This week the PGA Tour heads to Detroit Golf Club for the Rocket Mortgage Classic, the first event in a month that is neither a Major nor a Signature Event. Defending Champion Rickie Fowler leads a field that features Tom Kim, runner up in a playoff at the Travelers, playing for the ninth consecutive week. Other top players teeing it up include Akshay Bhatia, Cam Young and Australian Olympian Min Woo Lee.

Two competitors to watch this week are two who are making their first swings in a PGA Tour event. One is making his first appearance above the state championship level. 15 year old Miles Russell became the youngest competitor to make the cut on the Korn Ferry Tour earlier this season. Golf Galaxy employee Nick Bienz made it through Monday qualifying to earn his way into the 156 player field.

Miles Russell – Sponsor’s Exemption

Most golf fans had never heard of Miles Russell until April when he became the youngest player to make the cut in a Korn Ferry Tour event, finishing T-20 at the LECOM Suncoast Classic. The AJGA Player of the Year and winner of the Junior PGA Championship and Junior PLAYERS will make his PGA Tour debut this week on a sponsor’s exemption. People are already comparing the 135 pound Russell to Tiger Woods. In today’s day and age it is not surprising that he already has NIL deals with both Taylor Made and Nike.

Nick Bienz – Monday Qualifier with a Buzz

Nick Bienz arrived at Monday qualifying for the Rocket Mortgage with nothing more than his clubs and the clothes he was wearing. Bienz had never played in an event above the state open level and his job at Golf Galaxy allows him to maintain his professional status. Thanks to a story broken by Ryan Francis, (Monday Q Info on X @acaseofthegolf1), Nick will be the golfer to root for this week.

Bienz teed off early on Monday and surprised himself by shooting a 65. Nervous to see if he actually was going to live his dream and play in a PGA Tour event, he had a beer as he watched the scores come in. Then a second. And a third. His 65 didn’t quite get him into the field. The 65 got him into a 5 for 4 playoff. According to Monday Q Info, the fans were drunk and boisterous as they watched the 8 holes needed to finalize the field. Nick had a few in him as the playoff commenced. When it ended he had played his way into his first PGA Tour start.

Scottie Scheffler continued his white hot 2024 season on Sunday winning the Travelers Championship, the final Signature Event of the 2024 PGA Tour Season. The title, his sixth of the season, makes him the fourth to win 6x on Tour in the last 40 years joining Tiger Woods (6x), Vijay Singh and Nick Price. He is the first golfer to win 6x on the Tour prior to July 1st since Arnold Palmer accomplished the feat in 1962.

Scheffler’s win concluded a dramatic week that saw Cameron Young on Saturday become the 13th player in PGA Tour history to shoot a 59 in competition in a round where he eagled 2 par 4’s. Young started his final round making birdie on his first four holes. Tom Hoge made 8 birdies on Sunday to finish solo 3rd. At one point on the back nine 5 golfers were tied for the lead. Rounds 2 and 3 saw lengthy weather delays with 3 spectators injured by lightning on Saturday. Tom Kim, who turned 22 on Friday, led the field at the end of each of the first three rounds and found himself on the 18th green one stroke behind Scheffler needing a birdie to force a playoff.

Protestors Delay the 72nd Hole

Things turned chaotic on the 18th green as Scheffler, Kim and Ashkay Bhatia were lining up their putts. Six members of a radical environmental group, Extinction Rebellion NYC, stormed the course from various directions. The protestors ran thru a bunker and onto the green throwing paint onto the green surface. Officers of the Cromwell Police Department quickly tackled and subdued each of the intruders.

While it is difficult to know what was going through Scheffler’s head as he saw all the police running onto the course in his general direction, Bhatia was very specific about his reaction. “I was scared for my life. I didn’t even really know what was happening. I was in shock and my heart rate was high. It got low and then once that kind of happened I was just freaked out, I just tried [to] get over where everyone was.”

As a result of the paint on the green, Bhatia with the assistance of a Rules Official had to relocate his mark to an area where the paint was not in his line of play. A birdie would have made him solo 4th. He two putted to finish T-5.

Scheffler putting from the right fringe missed his birdie opportunity, tapped in for par and awaited Kim’s birdie try. Kim rolled his uphill 9 footer and confidently walked it into the cup for a tying birdie.

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Due to the damage caused by the environmental extremists, the Tournament Committee decided to move the hole location to the front right of the green, just over a bunker. In an almost anti-climactic finish, on the 73 hole Scottie reached the green in two while Kim came up short finding himself with a buried lie in the bunker. His bunker shot ended well past the hole and he wasn’t able to complete the up and down for par. Scheffler easily 2 putted to take home his sixth trophy this year.

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Let’s get these changed ASAP huh Fellas?

Remember Dustin Johnson pleading to a rules official during the final round of the 2016 U.S. Open. I had his back and most of the world did too.

They say you can’t fix stupid, but you are able to complain about it and hopefully get it changed. Golf, this game we love, there is plenty of senselessness to go around. Witness the Rules of Golf, an encyclopedic catalog of do’s and don’ts that often fall beyond the bounds of reality

For argument’s sake, here’s our take on six of the dumbest rules in the most beloved sport on the planet. OK, maybe I am biased, but the game is pretty old and may need a little botox here and there. Just Sayin’

1. The Dreaded “DJ Rule

In the official ledger, it’s Rule 18-2. But ever since the 2016 U.S. Open, it’s more widely recognized as that *&%$!!!-ing Dustin Johnson Rule. You know, that nonsensical one under which the eventual tournament winner was slapped with a one-shot penalty for supposedly causing his ball to move a nano-millimeter on the 5th green. Never mind that he clearly didn’t intend to set the ball in motion, or that the micro-movement gave him no discernible advantage. The punishment stood. But we shouldn’t have to stand for it in the future. How about this? Next time around, no harm, no foul. Move the ball back, end of story!

2. No Relief from Sand-Filled Divots – In the fairway?

Let’s see if we understand correctly: if we spray a tee shot off-line and our ball winds up in the ground under repair zone, we’re entitled to relief. But if we smoke one down the middle and it settles in a sand-filled crater left behind by another golfer, we’re doomed to play it as it lies. That ground we landed in happened to be damaged. Someone tried to repair it. Sounds to us like… the ground is under repair. Now Im no genius, but are you following me here?

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2. The “DROP”

You’d think that hitting a shot into a hazard would be punishment enough. But you’d be wrong. Under the Rules of Golf, the dogged victim then has to go through the tedious ritual known as the drop, which brings other potential rules infractions into play. If the dropped ball moves closer to the hole (as it so often does) twice, the player gets to place it. So why not just allow placement from the start? It would spare the player undue pain, and save the rest of us a lot of time.

3. Stroke & Distance

In American jurisprudence, it’s known as double jeopardy, a procedural defense that protects us from being prosecuted twice for the same crime. Sounds reasonable, right? No such safeguard exists for a golfer who bangs a ball into oblivion, only to be slapped with a stroke penalty on top of loss of distance. That’s two punishments for one misdeed, and it’s unjust by any measure. We, the people, call for a one-stroke penalty and lateral relief. Motion Carries!

4. Sprinkler Head in Your Putting Line

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Your approach shot lands pin high, just on the collar, and a straightforward putt awaits, with just one problem: a sprinkler head lies in your putting line. Common sense suggests that you should get relief, no closer to the hole; a sprinkler head, after all, is a man-made impediment. But common sense apparently has no place here. Your only hope is that the course you’re playing has a local rule that allows line-of-play relief from immovable obstructions within two club lengths of the green, which, let’s be reasonable here, should really be the rule that governs all play.

5. Five Minutes for a Lost Ball – Really?

That lax allowance dates back to a bygone era, when life moved at a pastoral pace and golfers had the luxury of lollygagging. This is the modern age. Chop, chop, time’s a-wasting. We’ve got cat videos to watch and vapid tweets to send. The game needs to adapt. And besides, if you can’t find that errant ball in two minutes, you probably don’t want to in the first place. It will be under a rock or in a bush but with just enough clearance that those 9 deadly words are uttered “I think I can get a club on it”

6. Cant move a ball from a footprint in a bunker – This one Grinds my Gears

It might make sense on Tour, where players all have caddies and the grounds are as well-groomed as the gardens of Versailles. But many of the courses we mortals play are under-tended and trod upon by etiquette-flouting chops who don’t even attempt to rake up their mess, creating hazards within hazards. The more sensible alternative: if your ball lands in a footprint in a bunker, move it and place it elsewhere in the sand. Done, End of rant. You may go about your business.

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