Rickie Fowler and Patrick Cantlay found themselves firmly in the hunt after the opening day of the Rocket Classic in Detroit, while Peter Malnati surged ahead with a near‑historic sub‑60 performance. Malnati carded a career‑best nine‑under‑par 61, matching the tournament’s best first‑round total and establishing a two‑stroke cushion over Fowler and Ryan Gerard.
Cantlay and Patrick Fishburn trailed by a single shot, keeping the leaderboard tightly bunched. When Malnati approached the first tee, his caddie advised a conservative strategy – essentially to leave the driver in the bag and opt for a club that would guarantee a safe start.
Defying that counsel, Malnati elected to unleash his driver, delivering a tee shot that landed squarely in the middle of the fairway. That decision set the tone for a blistering front nine, where he recorded his first of seven birdies, instantly signaling that a low round was within reach. "Even early on, before I realized it was going to be a special day, I didn’t feel the usual level of anxiety," Malnati reflected after his round. "I don’t think I took advantage of an overly easy course; I just played great golf." With the idea of breaking 60 swirling in his mind, Malnati kept the momentum rolling.
He sank a 55‑foot birdie putt on the 11th hole, and by the time he reached the 13th, he was sitting at nine under par. He maintained a flawless, bogey‑free round, only faltering on a few putts toward the end, but those missed chances were insufficient to derail his stellar score. The day also produced noteworthy performances from other competitors.
Fowler and Gerard each posted 63s, keeping them just two strokes behind the leader and one ahead of Cantlay and Fishburn. Michael Brennan staged a remarkable comeback, erasing a two‑stroke deficit after the first four holes by stringing together eight consecutive birdies – a stretch that fell just one birdie short of the PGA Tour record for most in a row. Brennan ultimately finished with a 65, positioning himself four strokes back of the leaders. Among the field, Keegan Bradley drew a mixed reaction from spectators, some of whom playfully pretended he had made a hole‑in‑one on the par‑three fifth.
Meanwhile, open‑runner‑up Cameron Young found himself one under par, while US Open champion Wyndham Clark was perched at one over. The Detroit Golf Club, host of the event, recently underwent a $16 million renovation aimed at reviving Donald Ross’s original vision. The upgrades included converting two former par‑5 holes into challenging par‑4s and adding a substantial number of bunkers, thereby increasing the difficulty and restoring classic design elements that date back more than a century. Despite these extensive changes, the tournament continued its reputation as a birdie‑rich event – a trend that has persisted since 2019 when a Detroit‑based mortgage company revived PGA Tour action in Michigan after a decade‑long hiatus that began with Tiger Woods’s final Buick Open victory.
Off the course, the PGA Tour announced a structural shift for 2028, effectively splitting into two distinct tours. Detroit’s organizers, faced with the prospect of a $15 million annual commitment to remain in the second tier and a potential doubling of costs to join the elite tier, decided to step away. The Rocket Classic, therefore, will not return under the new financial model. "It’s definitely been a bummer to come in knowing this was the last one," Fowler, who also serves as a Rocket Mortgage spokesperson and the tournament’s 2023 champion, remarked.
His comments underscored the bittersweet nature of the event’s conclusion. Fans can catch the second round of the Rocket Classic live at 7 p.m.
on Sky Sports Golf, with streaming options available for those without a contract. The tournament’s dramatic opening day, highlighted by Malnati’s near‑record round and the tight competition among the likes of Fowler, Cantlay, and Gerard, set the stage for an exciting continuation of play despite the looming changes to the tour’s structure.