I love this place!

Entrants ranked on history in the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The value reflects the player’s success and number of years competed within the last eight years, weighted in favor of more recent seasons. A value of 1.000 would mean the player appeared every year and won every time. A value of about .715 puts the player in the top 1 percent of all players who have played the event at least once in the last eight seasons, a value of .335 puts a player in the top 10 percent.

Player	History
Cameron Tringale	0.753
Kevin Kisner	0.752
Troy Merritt	0.686
JJ Spaun	0.609
Maverick McNealy	0.564
Rickie Fowler	0.559
Chris Kirk	0.551
Sepp Straka	0.531

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Top of the heap

The top eight players (per the Hawley Ratings) among this event’s entries.

Player	Rank	Rating
Patrick Cantlay	1	1704.4
Will Zalatoris	9	1321.4
Cameron Young	11	1261.7
Max Homa	19	1039.8
Tony Finau	24	973.6
Adam Scott	28	942.6
Keegan Bradley	32	905.8
Davis Riley	40	836.1

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Sorry, can’t make it

The top four players (per the Hawley Ratings) who are not playing this event.

Player	Rank	Rating
Rory McIlroy	2	1646.9
Xander Schauffele	3	1621.6
Jon Rahm	4	1528.6
Cameron Smith	5	1513.3

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Ooh, that’s hot

Players are ranked by performance in their last four appearances in comparison with their current Hawley Rating.

Player	Upward change
Denny McCarthy	1747.5
Patrick Cantlay	1381.4
Brendan Steele	1178.2
Will Zalatoris	1026.2
Michael Thorbjornsen	1016.2
Callum Tarren	788.9
Mark Hubbard	717.1
Tony Finau	682.3

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Brr, that’s cold

Players are ranked by performance in their last four appearances in comparison with their current Hawley Rating.

Player	Downward change
Keegan Bradley	-890.5
Russell Henley	-715.0
Cameron Young	-663.5
Sepp Straka	-493.9
Webb Simpson	-476.2
Cameron Tringale	-382.4
Si Woo Kim	-375.6
David Lipsky	-370.9

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Certain skills required

Among a set of 10 PGA Tour and DP World Tour statistics that reflect physical characteristics of the Detroit Golf Club course, this table shows the four that have the highest unique correlation with player performance. Events on this course within the last eight years are considered, and the minimum is 80 player appearances. In mathematical terms, the number shown is the partial correlation coefficient.

Stat value	Statistic
0.18	Shots gained off the tee
0.17	Greens in regulation
0.15	Shots gained around the green
0.15	Shots gained putting

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Location, location, location

Event entrants ranked by predicted score per 18 holes based solely on “course fit” — i.e. based on the player’s current percentile standing in each of the four statistics shown above.

Course fit	Player
Patrick Cantlay	68.78
Chris Kirk	68.86
Will Zalatoris	68.93
Adam Hadwin	68.96
Matt Kuchar	69.13
Taylor Pendrith	69.17
Tony Finau	69.18
Denny McCarthy	69.20

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Anyplace but here

Event entrants ranked by worst predicted score per 18 holes based solely on “course fit” — i.e. the player’s current percentile standing in each of the four statistics shown above.

Course fit	Player
Joshua Creel	71.7
Richy Werenski	71.6
Wesley Bryan	71.5
Garrick Higgo	71.5
Bo Hoag	71.5
Kiradech Aphibarnrat	71.5
Jonas Blixt	71.4
Dawie van der Walt	71.3

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Staying close to home

Exempt entrants ranked by miles between their listed residence as of January 2022 and Detroit, host city of the event.

Player	Residence	Distance
Ryan Armour	Silver Lake OH	125
Ryan Brehm	Mount Pleasant MI	125
Justin Lower	Uniontown OH	125
Michael Gligic	Kitchener ON	150
Bo Hoag	Columbus Oh	175
Jason Day	Columbus Oh	175
Nick Hardy	Northbrook IL	250
Adam Schenk	Vincennes IN	350

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Mathematically speaking

The following table shows the correlations between player ranking in the above tables and their actual finish positions. In other words, to what extent does the ordering of players in the table correspond to the order of finish.

Statistic	Correlation to results
Top of the heap	0.326
I love this place	0.164
Ooh, that’s hot	0.144
Location, location, location	0.006