Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2026 Rocket Classic, which gets underway on Thursday in Detroit.
The “Close But No Cigar” campaign of 2026 continues this week in the Motor City after we once again narrowly missed on the outright winner last week in Minneapolis. Emiliano Grillo and Michael Brennan went into the final round last week at the 3M Open, in second and third place, respectively. We failed to account, however, for the coming-out party of what appears to be the PGA Tour’s next mega-star, Jackson Koivun, who followed up a Saturday 61 with a Sunday 66 to hold off World No. 1, Scottie Scheffler, and secure his first-ever Tour win in only his third professional start. Hello world.
Along with Koivun, we are onto Detroit.
Just two more regular season events remain before the FedExCup Playoffs begin. This week it is the eighth and final edition of the Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club, a classic Donald Ross design that has recently undergone an extensive redesign by Tyler Rae.
As many redesign efforts aim to do, Rae has restored much of Ross’ original intent that had eroded over several decades. The greens have increased in size to restore many of the Ross signature humps and bumps and run-off collection areas. The fairways have been narrowed somewhat but also redirected to bring back some of the angles Ross envisioned. Fairway bunkers have been added, and others repositioned to require more strategy off the tee and bring the golf course up to modern-day game standards. Much of what it boils down to is this once Par 72 layout being converted into a long Par 70 at over 7,300 yards. Two of what used to be the easiest par 5s on the course have become very long and challenging par 4s. Over the first seven editions of this tournament, the winning score has been better than 22-under par on average. Given the changes, I believe we are likely to see 3-4 shots more than that, which will be enough this season.
I still looked at Birdies or Better Percentage this week, as I do expect the players to go low. I looked at Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and Good Drives Percentage. After successfully negotiating one’s tee shot, I believe we are going to get a wide variety of wedge shots and short irons anywhere from 50 to 175 yards out. I looked at Strokes Gained on the par 4s, as there are now 12 of them here this year, and finally Strokes Gained: Putting on what are blended Poa Annua and Bentgrass greens.
As for the comp courses, they are similar to last week, and I did indeed use Silverado in Napa (Procore Championship) and TPC Deere Run (John Deere Classic) again, in addition to last week’s home course, TPC Twin Cities. I added TPC Toronto this week and also threw in Sedgefield Country Club, which is another Ross design where they play the Wyndham Championship.
Kim has played this event five times, making the cut in his last four visits with a finish as high as 14th in 2022. He has four top 10 finishes in his last six starts and leads this field over the last 24 rounds in Birdie or Better Percentage. He ranks top five in this field on Par 4 scoring and in Hole Proximity from 50-75, 125-150 and 150-175 yards. Kim has finished top five at the Wyndham Championship four times, including a win in 2016.
Spaun has quietly been playing some very solid golf, finishing top 12 in four of his last eight starts. This is his first action since spending two weeks overseas, playing the Scottish Open and Open Championship. He is one of the very best in approach and in Par 4 Scoring. Also, over the last 24 rounds, Spaun ranks 18th in this field for SG: Putting (Bent/Poa). He’s played this event six times and in half of those trips, finished 13th or better. Spaun finished third at Sedgefield in 2024 and has finished top 11 at Silverado three times.
We haven’t heard a whole lot from the young man who earned his first Tour win back in February at Riviera at the Genesis Invitational, but he has only missed one cut all season. Just last month, he finished 11th at one of our correlated courses, TPC Toronto, at the Canadian Open. He’s excellent on the Par 4s and in Hole Proximity from 100-175 yards. Bridgeman ranks third on Tour this season for SG: Putting. He was fifth at the John Deere in 2025 and 12th at the Wyndham in 2024.
Cruel and unusual punishment, you say? Maybe so. Grillo finally started scoring last week in Minnesota on the back nine on Sunday, but at that point, it was too little, too late for our guy who began the day in second place and ultimately finished seventh. Even though this is a “new and improved” Detroit Golf Club, this Minnesota-Motor City swing has seen many of the same names pop up on leaderboards over the years. Last week was Grillo’s fourth top 10 finish at TPC Twin Cities. Last week, we noted that he has a win and a fourth-place finish in Napa and two runner-up finishes at the John Deere Classic. He has two top 25 finishes at TPC Toronto and ranks top 10 in this field over the last 24 rounds in SG: Putting (Bent/Poa), SG: Par 4s, and Birdie or Better Percentage.
We’re going to jump back on the South African horse as well this week after CBez finished off four straight days in the 60s with a 66 on Sunday last week at TPC Twin Cities to finish top 20. He ranked 13th in that field in SG: Putting. The short game, the wedge game and the approach play are all excellent for Bezuidenhout, and this course may even suit those skills better than last week’s course did. At monster prices, we’ll use a couple of longshots again this week who fared quite well for us just one week ago. Note: Bezuidenhout has never missed a cut at the Wyndham Championship in five trips to Sedgefield Country Club.
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