PGA Tour's Rocket Classic is finished after 2026 tournament

DETROIT - Detroit is losing its annual PGA Tour tournament.

The Rocket Classic will be held for the eighth and final time later this summer, The Detroit News has learned and Rocket Companies and the PGA Tour have confirmed. The 2026 tournament will take place July 30-Aug. 2 at Detroit Golf Club, but amid imminent changes to the PGA Tour schedule, sagging attendance and the struggle to draw marquee players in recent years, Rocket has declined to exercise its option for 2027.

The decision severs Rocket founder and Detroit billionaire booster Dan Gilbert's decade-plus sponsorship of the PGA Tour. Rocket, and previously under the Quicken Loans banner, has been a title sponsor on the PGA Tour for 13 years, including five years outside Washington, D.C., before the Rocket Classic launched in Detroit in 2019.

Gilbert's Rocket Companies has spent more than $150 million as a sponsor of the PGA Tour, including more than $100 million as a title sponsor during the Rocket Classic's run in Detroit.

"After nearly 13 years as a PGA Tour title sponsor, including eight years in Detroit, 2026 will mark the final Rocket Classic," Mark Hollis, Rocket tournament director and a longtime Gilbert right-hand man, said in a statement to The News. "We are incredibly proud of what this tournament has meant to the city, from creating unforgettable moments for fans to raising more than $10 million for local organizations. When we launched the Rocket Classic, our mission was to shine a national spotlight on Detroit. That mission has been accomplished. Our city is celebrated as the model for resilience, innovation and community-driven progress.

"Rocket's commitment to Detroit is as strong as ever. We look forward to celebrating the final Rocket Classic in 2026 and the lasting impact this tournament has had on the city."

The PGA Tour, in a statement to The News, thanked Rocket Companies for its 13 years as a title sponsor, while also leaving open the possibility that the PGA Tour will be back in the city or Metro Detroit in the future. It's unclear how soon that could happen, or if the PGA Tour can find a company and venue to make that happen.

The final 2027 PGA Tour schedule is due out soon, and Rocket Companies, after months of negotiations and internal discussions, officially informed the PGA Tour it was out as a title sponsor within the last few weeks.

Key tournament stakeholders, including the membership at Detroit Golf Club, tournament sponsors and board members of the Rocket Giving Fund, were informed of Rocket's final decision Monday night.

"We remain interested in the Detroit market," the PGA Tour said in a statement to The News on Tuesday morning, "and will explore options for a new sponsor."

The PGA Tour declined further comment.

Why is the Rocket Classic leaving the PGA Tour?

The Rocket Classic debuted in 2019, filling a massive void in the golf scene in golf-mad Michigan, which hadn't had an annual PGA Tour event since the old Buick Open in Grand Blanc closed up shop in 2009. Then known as the Rocket Mortgage Classic, it was the first annual PGA Tour tournament ever played within the city limits of Detroit - a rare PGA Tour tournament played in a major, predominantly Black city - and the fan reception was massive, with eye-popping galleries to watch big names like Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Hideki Matsuyama and Rickie Fowler. While the PGA Tour doesn't release official attendance figures, practice-round crowds at the first Rocket rivaled early tournament round galleries at other PGA Tour stops. By Sunday morning of the first tournament, before a little-known Nebraskan with a tragic backstory, Nate Lashley, had been crowned the inaugural winner, the Rocket's massive merch tent's shelves were basically empty.

Then, in 2020, COVID happened, and most of the sports world shut down for months. On the PGA Tour, several tournaments were canceled, but the Rocket was played - albeit without fans. A young bomber named Bryson DeChambeau overpowered the Donald Ross course to win for the sixth time on the PGA Tour. Two and a half months later, he won his first of two U.S. Opens.

In 2021, the galleries were back in the shadows of Palmer Park, and they came out in droves and were treated to the first (and only) appearance at the Rocket for World Golf Hall-of-Famer Phil Mickelson. He made the cut and finished third from last place, but he was first in the hearts of Detroit golf fans, who mostly and loudly took his side in his very public feud over coverage by The News of his past gambling ties to a Detroit bookie.

By the fall of 2021, the PGA Tour had announced an extension to keep the Rocket running through at least 2026, with the option for 2028. It marked an eight-year commitment, making the Rocket the second-longest annual tournament in Michigan for the PGA Tour, behind the Buick Open, which ran for over 50 years.

"Our players have taken note," Jay Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner, told The News in fall 2021. "Detroit is a special stop on the PGA Tour. ... We're proud to be your partner."

But, by 2022, the PGA Tour found itself more concerned with a serious competitor - the upstart LIV Golf league, which was poaching big players with big paydays, including several stars who'd previously played in the Rocket, including DeChambeau, Mickelson, Johnson, Watson and Patrick Reed, among others.

Suddenly, the pool of available players to sell tickets - golfers who went to LIV were banned from competing on the PGA Tour, outside of major championships - was narrowing, and it was about to get more narrow. In response to LIV Golf's extreme spending, funding by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, the PGA Tour hastily assembled a schedule that designated certain tournaments as "elevated" or "signature" events, with ballooned prize-money purses and mandates for the stars to prioritize playing in those events.

The new PGA Tour schedule, a direct response to LIV Golf, created a fractured hierarchy among PGA Tour outposts, a system of so-called winners and losers. The Rocket Classic wasn't an elevated event; therefore, it was unofficially deemed a loser. Without the biggest player-appearance-fee budget, it has struggled in the years since to draw marquee names, outside of a few a year, like Collin Morikawa twice, and Xander Schauffele this year.

The Rocket was fortunate to have Fowler, one of the game's most popular players, play in Detroit every year because of his long-standing business relationship with Rocket, and before that, Quicken Loans. Fowler was a tireless ambassador for pro golf in Detroit, and he made for arguably the most-memorable moment in the tournament's history, winning in a playoff in 2023 to end a years-long victory drought.

The throng around the 18th green when Fowler tapped in for a birdie on the first playoff hole to beat Morikawa and Adam Hadwin was the last time there was ever significant buzz at the Rocket. By that time, CBS Sports, the tournament's primary broadcaster, had already relegated the Rocket to a second-tier event. Even though the Rocket's ratings always were pretty good, it has long been a Jim Nantz skip week.

Crowds fell off hard in 2024 and even more in 2025, when the tournament lost money for the first time, prompting Rocket to cut ties this winter with Chicago-based Intersport, the marketing and sports-entertainment company that ran the Rocket the first seven years. Hollis was appointed tournament director, and the former Michigan State athletic director who brought hockey to Spartan Stadium and basketball to Ford Field, and an aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego, who promised to bring a spark back to the Rocket.

Instead, the tournament - done no favors by its place on the summer schedule, it never had a locked-in weekend but always was shoe-horned in around majors like the U.S. Open and British Open - is set to be extinguished, amid more imminent changes to the PGA Tour.

Brian Rolapp, a former NFL executive who last year was named CEO of the PGA Tour, is laying the groundwork for a new schedule that focuses on playing fewer tournaments, but playing them in bigger markets. The idea is to have the best players playing against each other more often, for more eyeballs on the ground and on TV.

Rolapp recently unveiled plans for two tiers of tournaments, a top track held mostly in top media markets that would feature the top 100-plus golfers, and a second track of tournaments that would feature the next tier of players - with a relegation element, like European soccer.

Detroit, a top-15 media market, is believed to have been offered an opportunity to participate in either track.

Hollis has previously said Detroit wasn't interested in the secondary track. For all intents and purposes, Detroit has been a second track for several years, and under the new system, it wouldn't even have the opportunity to get the one or two superstars it is able to get (and pay) each year. The cost to be a title sponsor for that track is believed to be around $15 million a year, or about what Rocket has been paying for the last several years.

The cost to be a title sponsor for the top track is believed to be double that, around $30 million a year. Rocket Companies is worth tens of billions of dollars, but it is a publicly traded company with new corporate leadership that isn't as tied to Detroit feel-good narratives. And, so, in the end, Rocket walked - not unlike another longtime PGA Tour title sponsor that recently pulled out, Farmers Insurance, though Sentry Insurance was immediately named the new title sponsor for that tournament in San Diego - deciding the value and return on investment no longer was there to keep the PGA Tour here, even if meant holding a future tournament that would attract the likes of Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth, none of whom ever played in this tournament.

The news comes after Rolapp visited the Rocket at the 2025 tournament, before he even officially was on the job, and sung the city's praises. He was with the NFL when the NFL draft was held in Campus Martius in 2024.

"The momentum behind the city is fantastic. It is a great sports city. It's a great sports state," Rolapp told The News last summer. "I've been coming here in the fall for the last five years, and have loved it. And the draft was as successful of an event as we've ever had at the NFL. And watching the city turn out like they did, and watching the Lions, what they did, I think it's just a great, great sports city."

Now, that great sports city is about to be without a PGA Tour tournament - one that, despite sagging galleries in recent years, drew hundreds of thousands of fans to the city during the eight-year run. The Rocket's exit after 2026 leaves IndyCar's Detroit Grand Prix as the lone annual standalone sporting event in the city limits, though Detroit city remains desirable for national one-offs, like the Final Four, which is coming to Ford Field in 2027.

The Rocket's exit could be the start of a mass exodus of major pro-tour golf tournaments from Michigan, not a great look for a state where the post-COVID golf boon hasn't slowed and which is among the nation's leaders in golf courses per capita.

With LIV Golf facing the possibility of folding after 2026, its season-ending team championship at The Cardinal at Saint John's Resort in Plymouth Township isn't likely to return in 2027. The Ally Challenge, the annual tournament on the 50-and-older PGA Tour Champions held at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc (site of the old Buick Open), is in the final year of its contract in 2026, and that tour's financial feasibility is under review by Rolapp. It's a distinct possibility that all that will remain on Michigan's major pro-golf tour schedule after 2026 will be the two popular LPGA stops, the Dow Championship in Midland and the Meijer LPGA Classic outside Grand Rapids. Those 2026 tournaments take place this week and next week, respectively.

The 2031 U.S. Women's Open and 2034 U.S. Open will be at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township.

What's the PGA Tour's future in Detroit?

While the Rocket had its ups and downs through the years in terms of strength of field and general interest, it rarely lacked for drama, with several big-named winners - like DeChambeau in 2020, Tony Finau in 2022 and Fowler in 2023, and three playoffs in the first seven tournaments.

The tournament also made many winners, including dozens of local charities, including several youth organizations. Also, through the Rocket's "Changing the Course" initiative, fueled by the necessity for remote learning and interaction in the wake of the COVID pandemic, Detroit is no longer the least-connected big city in America. In the first seven years, the Rocket Classic has given more than $10 million to local charities, in cash and gifts. The Rocket also helped create playing opportunities for Black amateur and professional golfers through the launching of the John Shippen Invitational, which awarded exemptions into the Rocket and LPGA tournaments.

Perhaps the biggest winner, though, was historic Detroit Golf Club, which always was the logical choice to host the Rocket, because Gilbert demanded it be played on a course inside the city limits, even though DGC was on the shorter side by PGA Tour standards at just over 7,000 yards. (It was modestly lengthened multiple times during the Rocket's run.) The club had a stagnant membership before the Rocket, but numbers spiked after the tournament debuted in 2019, many of the new members joining because of the prestige of belonging to a PGA Tour club.

"Since the inception in 2019, the Rocket Classic has been an extraordinary success for the City of Detroit, the PGA Tour and the Detroit Golf Club," Keith Hazely, president of DGC, said in a statement to The News. "The tournament has elevated the profile of our club, generated a lasting charitable impact throughout the community, and showcased Detroit to a global audience.

"We are deeply grateful to Rocket and its founder, Dan Gilbert, for their vision, leadership and partnership in creating such a meaningful legacy."

The club benefited greatly financially through the years, cashing annual checks believed to be around $2 million to cover the lease as well as food and beverage and other goods and services. During the Rocket's run, the clubhouse was renovated. Next month, DGC will unveil a $16.1 million renovation, approved narrowly by members in 2024.

But over time, a large and vocal portion of the membership soured on the Rocket - many deeming the myriad inconveniences had begun to outweigh the benefits of the cachet. The buildout for the Rocket, including the hospitality suites, grandstands, concession areas and TV towers, begins each year in May, and the teardown typically isn't completed until nearly two months after the Rocket. Eighteen of the club's 36 holes aren't available for members to play for several days leading up to the Rocket, and, of course, during Rocket week itself. All told, a majority of Michigan's already short golf season was significantly impacted by the Rocket's presence, including, perhaps most notably, the unsightly turf damage that lingered for weeks after the infrastructure came down.

If the PGA Tour does find a way to return to Detroit, it likely won't be at Detroit Golf Club, and thus wouldn't be in the city limits. The PGA Tour could look to courses like The Cardinal or Northville's Meadowbrook Country Club, but yardage is an even bigger concern at those two than it was at DGC. There could potentially be an 18-hole layout made out of the Oakland University courses in Rochester, Sharf and Katke-Cousins. Oakland Hills is interested in holding major championships and only major championships.

Finding another course (or courses; an annual rotation isn't out of the question) figures to be less challenging than finding a new sponsor who is able - and willing - to put up $30 million. There is a limited supply of billionaires, though there's one obvious one the PGA Tour is expected to call: Mat Ishbia, a fellow mortgage mogul and NBA owner and Gilbert's business rival who is chairman and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, based in Pontiac. Ishiba owns the Phoenix Suns and Gilbert owns the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Another option the PGA Tour could explore would be a team of title sponsors, who might be more interested in splitting $30 million three ways (like, say, the Ilitches, Fords and Gilbert?) to form, something like a Detroit Open.

The PGA Tour isn't yet ready to completely close the book on golf in Detroit, but this chapter is coming to an end. And Rocket is ready is take one final - and memorable - swing.

"This last year's going to be a celebration," said Hollis, who plans to unveil several new tournament features and events in the coming days - including a "legacy gift" from Gilbert to the city of Detroit that will be announced during tournament week, Hollis teased in a Monday night letter to the Rocket Giving Fund board of directors.

"We're going to make it bigger than ever."

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 2:51 PM.