Can Bryson DeChambeau deal with the weakest field on the PGA Tour since the Honda Classic more than three months ago? Can he focus on a run-of-the-mill PGA Tour event when his much-ballyhooed charity match involving Phil Mickelson and NFL players Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers looms only two days after the conclusion of this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic?

As far as the Rocket is concerned, it would seem like it’s not so much Godzilla vs. the field but Godzilla vs. himself. The amazing physical specimen DeChambeau has lost a bit of his touch and some swagger somewhere along the way in the last several weeks. He’s on a four-event slump with a best finish of 18th in the Memorial and he’s been on the final leaderboard (ninth in the Wells Fargo) only once since mid-March. His final-nine collapse at the U.S. Open two weeks ago sadly was the stuff of legend.

Two items in DeChambeau’s favor are his victory last year in his only appearance in this two-year-old event and his seeming fitness for the course. The Hawley course fit statistics indicate that the Detroit Golf Club, a fairly short and flat track, has been good for the long-ball hitters, and that is exactly what DeChambeau is. Through this week’s statistics, he’s in the top 1 percent of all U.S./ Euro players in driving distance and shots gained off the tee. Also, he makes the top quarter in shots gained putting, another stat with high correlation between player performance and results in this event.

As if he needed distractions, Capital One’s “The Match”, with DeChambeau and Rodgers playing Mickelson and Brady, is Tuesday at Moonlight Basin in southwest Montana. And then of course there is the ongoing hissy fit between DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.

Back in Detroit, the field includes only three players from the top 20 of the Hawley Ratings — no. 5 DeChambeau, no. 7 Webb Simpson, and no. 10 Patrick Reed. There are an additional 10 players from the top 50. You have to go back to the Honda to find an event with that few names from the top 20. Not only that, but 12 of these 13 leading players have lower Hawley Ratings now than they did four starts back. The only exception is Reed, who has been very solid since April. He has three top-10s (Memorial, Wells Fargo, Masters), two top-20s, and one unsightly missed cut since then.

Another player who could make it work here is Jason Kokrak, ranked 29th and the best fit for the course in the field. He’s in the top quarter of all players in driving distance and shots gained off the tee, and he’s in the top 5 percent in shots gained putting. Kokrak has been extremely up-and-down. Going backward in time, he missed the cut at the U.S. Open three weeks after winning the Schwab. Before that he was mediocre at the PGA, good at the Valspar, mediocre in three straight events, then in the top 10 in three straight.

Per pgatour.com, the Detroit Golf Club underwent an upgrade prior to the first Rocket event in 2019. It’s the flattest course on Tour, according to ShotLink data, and while the front-nine is tree-lined, the back nine is open for birdies in bunches; DeChambeau closed with three straight a year ago.

Behind the top two in fit for the course (Kokrak and DeChambeau), others who could prosper on this track include, in order, Simpson, Joaquin Niemann, Sungjae Im, Garrick Higgo, and Reed.

There is only one player in the field with strong finishes in both iterations of this event. It’s Sepp Straka, a 28-year-old product of the University of Georgia who is from Vienna, Austria. Straka was 11th in the inaugural event and eighth last year. The next-best pair of finishes is two top-20s by Viktor Hovland, who isn’t here after winning in Europe last week. Doc Redman and Hideki Matsuyama have played both years with two finishes in the top 30, including the 2019 runner-up finish by Redman.

Many fans have given up on Rickie Fowler. Maybe re-check that. He may be having a Spieth-esque resurgence after failing to qualify for the U.S. Open. He has nice finishes the last two times out – 11th at the Memorial and a top-10 at the PGA. It was not pretty before that – four missed cuts and only two top-20s in the prior eight appearances.

If you’re looking for a deep longshot, here’s one: 22-year-old Oklahoma native and Oklahoma State product Austin Eckroat. He’s in the field on a sponsor exemption. The four-time all-American has four PGA Tour appearances in the last three years; he was 13th in the Mayakoba last December and just inside the top 50 last week in the Travelers.

Satoshi Kodaira is another seeming outsider who might have a chance. The 31-year-old Tokyo resident turned things around after missing three cuts in a row through mid-April. Since then, he has three straight top-20 finishes with a best of 11th at the Wells Fargo.

Joseph Bramlett has been making the cut every other appearance, and he’s due for weekend action this time. He was seventh in the Nelson and has managed a couple of other top-20s this year.