DETROIT — OK, Detroit Golf Club is not hard. We get it. The players go low here.

But the annual outcry on social media about how the home of the PGA Tour's Rocket Classic is embarrassingly easy is, well, simply not supported by facts.

The Rocket Classic, since debuting in 2019, never has had the lowest winning score on the PGA Tour during any season, and most years, it's not even close to the lowest winning score.

Last year, when Cam Davis won at 18 under, the winning score was worse than 15 other PGA Tour tournaments in 2024. In 2021, when Davis also won at 18 under, there were 18 PGA Tour tournaments with a lower winning score. The other four years, the Rocket Classic had the second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-lowest winning score in relation to par.

In short, not every course is going to be Oakmont Country Club, which made fools out of many of the game's best golfers at the U.S. Open earlier this month.

And the players, well, they appreciate that about DGC, and many other so-called easy courses on Tour.

"I like the balance that we have," said Chris Kirk, who was at 14 under at the halfway point at this year's Rocket after shooting consecutive 65s. "We have a lot of tournaments that are really, really difficult, and we have a good many tournaments where it's going to take 25 under or so to win. I feel like the Tour has a really great balance right now."

The winning score at the Rocket has been anywhere from 18 under to 26 under, which Tony Finau shot when he cruised to victory in 2022.

There are many courses that are routinely lit up, too. Players are getting longer, and most golf courses can't keep up.

As for Detroit Golf Club, it's the flattest course in the PGA Tour's annual rotation, and it's also among the shortest, at just over 7,300 yards. And when conditions are perfect, like little wind, a course softened by the rain and players allowed to have preferred lies in the fairway, well, there's just not much defense.

But the weather looks like it could back Saturday and Sunday, firming up the greens and making low numbers not tough to come by, but at least tougher to come by on the Donald Ross gem.

There were some signs of them drying out by the middle of Friday's afternoon wave. In other words, don't chuck Finau's winning score from the record books just yet.

"The winner isn't going to shoot 40 under," said Jake Knapp, who shot a course-record, 11-under 61 on Friday to vault up into the top 10 on the leaderboard. He was tied for 130th after shooting an opening-round par 72.

Eagle watching

There's a bad run of golf, and then there's what Philip Knowles has experienced this season.

He had played 11 PGA Tour tournaments coming into Rocket week, and he had made the cut in just two of them. Coming into the Rocket, he hadn't made a PGA Tour cut since March.

When he walked off the golf course Friday, he was tied for the lead with Kirk at 14 under, after firing an exquisite second-round 64 that included, seriously, three chip-ins for eagle.

"I can't imagine chipping in three times for eagle ever again in my life," he said.

On the par-5 17th, Knowles chipped in from in front of the green, 81 feet out. On the par-5 fourth, again from in front of the green, he chipped in from 37 yards. And on the par-5 seventh, from the rough left of the green, Knowles did it again, chipping in from 40 yards.

Easy game, eh?

"Golf is funny," said Knowles, 28. "When you're playing bad, you never feel like you're playing good again, and when you have days like today, you just don't understand how you could ever shoot a bad round of golf.

"I was pretty lucky a couple of times."

The only other player with three eagles in one round on the PGA Tour this season: Chandler Phillips, in the first round of The Players Championship.

Hooks misses cut

Joe Hooks, a Detroiter and Wayne State alum who got into the field by winning the John Shippen Men's Invitational last Sunday, didn't get the result he wanted in his PGA Tour debut, missing the cut at 4 over on the course where he learned how to play the game.

He was under par in each of his two rounds, before finishing with a par 72 and a 4-over 76.

Still, the week was a productive one for Hooks' bank account, no small thing in a line of work where it ain't cheap to keep chasing that dream. Hooks, 32, won $20,000 for winning the Shippen, then Rocket Companies gave him an undisclosed sum (though likely several thousand dollars) to wear its logo on his shirt for the week.

"I just think Rocket's really intentional with their support of trying to change the landscape of professional golf," Hooks said. "We're just trying to inspire more kids that look like myself to be great."

Change of fortunes

You see it a lot in golf. It's very hard to follow up a great round with another great round the next day. And first-round leaders Aldrich Potgieter and Kevin Roy displayed that Friday, stumbling after carding a pair of 10-under 62s on Thursday. Potgieter shot a 2-under 70 on Friday, and Roy shot 1-under 71.

"Yeah, it was definitely a little bit of a change this morning waking up so early," said Potgieter, a 20-year-old South African who played late Thursday and then early Friday. "Different conditions playing. It was a bit colder, a bit of overcast ... and then the heat came in for the back side.

"So it was definitely something different. Just happy it was over."

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