2026 Rocket Classic Power Rankings: Top 10 Golfers To Watch

July 27, 2026

Ian McNeill ranks his top-10 players to watch at the 2026 Rocket Classic from Detroit Golf Club. His data-backed insights into who is primed for success.

In what will be the tournament's final edition before Rocket Companies steps away as title sponsor after 13 years, the 2026 Rocket Classic is closing out its run in style. Players will tee it up on a freshly restored Detroit Golf Club -- the product of a $16 million Tyler Rae renovation that aims to restore the strategic vision Donald Ross saw in this property over 100 years ago.

And the field matches the occasion: at an event that has drawn just two top-10 players in the last three years, 2026's iteration features four such marquee names, ten Major Champions, and a collection of the Tour's most in-form commodities.

With the stakes set and the field loaded, here are my top 10 players to watch at the 2026 Rocket Classic!

No. 10 - Jake Knapp

How is that possible?!

Jake Knapp just barely misses out on an ace @3MOpen.

📺 PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/6yoehBGZaJ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 23, 2026

After a left thumb injury halted what was one of the clearest breakout campaigns of the early season, Jake Knapp seems to at last be showing signs of the player many considered a top-15 player on the planet four months ago.

While his T13 finish in Minnesota never truly put the Californian in position to capture the 3M title, it did give him some much-needed momentum after a brutal nine-start stretch that saw three missed cuts, four withdrawals, and no finish better than 55th.

Over four days in the Twin Cities, Knapp ranked third in total ball-striking, gaining 10.7 shots on the field with his driving and iron play. His Sunday 62 ultimately held as the round of the day, with Knapp carding a remarkable nine birdies over his final 12 holes to jump 32 spots on the leaderboard.

This progress could not have come at a better time either, as Jake will now travel to a venue where he fired the course record 12 months ago. A second-round 61 vaulted him firmly into contention before he ultimately fell just one shot short of last year's three-man playoff.

Knapp confirmed in his post-round press conference yesterday that the body is feeling "a bit better week after week." And if he can rediscover the putting stroke that made him so dangerous at the start of the season, things could turn around in very short order for the 32-year-old.

No. 9 - Ryan Gerard

Nine of the world's top 25 have made the commitment to Detroit this week, and while many in that list can boast Major Championships, Ryder Cup appearances, and multiple PGA Tour victories, you may be surprised to find that Ryan Gerard sits right alongside many of the week's marquee names: 24th in the OWGR and 21st on DataGolf's current rankings.

In fact, over his last 24 rounds, only Wyndham Clark and Si Woo Kim can boast a better Strokes Gained average. And on a golf course that has historically rewarded elite off-the-tee play, the UNC product comes in having put together two of the better off-the-tee performances of his career in the British Isles.

Across eight rounds in Southport and Berwick, Gerard gained 6.86 strokes off the tee, beating the field average in driving accuracy by seven and 19 percentage points respectively, while extending his streak of positive putting weeks to six dating back to the Charles Schwab in May.

Of course, Ryan's calling card has historically come on approach, further underlining the current state of his all-around game. For the year, he sits fourth in this field: gaining 0.45 shots per round with his iron play. And last season on this very golf course, Gerard gained over six strokes to the field on approach -- the second-best mark of his entire season.

Notably, the Tar Heel's only PGA Tour win came at the Barracuda 12 months ago on similar bent/poa annua putting surfaces to what we'll see this week. With the game in full flight -- just two weeks removed from a T9 at the Open -- the breakthrough seems as close as ever for the Carolina kid.

No. 8 - Hideki Matsuyama

No spin, no problem 🎯

Hideki Matsuyama is cooking with 5 birdies in 7 holes @3MOpen.

📺 Golf Channel pic.twitter.com/CTpNTL6WEh

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 25, 2026

It was a curious week in Minneapolis for the Japanese ace, as Hideki Matsuyama used back-nine charges on Friday and Sunday to end in a tie for third at TPC Twin Cities.

But surprisingly for those of us who have followed his season closely, Hideki's top-three finish was attained in a way we're not used to seeing from the Masters champ.

Instead of his normally elite iron play leading the charge, Hideki struggled on approach to the tune of a -3.58 strokes-gained rating, while two of his more inconsistent areas -- driving and putting -- picked up the slack, gaining 3.38 shots on the greens and hitting 80.4% of his fairways for the week.

These two figures continue a recent run which has seen Matsuyama completely transform the profile we saw to start the year. From dealing with the full-blown driving yips with the lead on Sunday of the WM Open, Matsuyama has now exceeded the field average in driving accuracy in his last four starts -- and by 11 and 14 percentage points over the last two.

We talked last week about Matsuyama's progression on the greens, which has propelled him to his first season gaining strokes on the putting surfaces in seven years. And with last week giving us further indication, the rest of Hideki's game has rarely felt more primed for a late-season surge.

Here in Detroit, Matsuyama has logged three finishes of 21st or better in four completed starts -- proof enough on its own that this course suits him. But dig one layer deeper and the fit makes even more sense: three of his best results anywhere this year have come wherever birdies come cheap. The Hero World Challenge last December, won at -22. A T8 at Pebble Beach, also won at -22. Last week's 3M Open, won at -25.

If this is truly the new Hideki -- one capable of leaning on his driver and putter when the irons aren't cooperating -- there's little reason to think the Japanese ace can't turn these recent signs of life into career win No. 22. Detroit has already been kind to him, and this may be the best version of Matsuyama we've seen all year.

No. 7 - Russell Henley

The last time Russell Henley stepped onto the property of Detroit Golf Club, he was a relative afterthought -- the World No. 56 who hadn't won in over five years and was in the midst of one of the worst putting seasons on Tour (148th out of 193 players).

Fast forward four years, and the Georgia-born Bulldog has aged like a fine wine. He sits as the fifth-ranked player in the world (per OWGR), has won three times since the fall of 2022, and has become one of the sport's most consistent Major Championship performers: logging top-10s in six of his last 10 starts.

And while this season has not yet produced the volume of winning chances Henley experienced last summer, the last time he teed it up without the game's very best, he birdied his last four holes -- including in a sudden-death playoff -- to steal a win at Colonial.

While Henley doesn't possess the sheer length of many of his contemporaries at the top of this week's betting board, his positional style has already proven effective on this Donald Ross layout -- evidenced by a T10 in 2022. And with Tyler Rae's work over the last 12 months aiming to restore the strategy of Ross's original design, precise ball-strikers such as Henley should receive an even larger boost than we've seen in recent Rocket Classic iterations -- a version of Detroit GC which featured some of the lowest Missed Fairway Penalties on Tour.

With a win and three top-22 finishes across his last five starts, Henley appears to be rounding into some of the best form of his season. He may not fit all the narratives we're traditionally used to in the Motor City, but the combination of elite positional play, improved course fit and timely form makes him awfully difficult to dismiss.

No. 6 - Xander Schauffele

In what has been one of the more unique runs of form in recent memory, Xander Schauffele enters the home stretch of his season having logged three top-20s in Major Championships since the last time he finished inside the top 20 on the PGA Tour.

It's clearly not an issue with any particular facet of his game, as Schauffele gained strokes in all four categories at both the Open Championship and June's U.S. Open. But in the two starts between, Xander struggled at two venues he's previously won at: The Renaissance Club and TPC River Highlands.

This dichotomy between recent form on the game's biggest stages and "ordinary" Tour stops makes the San Diegan among the more difficult handicaps in this week's field. His ball-striking baselines are more than good enough to match the top names in this field -- ranking sixth in 2026 when combining Driving and Approach -- and he's already proven more than capable on similar putting surfaces (see: River Highlands, Castle Pines, Shinnecock Hills, etc.).

So the question isn't whether Xander's game is sharp enough to make a run at this trophy. I'm completely sure it is. The question is how seriously he's taking this start at the Rocket Classic. If things get away early, history tells us Xander will have no problem using this week in Detroit as glorified prep for the Playoffs in two weeks' time, but I can't shake the feeling that a bout in true contention is coming to cap the two-time Major champ's season.

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No. 5 - Si Woo Kim

A new leader of The 154th Open.

Si Woo Kim with a birdie on 6 to get the solo lead on -10. pic.twitter.com/IQXNUFTPko

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 19, 2026

Despite a less-than-stellar track record around the British links, Si Woo Kim suddenly found himself as the man to beat at the Open Championship, walking off the sixth green Sunday afternoon. A hole-out from off the green getting him to 10-under par, the very score that would immortalize Ryan Fox a few hours later.

Unfortunately for Kim, his dreams of Major glory were derailed by four back-nine bogeys, settling for a T6 by week's end. In spite of his final-round disappointments, however, Kim left the British Isles with the two best results of his links career: a T9 in Scotland to go along with his career-best finish at the Open.

Of course, this week there will be far fewer questions regarding his comfort at Detroit GC. Already a noted Donald Ross enjoyer, with a win and three additional top fives at Sedgefield alone, Si Woo's attention will certainly have been piqued by architect Tyler Rae's attempt to restore the essence of Ross's strategic design to this 1913 original.

From a Strokes Gained perspective, only Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy have hit the ball better than Si Woo Kim this season. And his lack of elite length has yet to hold him back around the much more demanding layouts of Torrey Pines or Doral, where he finished inside the top five in February and May respectively.

In what has arguably been a career-best, albeit winless, 2026 campaign, Kim is very much worthy of his seventh-place FedEx Cup standing. It feels like only a matter of time before this level of play returns Korea's No. 1 to the winner's circle -- and at this point, the venue may be becoming increasingly irrelevant.

No. 4 - Jackson Koivun

Jackson Koivun sets the back-nine record (28) at the @3Mopen with an eagle on 18 👏

📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/kLl85GlNMO

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) July 25, 2026

It's rare that a prospect lives up to his billing this quickly, but after months of myself and other golf analysts touting Jackson Koivun as the best up-and-comer of the last 10 years, the 21-year-old conquered TPC Twin Cities -- and the World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler -- in his third professional start. A runaway three-shot win in which he set a tournament scoring record in the process.

The putter has long been known as Jackson's pride and joy, but his ball-striking was the phase that ultimately separated him from the pack. After slipping three back of the lead through eight holes in Round 3, Koivun missed just three fairways and three greens over his final 28 holes -- racking up 10 birdies and two eagles without a bogey to vault to 25-under and leave a very talented chase pack in the dust.

If he does decide to make the trip from Twins' Country to the home of the Tigers, his task won't look all that different around Detroit Golf Club. Winning scores have reached 20-under here in five of the tournament's seven iterations, and although the Ross design doesn't have nearly the same number of hazards along its routing as he saw in the Twin Cities, a recent $16 million renovation from architect Tyler Rae has ensured the course punishes wide misses much more than it has in years past.

You very rarely see players go back-to-back on Tour (or even really attempt it), but then again, we don't see many talents like Jackson Koivun either. If he does in fact tee it up in Detroit this week, I'd have a hard time betting against him making another serious run at the trophy.

Nothing lasts forever, even for a two-time U.S. Open Champion -- as despite putting together one of the more impressive six-week runs of the season through late May-early July, Wyndham Clark was packing his bags early out of Royal Birkdale all the same.

Not as if a single missed cut will put a damper on Wyndham's summer -- which has already included two victories and four additional top-15s since the PGA Championship. And this week, the historically bomber-friendly confines of Detroit GC will give him another chance to strengthen a trophy case that could very well include PGA Player of the Year honors by season's end.

Even before breaking into golf's top tier three seasons ago, Clark had already taken a liking to this layout, logging finishes of T8 and T17 over his first two starts at the Rocket Classic. Over the last three months, he's nearly doubled the per-round average of the field's second-best putter (1.28 to 0.80), and sits third behind just Si Woo Kim and Cameron Young from tee-to-green in that span.

If he's priced as anything other than a top-three commodity in this field, I'll gladly take another shot on Wyndham and his trusty coat hanger to reaffirm his status as the hottest man in the sport.

While others may boast a slightly more comfortable statistical profile week-to-week, you'd be hard-pressed to find a player who's made more of his opportunities.

It's taken just over two years for Chris Gotterup to go from a fringe member of the PGA Tour to now a five-time Champion on golf's greatest stage.

The beauty of Gotterup's catalogue of triumphs is that the Rutgers product can truly boast viability on every layout imaginable. A wide-open bomber-friendly layout? See: TPC Scottsdale. Shorter, positional layouts where elite accuracy thrives above all? See: Wai'alae; TPC Deere Run. A seaside links? Renaissance Club.

No matter the place, time, design, or agronomy, Gotterup has a knack for finding his way into the winner's circle at an elite rate. And this week, he'll get a canvas which aligns ideally with his skillset. Detroit Golf Club has already seen the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau, and Aldrich Potgieter put this layout to the sword on the back of elite driving distance. Gotterup sits 10th on Tour in Club Head Speed. He sits sixth in Raw Distance, and just so happened to record the best driving week of his entire career here in 2022 (+6.38 strokes gained).

The need to run the tables on the greens? Gotterup has gained >3 shots to the field with his putter on nine occasions since last July. And the ability to generate consistent birdie chances? Gotterup has gained strokes on approach in seven of his last eight starts.

Although he remains a bit boom or bust compared to his contemporaries atop the world rankings, the upside cases feel truly limitless for the newly minted 27-year-old. With so many different ways to win already littering his résumé, Detroit may offer Gotterup one of the cleanest paths yet to add another trophy to the collection.

While he didn't receive nearly the same amount of fanfare heading into the year's final Major Championship as he did in the three held stateside, Cameron Young will look back at Royal Birkdale as perhaps his best chance to date at capturing his elusive first Major title.

If not for a back-nine 40 on Saturday afternoon, the Scarborough, NY native may have captured the Claret Jug in similarly dominant fashion to his six-shot victory in May's Cadillac Championship -- as a closing 64 fell one shot short of Ryan Fox's heroic finish. A second Open runner-up in four years and Young's eighth top-10 result since the start of 2022.

Disappointment aside, there were clearly many positives to take from England's Western Coast. After an uncharacteristically poor stretch with his putting through the early summer, Young only needed a marginal gain of +0.16 shots over four rounds to contend late into Sunday afternoon of a Major Championship. But perhaps more importantly, we saw flashes of the ball-striking that carried him to four straight top finishes to start the year and announced Young as a member of golf's upper echelon (T7 at Riviera, T3 at Bay Hill, 1st at TPC Sawgrass, T3 at Augusta National).

Cam paced the entire field when combining strokes gained off the tee and approach play, gaining 9.6 shots and hitting 80.6% of his greens over the four days at Birkdale. And here at Detroit GC, he's already logged finishes of 2nd and 6th across three career starts.

In spite of his long-known talent, those two iterations didn't see the version of Cameron Young capable of taking an event over on the greens -- as he did in his wins at the Cadillac and Wyndham Championships within the last year. The defending champion at Sedgefield already has one leg of the Donald Ross triumvirate in his account. I consider him the clear favorite to add a second in Detroit, and maybe even the final leg in a month's time at East Lake.

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