Noonan’s 2026 Rocket Classic Outright Picks

Rocket Classic Outright Picks – You need to be reading Ron’s course preview every week, but this one is particularly important. Not just because Ron will be on the property all week, but because this is not the same Detroit Golf Club as years past.

The Donald Ross course has undergone a complete restoration, changing so dramatically that it hardly resembles its former self. Led by Tyler Rae, the restoration has brought Detroit Golf Club’s North Course much closer to Ross’s original vision while modernizing it for today’s game. The project included rebuilding and expanding the greens to recover lost pin locations and contours, repositioning and restoring bunkers, reshaping the fairways to reintroduce Ross’s intended strategic angles, and installing entirely new drainage ditches and irrigation systems to create firmer, faster playing conditions.

In its final year hosting the Rocket Classic, Detroit Golf Club will both look and play completely different after the Donald Ross design underwent a complete restoration led by Tyler Rae. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Qsg3KtLtol

— Ron Klos (@PGASplits101) July 26, 2026

Most importantly, the two easiest holes on the course, the Par 5 7th and 17th holes, are now Par 4s, changing this layout from easy bomb-and-gauge Par 72 to a long Par 70 at 7,328 yards. Like other Donald Ross courses, Detroit Golf Club now forces you to make a strategic decision off the tee, with players needing to consider angles when approaching these completely new back-to-front sloping green complexes that Ross is known for.

The course certainly has more character after Tyler Rae and his team’s redesign. How it tests the pro game remains to be seen, but it’ll certainly be a more interesting test than what we’ve seen in the past.

For more course details, check out Ron’s course preview. It’s the best in the business, bar none. Also, don’t forget to check out our research tools, the Detroit course stats, along with the Tournament Cheat Sheet.

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Key Rabbit Hole Stats This Week:

There are millions of ways to bet on this beautiful game. My goal with this piece is to touch on the golfers I’m targeting in the outright market this week. Remember to check out the Rabbit Hole, our customizable stat database. It can help you pare down your player pool each week.

Utilize our Discord for up-to-the-minute lines and betting advice. My full card and live in-tournament bets will be posted there. Reach out if you need help getting started.

For outrights, I typically allot 1.5 to 2 units, sometimes more for bigger events, but I mostly stayed within that range. Overall, though, this strategy prevents me from chasing, knowing that I’m positioned to profit if I can hit 5-6 outrights a season. Anything beyond that is gravy. It also helps me stake bets to a flat “to win” amount regardless of their outright price.

This week’s card is short on names, but fits perfectly for my 1.5-unit budget.

*Betting lines are accurate at the time of publication in Discord.

Noonan’s Rocket Classic Outright Picks

Cameron Young

I’m not sure what it is about Par 5s that gives Cameron Young so much trouble, but as soon as I saw this was moving to a long Par 70 and turning two Par 5s into long Par 4s, I knew I was betting on Cameron Young this week. I’ll call balls and strikes on myself for a minute, because if you’ve been with me all year, you knew I was betting Cam regardless, but here’s the data.

Young ranks 39th in this week’s field in SG: Par 5s in 2026. His scoring average (4.58) ranks 52nd, and his birdie-or-better rate of 45.8% is just 67th in this week’s field. Shift that to his Par 4 efficiency metrics, and it’s a completely different story.

Young is tied for the top spot in SG: Par 4s (with Jackson Koivun and Si Woo Kim), with the fourth-best Par 4 scoring average (3.96) and 14th-best birdie-or-better rate (19.4%). He ranks first in four of the eight metrics that I’m using in my Rabbit Hole model this week, making him a deserved favorite at the top of the odds board. I feel like the best comps for this new-look Detroit GC are three other Donald Ross designs at East Lake, Aronimink, and (a longer) Sedgefield, spots where Young has played well in the past.

I’m playing the hits, and dancing with the guys that got me here.

Jackson Koivun

I’m loyal to a fault. Luckily for me, Cameron Young and now Jackson Koivun have paid off my loyalties, and I’m not jumping off the wagon now. Koivun was so incredibly impressive at the 3M; it was clear that he believed he belonged on that stage, and he was right. Though a small sample, Koivun finished fifth in my Rabbit Hole model this week, less than a percentage point behind second-ranked Patrick Cantlay, whom I’m never betting on.

Koivun doesn’t have many Donald Ross design reps on Tour, but he did finish T5 at last year’s Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield CC. The full game was on display last week, and it seems like this new version of Detroit GC will require some of the same and reward his precision even more. He’s yet to finish outside the top 10 in total driving in his 13 measured PGA Tour starts to date. Pair that with an average of 0.52 strokes gained on approach and nearly a full stroke putting (+0.93 per round), and here we are. And we’re going to be here for a very long time.