2026 Rocket Classic Odds: Four Longshots & PGA Tour Golf DFS Picks

By John Haslbauer | Jul 28, 2026, 7:05am

The PGA Tour remains in the Midwest for one more week, as many of the game’s best converge at Detroit Golf Club for the 2026 Rocket Classic. This event has crowned plenty of longshot winners in its short 6-year history, with Aldrich Potgieter, Cam Davis (twice), and Nate Lashley each closing at longer than 100/1 pre-tournament outright odds. Will we see another surprise longshot winner in Detroit at the end of this week?

It will no longer be the birdie-fest of the past this time around, however, as an extensive restoration project will make Detroit Golf Club play as a sterner test. Now a par-70 with two fewer par 5s, expect the best ball-strikers to be properly rewarded.

We’ll look to dig for some diamonds in the rough in this article ahead of the 2026 Rocket Classic.

ROCKET CLASSIC ODDS

ROCKET CLASSIC INTRODUCTION

We will get our first look at Detroit Golf Club since its restorative master plan in June 2025. Since the Rocket Classic was last played here, the course has converted from a par-72 to a par-70, and adjusted from 7,370 yards to 7,328 yards.

In its first 6 years on the PGA Tour, this event was the purest of birdie fests, offering no resistance or penalty for mishits around the fairway or greens. No longer interested in being the butt of the joke as the PGA Tour’s greatest putting contest, they got to work on a multi-million dollar restoration project to add some teeth.

Overall, the intent of the restoration was to take Detroit Golf Club back to Donald Ross’ original intent as a seminal Michigan golf institution and arduous test for the game’s best. After consistently ranking as one of the easiest courses on the PGA Tour since being added to the schedule in 2019, we should not expect a pure birdie fest or winning score to push beyond 20 under par this year. That is achieved inherently by converting two short par 5s into long par 4s, but the team have also deepened bunkers and added complexity to these Donald Ross greens to make this a sterner test that properly penalizes misses.

Read my 2026 Rocket Classic preview for a deeper dive into the course. Let’s get to our 2026 Rocket Classic picks, focusing on longshots and PGA Tour golf sleepers for your DFS lineups.

FINDING VALUE IN GOLF DFS PICKS: ROCKET CLASSIC

To identify “value” any given week on the PGA Tour, I find it’s best first to understand the consensus key stat profile. Then, take a stance on the elements of the tournament that may go overlooked. At Detroit Golf Club, Recent Form, SG: APP, and Course History are consensus key areas factored into each player’s price.

From a golf DFS picks perspective, I will take a stance primarily on the importance of Comp Course History, Total Driving, and SG: APP. It remains to be seen how the new-look Detroit Golf Club will play post-restoration, but if we read between the lines, a concerted effort has been made to toughen this course up. If that proves to be true, there will be a heightened importance on accuracy and scrambling than we’ve seen historically at this event.

Below, find my favorite value PGA golf Fantasy picks and longshots for 2026 Rocket Classic odds. Stats pulled across the last 36 rounds unless otherwise noted.

Ryan Gerard

It has been an excellent 2026 campaign for Ryan Gerard. Since picking up his first career PGA Tour win exactly one year ago at the Barracuda Championship, Gerard has not looked back, ascending to the Team USA Presidents Cup bubble with six top-10 finishes this season. He should enjoy his return to the Midwest, as he played his best golf of the season at the Memorial Tournament, where he fell just short to JT Poston in a playoff.

Gerard’s consistency throughout the season has been impressive, ranking 18th in the FedEx Cup Standings, and already climbing inside the top-25 of the OWGR rankings. He should carry plenty of confidence about the state of his game entering this week fresh off a T9 finish in his latest start at The Open. Gerard is an excellent profile fit for this new-look Detroit Golf Club, ranking top-20 in SG: TOT (L36), SG: Putting, Driving Accuracy, and Prox: 100-150.

Jackson Suber

It has been the summer of Suber this season, as the 26-year-old has truly ascended as a regular contender since mid-May. Over his last nine starts, Suber has picked up six top-30s and three top-6s. There’s plenty to like about Suber’s game, as he ranks top-10 in SG: TOT, SG: T2G, SG: APP, SG: Ball Striking, Birdies or Better Gained, and Par 5 Scoring over his last 36 rounds. That’s propelled him to No. 5 overall in my model, which is rare to see for a player at odds this long.

It’s been a volatile season for Suber, so I don’t feel discouraged by his missed cut at the 3M Open last week; instead, it creates a great buy-low opportunity for a player who was priced more than half of these odds a week ago. He returns to Detroit with better memories as well, finishing T6 in his Rocket Mortgage debut last year.

Matt Wallace

We may not know for certain how this freshly renovated version of Detroit Golf Club will play, but one thing is for certain on the PGA Tour: approach play always travels. Wallace has been tremendous with his irons of late, ranking 9th in SG: APP over his last five starts. Wallace has gotten his fair share of reps contending this season, with two runner-up finishes over his last 10 starts.

Wallace has enjoyed playing at Detroit Golf Club, with two top-12 finishes over five career appearances. He’ll be very motivated this week as well, as he is currently 98th in the FedEx Cup standings and will need two strong weeks to reach the playoffs. With seven top-40 finishes over his last 12 starts, Wallace makes for an appealing placement bet this week as well.

Taylor Pendrith

If there’s one player less enthused about the significant changes Detroit Golf Club underwent with its restoration project, it’s probably Taylor Pendrith. The Canadian bomber loved this easy and open venue, finishing T2 and T14 in his first two trips. While the course will look different and several holes have changed, I’m not going to completely dismiss the importance of course history this week, as the bones of this course still remain intact.

It has not been the season Pendrith would have hoped for in 2026, but he proved his game is not far gone at the ISCO Championship, where he lost in a playoff just three weeks ago. While we haven’t seen Pendrith’s name atop the leaderboard much this season, he’s made it through the cut in eight of his last 11 starts, and stands as a solid value play in fantasy formats this week given his proven past performance on these grounds.

Best of luck if you bet or play any of these golf DFS picks for the Rocket Classic!

Photo Credit: REUTERS

John Haslbauer

John Haslbauer writes about golf betting and DFS strategy for Lineups. He is a passionate golf fan, golf writer, and (casual) golfer. A graduate of Syracuse University, John works full-time in Social Influencer Marketing Strategy and is based out of Long Island, N.Y. He created thepgatout.com at the start of 2021 and co-hosts the Preferred Lines weekly podcast.