Detroit ― Horses for courses, you say?
The thoroughbreds were out in full force again for the second round of the Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club on Friday, setting up a potentially thrilling photo finish for Detroit’s annual PGA Tour stop.
Chris Kirk, who’s regularly been in contention at the Rocket over the years, shot a second consecutive 7-under 65 to share the halfway-point lead at 14 under, along with Philip Knowles, who had three chip-in eagles en route to an 8-under 64, and Andrew Putnam, who shot a bogey-free 66.
ROCKET CLASSIC SCOREBOARD
They shared a one-shot lead over Jackson Suber (65), and a two-shot lead over a group of three at 12 under that included first-round leader Aldrich Potgieter (70), Mark Hubbard (69) and Michael Thorbjornsen (67).
Forty-eight players will enter the weekend at the Rocket within six shots of the lead, including the highest-ranked player in the field, world No. 5 Collin Morikawa, who was at 11 under after a flawless 8-under 64.
Kirk’s no stranger to contending in Detroit, and perhaps it should stop being a surprise. His best explanation for his success at the Rocket: DGC is a Donald Ross classic, and that’s what he plays back home.
“I definitely feel comfortable here. It’s a golf course that I like,” Kirk said. “I play a 1920 Donald Ross at home, Athens Country Club (in Georgia), so maybe it’s a similar feel there a little bit.
“Probably the green complexes. You know, I think that the ones at Athens Country Club are maybe a little bit more severe. This course has a couple very severe greens.
“It’s important to try to kind of position your shots below the hole to give yourself a good look.”
Kirk, 40, a PGA Tour veteran with six wins on Tour, most recently at The Sentry in January 2024, has played in six Rockets, and made the cut each time. That includes four top-25 finishes, with his best being a tie for 12th in 2021.
He bounced back from two bogeys on his back nine with birdies at the par-5 17th and par-4 18th, to seize the lead.
Putnam, 36, of Tacoma, Wash., is looking for his second PGA Tour win, and first since 2018. He chipped in from 88 feet for eagle at the par-5 seventh hole, for the highlight of his round, and then hung on during the back nine, as the wind started to freshen up in the Livernois-Woodward corridor. He didn’t make a bogey, which kind of surprised him.
“It didn’t feel like bogey-free,” he said. “Glad I could grind it out.”
The most surprising of the leaders has to be Knowles, 29, the Bradenton, Fla., resident who played in 11 PGA Tour events before this week, and made the cut in just two of them.
He had missed five consecutive cuts. The problem must’ve been, he wasn’t making enough eagles.
Knowles made a trio of them during his round Friday, all of them on chip-ins, and all of them on par-5s. He came into this week having made just two eagles all season.
“We laughed about it a little bit, me and my caddie,” said Knowles, who graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour in 2022 but is still playing PGA Tour events on a medical exemption after a series of unfortunate incidents ― a freak recycling accident in which he severed a nerve in his thumb, a case of shingles, and a bout with mono. “This felt like at least a little bit of the evening out of that law of averages.”
Suber, 25, another veteran of Donald Ross courses who came into the week having missed more cuts than he’s made on the PGA Tour this season, is continuing some fine play that he showed at the Canadian Open, in which he finished tied for 18th. Suber also is looking for his first PGA Tour win.
The group at 12 under was led by Potgieter, who shot a then-course-record 10-under 62 on Thursday, then struggled to live up to it. So did the other two guys who set course records Thursday, Min Woo Lee, who shot a 9-under 63 (matching the course record at the time) on Thursday norming and then a 1-over 73 on Friday, and Kevin Roy, who followed his Thursday afternoon 62 with a Friday 71.
Roy is in a packed group at 11 under that includes Morikawa, who said he putted like “a blind man” in a Thursday 69. He switched putters, going from a blade to a mallet, and switched gears in his 64. Morikawa, who lost in a playoff at the 2023 Rocket to Rickie Fowler, needed 32 putts Thursday but just 25 on Friday. He went from dead last (156th) in the field in strokes gained putting Thursday, to 11th on Friday.
Among the 14 other players joining Morikawa at 11 under were fellow former major champions Hideki Matsuyama (66) and Gary Woodland (66). Matsuyama has gone 8 under without a bogey since missing a 23-inch par putt late Thursday.
Also at 11 under: Jake Knapp, who got to that number entirely on Friday, shooting a course-record, 11-under 61. It was the fourth time this week that the DGC course record has been matched or set. Knapp shot a 59 earlier this season, becoming the first player in PGA Tour history ever with a sub-60 round and 61-or-better round in the same year.
“Today felt very easy,” said Knapp. who shot even-par 72 on Friday and improved his place on the leaderboard by more than 120 spots in less than 24 hours. “The quality of golf was just really, really good.”
And so was the quality of drama around the cut line late Friday afternoon. It looked for more than an hour like the cut would come at 7 under, and leave the minimum 65 players around for the weekend. But some freshening of the wind and drying out of the golf course made things a tick trickier, and the cut line dropped late to 6 under.
That kept around a whole host of big names, including world No. 7 and Team USA Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and world No. 20 Patrick Cantlay, as well as Canton’s James Piot, the LIV Golf alum, who made sizable putts on his last two holes to get to 6 under, then watched nervously to see if he’d make his first PGA Tour cut in this, his seventh try.
Interestingly, Cantlay and Bradley both had makeable birdie putts on No. 18, and if both had made, they would’ve ultimately pushed the cut to 7 over.
That let 20-plus more players in for the weekend; that’s how many were at 6 under, including Akshay Bhatia, last year’s runner-up, as well as Luke Clanton, former Masters winner Zach Johnson and Michael Kim. That group also includes Will Gordon, who was on his last start on his medical exemption and needed a made cut to keep his PGA Tour status.
“It’s not in the back of my mind, it’s in the very front,” Gordon said after making a 6-foot birdie putt on the 18th (and let out a big fist pump) to finish off a second consecutive 69 left him on the cut line. “But that’s you play, is to put yourself in moments like this, (and) hopefully win golf tournaments.”
Former U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick (67) led a large group at 10 under, four strokes back, and Si Woo Kim (68) and Grand Rapids’ Brett White (69) were among those at 9 under.
Among the notables to miss the cut Friday: inaugural Rocket champion Nate Lashley (5 under), former U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark (4), former Masters winner Danny Willett (3), Max Homa (3), fan favorite Fowler (2), and defending and two-time Rocket Classic champion Cam Davis (even).
They’re finished, but the 2025 Rocket? Nay. It’s far from it ― with seemingly another electric stretch run in the making.
“You’ve got to go do it again, you know?” Kirk said. “I have to go try and do it again for two more days.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
