We have enough of a sample size of Detroit Golf Club that driving distance is a massive advantage. As Steve summarized in his article this week, “there is only 0.3 stroke difference in scoring average between those who find the fairway and those who miss it at Detroit Golf Club”. This snippet screams bomb and gauge.

On the Rabbit Hole, you can filter for the who have gained the most strokes off-the-tee on driver heavy courses with low missed fairway penalty. Here are the top 12 golfers in the field in this category:

If you are a subscriber to ISN or listen to our free content, you know that Max Greyserman is one of our guys. He is playing some of the best golf of his career as his last missed cut came back at the Houston Open in April. He recently finished T23 at the US Open, his best major performance to date.

Greyserman has averaged at least 0.8 strokes ball striking per round in three of his last four tournaments. In his only start at the Rocket Classic last year, he finished T31. Greyserman thrives on these type of courses as he ranks 13th in the field in strokes gained total on easy scoring condition courses and 3rd in birdie or better percentage.

He’s due to truly contend and I love his chances this week in a weaker field.

We continue to stay hot this year coming off a Keegan Bradley win at the Travelers Championship last week. I am currently front running in the ISN staff OAD pool.

My pick this week is Ben Griffin. I don’t want to overthink it but Ben Griffin has the best form leading into the Rocket Classic. This year alone, he won the Charles Schwab Challenge, finished runner-up to Scottie Scheffler at the Memorial, and two finishes inside the top 10 at the PGA Championship and US Open. He added much length this year off-the-tee, which bodes well at Detroit Golf Club.

I expect Ben Griffin to be quite popular in bigger OAD pools. If you need to make up some ground, I would take a chance on Max Greyserman or Davis Thompson.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote that I believed Keegan Bradley should be a playing captain on his own Ryder Cup team and gave multiple reasons why. 

The main reason being he was playing some of the best golf on the PGA Tour this season. It had little to do with the projected depth of the team, which some believe appears bleak, but some of the biggest names are starting to regain form. 

After he won the Travelers Championship this past weekend in triumphant and improbable fashion, he evidently put the debate to bed. He should certainly be a playing captain at the Ryder Cup in September. 

I believe it would be electric and bring some new found energy to the USA team room if Keegan Bradley is playing captain, especially since it’s at Bethpage Black with the raucous New York sporting fans. 

USA fans would love to see this happen and would support the decision. Imagine if he sends himself out first with Bryson in foursomes against the likes of Rory McIIroy and Shane Lowry. The buzz on the grounds would be unmatched. 

The debate online in the golf community has shifted to, should Keegan give up his captaincy and just focus on playing?

It’s too late for Keegan to completely give up his captaincy at this point, and he even ended this narrative by saying he will be the captain, regardless if he plays or not, with Brandel Chmablee after his win:

There’s some people online that believe Tiger should be the captain, which is ridiculous and would be a poor decision for the team. 

Keegan picked Jim Furyk as one of his vice captain’s for a reason. He is the only vice captain on the team that has any head captain experience. When Keegan does pick himself to play, I assume that Furyk will take on more captain duties while Keegan is playing in matches. 

Some people think that Keegan should choose one or the other. I truly believe he can do both. 

People forget that it’s not like Keegan has to play all five matches. He even doesn’t have to play until Sunday singles if he chooses. I assume if this happens, along with a Sunday singles match, that he would play once on Friday and Saturday.

Soon enough, Keegan will be tasked with the tough decision to make his six captain picks. I can’t wait for the Ryder Cup, it's truly one of my favorite events to talk about and watch.

Every year, there’s loud discourse about TPC River Highlands, host of the Travelers Championship annually. People have their reasons for not liking the course, as the golf architecture is very bland and there is not much strategy to the course, which ultimately leads to a birdie fest every year.

And all of these reasons are valid, and I can’t disagree with them. However, the Travelers Championship continues to produce brilliant finishes that overcome the deficiencies of the golf course. 

If you somehow missed it, Tommy Fleetwood had a one shot lead going into the 72nd hole over Keegan Bradley. Fleetwood ends up three putting the last hole to card a bogey. Keegan hit a dart to 5 feet with his approach shot then drilled the birdie putt to win his second Travelers Championship in three years, his hometown event.

If you remember, last year’s Travelers Championship gave us some fireworks, almost literally. The playoff consisted of close friends Scottie Scheffler and Tom Kim, who both share the same birthday which happens to fall every Travelers week.

After climate change protesters raced onto the 72nd hole and caused a slight delay, Tom Kim had a 10 foot par putt to force a playoff, and this is what he did:

Unfortunately for Tom Kim, Scottie Scheffler would take him down in the playoff for another signature event victory.

Outside of the last two electric finishes at the Travelers Championship, in 2021, Harris English outlasted Kramer Hickok in an 8 hole playoff, the longest playoff in the PGA Tour history. 

Additionally, how could anyone forget the finish in 2017, when Jordan Spieth chipped in from the bunker in a playoff over Daniel Berger. “JUST LIKE HE DID AT THE JOHN DEERE!”

If you look further, the Travelers has produced even more fabolous endings. There’s a debate to be had if you would rather play a mediocre course that produces awesome finishes or play an illustrious golf course with not as amazing finishes.

Obviously as golf fans, we want both! But there should be something said about tournaments who produce great finishes for TV that don’t have the most renowned golf course as its host.

It’s officially grass season!

Wimbledon is tennis’ classiest tournament, where players battle it out on lush grass courts in all-white attire under the watchful eyes of royalty and strawberries-and-cream fans. It’s the oldest Grand Slam, bursting with tradition, drama, and perpetual rain delays.  Wimbledon serves up history with a side of high-stakes elegance.

It is no surprise that on the men's side of the draw, it is likely going to be between Alcaraz and Sinner for who takes the third slam of the year. 

On the women's side of the draw, we could get some chaos.    

Mens:

Medvedev 40/1: as mentioned, it is quite likely we get another Sinner/Alcaraz finale, but I think this number is getting a little out of hand on Medvedev.  He made the last two semifinals at Wimbledon and brings strong current form going into Wimbledon, losing last week in the final to Bublik in a grass court tune-up tournament at Halle. 

Womens:  

Rybakina 6/1: the women's draw is truly wide open and we are going to take a number of longshots in the outright market, but as far as who I think is most likely to win, Elena Rybakina.  She is a former Wimbledon winner, with a quarterfinal and semifinal finish the past two years. Her game translates perfectly to grass and she has been trending in the right direction the past three months. 

Congrats to Andy, Rishi, and Kyle all had outright bets on Keegan Bradley last week at the Travelers. All three spoke very highly of Keegan on our Ball Knowers After Dark show that airs every Wednesday night. An additional shoutout goes to our subscribers who won big on Keegan. Let’s keep the momentum going this week at Rocket.