Miles Russell, 15-year-old phenom, in Rocket Mortgage Classic field
Watch: Crowd goes wild as Rickie Fowler makes winning putt at Rocket Mortgage Classic
Crowd at Detroit Golf Club reacts as Rickie Fowler sinks birdie putt on No. 18 to win three-man playoff at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, July 2, 2023.
Jenna Malinowski, Detroit Free Press
Somebody else will have to be the one to drive him here, but Miles Russell, the 15-year-old who took the Korn Ferry Tour by storm earlier this fall when he became the youngest player to finish top 20 in a PGA Tour sanctioned event, will make his PGA Tour debut in Detroit this summer.
Russell, a Jacksonville Beach native, will get a sponsor exemption for the event and become the youngest golfer to play in the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic, the tournament announced on social media as the event’s media days kicked off at Detroit Golf Club on Monday morning.
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Russell’s father is scheduled to drive his son in the courtesy car to the club during the tournament, Rocket Mortgage Classic director Jason Langwell said.
But Russell will be doing the driving on the course, which is not the only strength of his game, as evidenced by his performance at the LECOM Suncoast Classic in April, which included a 5-under 66 on Sunday as he carded seven birdies in a 10-hole stretch to finish at 14-under for the tournament.
It’s only part of the reason the American Junior Golf Association ranks Russell as the No. 1 rated boys high school golf prospect in the nation.
“This is a place that we think of future stars starting here,” Langwell said. “We certainly put Miles in that category. He’s going to be one of the youngest players ever to make his PGA Tour debut, high school freshman.”
Of course, Russell wasn’t the only one of the names added to the field Monday morning. A handful of top 50 players in the world and notable names such as Chris Kirk, Min Woo Lee, Francesco Molinari, Nicolai Højgaard, Webb Simpson and Nick Dunlap were all announced as part of the field.
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Kirk, the world No. 28, won the Sentry back in January for his sixth victory on Tour, and returns to the field after a solid performance in 2023 when he shot all four rounds in the 60s.
Lee, the world No. 35, has four international wins and four top 10 finishes on Tour.
Højgaard, the World No. 40 who made his Ryder Cup debut for team Europe last year, finished T-21 in the 2023 Rocket.
Molinari, the 2018 Open Championship winner, will make his debut in Detroit while fellow major winner, Webb Simpson, who took home the 2012 U.S. Open, returns to the field with seven PGA Tour wins to his record and Nick Dunlap, a 20-year old who became the first amateur to win on Tour in more than three decades in January.
The tournament will be highlighted by defending champion Rickie Fowler, as well as other PGA Tour winners like Will Zalatoris and Tom Kim, when the sixth annual running of the event takes place from June 27-30.
“It was more of a relief for me,” Fowler said via zoom Monday morning, of his win last year. “To have my daughter there, I hadn’t won since she’d been born … but just excited to be coming back. Haven’t played particularly great since last year in Detroit and I’m excited to get things back going.
“Ready to defend.”
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