Unlike most casual fans of professional golf yesterday, we watched the most exciting professional golf played all day live on an app. By the time the tape-delayed broadcasts of the Rocket Mortgage and LIV came on, we had already shed a tear of joy in our house having watched the swashbuckling Rickie Fowler hoist the Lil-A Trophy in Detroit earlier in the day. He pocketed $1.6M. Hadwin and Morikawa each banked $800k, along with sharing a stinging playoff loss.
Over on the CW, T. Hooch won his 3rd LIV event of the season, but still managed to drop further in the OWGR, nearly ensuring he won’t play in any major championships in 2024.
That’s unless he unleashes his inner “Ryder Cup“ powers and finishes way up the leaderboard at Royal Liverpool in a few weeks.
Based just on his results and the eyeball test, is Gooch a top 50 player in the world and deserving of a spot in every major in 2024? No question, yes. He’s on a heater. But he chose the option to go and play LIV and pocket $4M checks (yesterday, he won his 3rd such check). Even with a PGA/PIF partnership in the works, he’s likely stuck in purgatory and will pay the biggest, most immediate penalty for jumping to the upstart tour: he won’t have a chance to win a major while playing the best golf of his life. That’s a tough pill to swallow even if you’re pounding the PIF champagne.
Back to the boys in Detroit…
Rocket Mortgage Classic Payouts:
| Position | Player | Score | Earnings |
| 1 | Rickie Fowler | -24 | $1,584,000 |
| T2 | Collin Morikawa | -24 | $783,200 |
| T2 | Adam Hadwin | -24 | $783,200 |
| T4 | Taylor Moore | -21 | $370,333 |
| T4 | Peter Kuest | -21 | $370,333 |
| T4 | Lucas Glover | -21 | $370,333 |
| 7 | Adam Schenk | -20 | $297,000 |
| 8 | Justin Lower | -19 | $275,000 |
| T9 | Aaron Rai | -18 | $222,200 |
| T9 | Brian Harman | -18 | $222,200 |
| T9 | Alex Noren | -18 | $222,200 |
| T9 | Peter Malnati | -18 | $222,200 |
| T9 | Stephan Jaeger | -18 | $222,200 |
| T14 | Chris Kirk | -17 | $160,600 |
| T14 | Taylor Pendrith | -17 | $160,600 |
| T14 | Carl Yuan | -17 | $160,600 |
| T17 | Chad Ramey | -16 | $129,800 |
| T17 | Cam Davis | -16 | $129,800 |
| T17 | Troy Merritt | -16 | $129,800 |
| T17 | Zecheng Dou | -16 | $129,800 |
| T21 | Nicolai Højgaard | -15 | $99,587 |
| T21 | Keegan Bradley | -15 | $99,587 |
| T21 | Max Homa | -15 | $99,587 |
| T24 | Sungjae Im | -14 | $73,480 |
| T24 | Dylan Wu | -14 | $73,480 |
| T24 | Davis Thompson | -14 | $73,480 |
| T24 | Vincent Norrman | -14 | $73,480 |
| T24 | MJ Daffue | -14 | $73,480 |
| T29 | Callum Tarren | -13 | $58,960 |
| T29 | Brett Stegmaier | -13 | $58,960 |
| T29 | Sam Bennett | -13 | $58,960 |
| T29 | Chez Reavie | -13 | $58,960 |
| T33 | Davis Riley | -12 | $45,949 |
| T33 | J.J. Spaun | -12 | $45,949 |
| T33 | Garrick Higgo | -12 | $45,949 |
| T33 | Doug Ghim | -12 | $45,949 |
| T33 | Ben Griffin | -12 | $45,949 |
| T33 | Chesson Hadley | -12 | $45,949 |
| T33 | Ryan Palmer | -12 | $45,949 |
| T40 | Trevor Cone | -11 | $33,000 |
| T40 | Ludvig Aberg | -11 | $33,000 |
| T40 | Vince Whaley | -11 | $33,000 |
| T40 | Kelly Kraft | -11 | $33,000 |
| T40 | Sam Ryder | -11 | $33,000 |
| T40 | Satoshi Kodaira | -11 | $33,000 |
| T40 | Adam Svensson | -11 | $33,000 |
| T47 | Brice Garnett | -10 | $23,707 |
| T47 | Kevin Tway | -10 | $23,707 |
| T47 | Russell Knox | -10 | $23,707 |
| T47 | Alex Smalley | -10 | $23,707 |
| T47 | Tyler Duncan | -10 | $23,707 |
| T52 | Carson Young | -9 | $21,076 |
| T52 | Kyle Reifers | -9 | $21,076 |
| T52 | Harry Higgs | -9 | $21,076 |
| T52 | Luke Donald | -9 | $21,076 |
| T56 | Nick Watney | -8 | $19,888 |
| T56 | Greyson Sigg | -8 | $19,888 |
| T56 | Nate Lashley | -8 | $19,888 |
| T56 | Scott Stallings | -8 | $19,888 |
| T56 | Brendon Todd | -8 | $19,888 |
| T56 | Ryan Gerard | -8 | $19,888 |
| T56 | Robert Streb | -8 | $19,888 |
| T56 | Christiaan Bezuidenhout | -8 | $19,888 |
| T64 | Hank Lebioda | -7 | $18,656 |
| T64 | Charley Hoffman | -7 | $18,656 |
| T64 | Andrew Landry | -7 | $18,656 |
| T64 | Chase Johnson | -7 | $18,656 |
| T64 | Ryan Moore | -7 | $18,656 |
| T64 | Sepp Straka | -7 | $18,656 |
| T70 | Martin Laird | -6 | $17,776 |
| T70 | Seung-Yul Noh | -6 | $17,776 |
| T70 | Zach Johnson | -6 | $17,776 |
| T70 | Robby Shelton | -6 | $17,776 |
| T74 | Danny Willett | -5 | $17,072 |
| T74 | Sam Stevens | -5 | $17,072 |
| T74 | Will Gordon | -5 | $17,072 |
| T74 | S.H. Kim | -5 | $17,072 |
| T78 | Matt Wallace | -4 | $16,456 |
| T78 | Justin Suh | -4 | $16,456 |
| T78 | Kyle Westmoreland | -4 | $16,456 |
| T81 | Ryan Brehm | -3 | $16,016 |
| T81 | Henrik Norlander | -3 | $16,016 |
| T83 | Matthias Schwab | -1 | $15,664 |
| T83 | Paul Haley II | -1 | $15,664 |