA
03:17tour event?
03:18Uh, maybe a little bit, but I guess so.
03:21Those are, look, this would have been an amazing little piece of news to have going into yesterday, right?
03:27Cause we're there at the Detroit sports commission and, you know, somebody from there could, could help us explain, you
03:33know, how that, that works.
03:34Cause I'm sure they're lobbying to get golf tournaments here as well.
03:36Sure.
03:37Um, but yeah, I mean the state of Michigan is, is one of the absolute best states in the country
03:43for golf.
03:44There's a million courses.
03:45There's a ton of really, really great courses.
03:49And in this article from the Detroit news and Tony Paul, it says that the PGA tour in a statement
03:54to the news,
03:55thanked rocket companies for its 13 years as title sponsor while also leaving open the possibility that the PGA tour
04:00will be back in the city or Metro Detroit in the future.
04:04It's unclear, um, how soon that could happen or if the PGA tour can find a company and venue to
04:10make that happen.
04:11A lot of it is, you know, it's being able to get people into the tournament.
04:17You know, some of the people always ask it, why don't they have a tournament up at like Bay Harbor
04:21or Arcadia bluffs?
04:22And there's reasons they don't, you know, some of it's just the, you know, trying to get 50,000 people
04:28to walk that course is, it's not, you can't do that.
04:31It's just not, those courses aren't set up for them.
04:33When I asked about that, the response that I got was, they're not long enough.
04:38Those courses aren't long enough for the pros.
04:39Arcadia definitely isn't, but I don't know if Bay Harbor could be.
04:42Yeah, I mean, whether, I said how, I was at, I was playing Boyd Highlands and I asked a pro
04:47there,
04:47how come like these courses aren't really considered for PGA and they said they're not long enough.
04:51I mean, there's probably a course or two up there that is, but is the infrastructure in place to take
04:57it to?
04:58And I don't know if resort golf lines up with PGA events.
05:02My suspicion is it doesn't.
05:04Probably not.
05:05And, you know, the state of Michigan, you know, the golf is great, but the golf is great all over
05:10the country in the summer.
05:11As long as, you know, that's why you don't see the, you don't see summer events being played in Texas
05:16or Arizona.
05:17You know, you see them played up in the Northern States, which is where we shine.
05:21And I think that there would be a bunch of courses that you would think would be in line in,
05:26in the state of Michigan,
05:28whether it's in Metro Detroit or out towards the West side of the state or just a little bit North.
05:33But we'll see.
05:34But I think, yeah, a lot of it is just the infrastructure of trying to host an event like that.
05:38I know the U.S. Senior Open has done a, they're in a rotation over at Harbor Shore is out
05:44in the West side of the state.
05:46And I played that course right after it opened up.
05:50I think a year after it opened up.
05:52I'm amazed they actually have a tournament event there.
05:55Not that the course isn't beautiful because it's awesome, but there are like holes.
06:00Some holes are almost a mile apart from it.
06:02It feels like it's a mile apart.
06:03Like it's a five minute ride in a golf cart to get there.
06:07It felt like, which when you're in a golf cart playing is actually kind of awesome.
06:10But for hosting an event, but yeah, it's a little weird.
06:12Try to walk that and get fans there.
06:14It's difficult and you got to, you know, there's hotel space and all this.
06:18But so you're having to bus people into different events.
06:22You know, we had the live golf event that was out in Plymouth last year and the course looked amazing
06:27on television.
06:28Is that a possibility for the future that maybe that course is set up for like a real event?
06:33A real PGA Tour event.
06:36And you hate live.
06:37I hate live.
06:38I can't tell.
06:39Do you not like live?
06:40But the thing about, you know, I went as a fan to the Detroit Golf Club twice, okay?
06:47Where I spent the whole day there watching golf for the Rocket Classic.
06:50And I absolutely loved it, okay?
06:53I had a phenomenal time.
06:56There's a couple things about it.
06:58One is, in our jobs, the amount of times where you're just a fan and you have no responsibilities and
07:05you're sucking down a couple beers and following guys around and cheering and being an idiot, it happens rarely.
07:11And so I kind of got a skewed opinion.
07:13Anytime I get to be a fan of anything where I have no work responsibilities, I just absolutely love it.
07:19So maybe I'm not a great representative of how cool that event was.
07:23I enjoyed it.
07:24But I was walking around going, you know, who the hell is Potgeater, right?
07:29I didn't know any of these golfers that were making amazing shots.
07:33The difference between Potgeater and, you know, Brooks Koepka is so tiny and minuscule.
07:40But at the end of the day, they're all so incredible that it didn't matter to me as much.
07:46I mean, it would have been cooler if it were, you know, Scotty instead of, you know, some guy named
07:51Jans I've never heard of.
07:52But at the end of the day, it's a – it was really, really fun for me.
07:58And I endorsed it.
08:01But my – I mean, you know, you just couldn't get the big names to come here.
08:05Well, you guys, it's established I'm not the golfer on the show here.
08:08But – so I'm asking this because I've been told by many people, not just you guys, friends that golf,
08:12say Michigan is one of the best, if not the best, the best for golf courses.
08:16Like, they love – there's so many courses.
08:19They're just beautiful courses for, you know, every level.
08:22All different types, yeah.
08:22Exactly.
08:22So my question is, is it because it's more of like an everyman course, like a state, you know what
08:27I mean, as compared to like the – I don't know.
08:30My question is, why aren't they getting the sustainable tournaments, you know, with big names?
08:34It's the names, and it's because where they had it slotted on the schedule was not the greatest slot because
08:42it would take place either right before or right after a major tournament.
08:46So it's not the courses?
08:48No, I don't think it's the – I mean, I think the lack of getting big names is more about
08:52where it lied on the calendar because people wanted to either get ready for the British Open or, you know,
08:59relax from the U.S. Open or whatever the case was whenever it fell on that calendar.
09:03One of the criticisms of Detroit Golf Club that they say is that it's too easy, that the scores just
09:09get too high, but I don't buy that.
09:10That was true at the Buick Open too.
09:12Yeah, but I don't buy that that's the reason that golfers don't want to play there.
09:16Golfers love to try to, you know, throw up a 59 or a 60.
09:19They'd love to have that challenge there.
09:21And plus, there are plenty of other tournaments on tour where you see the winning score is 25, 27 under.
09:27Were we kind of doomed when we didn't get the signature event status when the PGA decided they were going
09:33to pay more out for non-majors and a bunch of tournaments got selected and Detroit wasn't one of them?
09:39When Detroit probably needed that prop up more than the Memorial did.
09:45Well, yes, absolutely.
09:47But the Memorial is Jack's tournament and that they get all excited about that.
09:51But people were going to Jack's tournament to begin with.
09:54Yes, because it's Jack's tournament.
09:56They could have used this to prop up events that maybe needed the incentive to get the bigger names out
10:03there, which, again, I don't know, but it feels to me like you could have used the resource of these
10:11signature events to prop up tournaments that weren't getting big names.
10:14And the PGA Tour was trying to find ways to get the golfers to commit to more tournaments based on
10:21point systems for the FedEx Cup and all this and knowing that Liv is on its last breath here and
10:28just trying to encourage golfers to sign up.
10:32And when they had the first batch of golfers commit, like, felt like five or six weeks ago, it was
10:37a decent start.
10:39But I haven't heard much about the field since then, if they've added to it or not.
10:44But this is a tournament that has had big names before, but unfortunately, it's one or two big names each
10:51year instead of having them all every year.
10:53I mean, we've had Bryson DeChambeau.
10:55He was the champion.
10:56He won the tournament one year.
10:57They've had Dustin Johnson.
10:59You know, Ricky Fowler is always there because he's a, you know, a spokesperson for Rocket.
11:04But Ricky Fowler is no longer the name that he was.
11:07You know, Jordan Spieth is no longer a name that he was.
11:10You know, now you want to get Rory.
11:12You want to get Scotty Scheffler.
11:14And these guys have not committed to play.
11:17Look, maybe I'm sure there's some golf people out there that know a little bit more than we do as
11:24far as why the state of Michigan.
11:27Can't seem to support a PGA Tour event with news this morning that this is the last year of the
11:35Rocket Classic at Detroit Country Club.
11:372, 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 97, 97.
11:39It's Carson Anderson, 971.
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