Golf Glance

[June 26, 2019]  Field Level Media's Golf Glance provides weekly news and storylines from each of the major North American golf tours.

PGA TOUR

LAST TOURNAMENT: Travelers Championship (Chez Reavie)

THIS WEEK: Rocket Mortgage Challenge, June 27-30

Detroit Golf Club, Detroit (Par 72, 7,334 yards)

Purse: $7.3 million (Winner: $1.31 million)

Defending champion: Inaugural event

FedEx Cup leader: Matt Kuchar

Television: Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS)

NOTES: This is the first PGA Tour event to be held in Detroit and the first in Michigan since the Buick Open in 2009. ... Two spots are available for The Open Championship for players who finish in the top eight who are not already qualified to play at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland next month. ... World No. 2 Dustin Johnson is the top-ranked player in the field. ... Reavie captured his second career PGA Tour victory a week after tying for third at the U.S. Open. He and Johnson will be paired with former Masters champion Patrick Reed during the first two rounds. ... Gary Woodland will make his first start since winning the U.S. Open. ... Rocket Mortgage ambassador Rickie Fowler has slipped to 14th in the world rankings after reaching No. 7 following a runner-up finish at the Honda Classic in March. He has only three top-15 finishes in nine events since. ... Former Oklahoma State teammates Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff will make their second professional starts following debuts last week. Hovland tied for 54th at 1 under par; Wolff missed the secondary cut.

BEST BETS: Johnson (+550 by PointsBet) is the top-ranked player in the field. He has two worldwide victories in 2019 and eight top-10s in 14 starts. ... Hideki Matsuyama (+1200) hasn't won since 2017 but has shown steady results throughout the season. Against a modest field, he provides good odds. Matsuyama finished T21 at the U.S. Open, T16 at the PGA Championship and has four consecutive top-25 finishes. ... Joaquin Niemann (+4000). These fields create opportunities for dark horses to make a splash. The young Chilean made waves after turning pro last season with four top-10s over an eight-event stretch. After mostly middling results since, Niemann posted a T5 last week and arrives in Detroit with some momentum.
 

NEXT WEEK: 3M Open, Blaine, Minn., July 4-7

LPGA TOUR

LAST TOURNAMENT: KPMG Women's PGA Championship (Hannah Green)

THIS WEEK: Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, June 28-30

Pinnacle Country Club, Rogers, Ark. (Par 71, 6,331 yards)

Purse: $2 million (Winner: $300,000)

Defending champion: Nasa Hataoka

Race to the CME Globe leader: Jin Young Ko

Television: Friday, 12-2:30 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m. (all times Golf Channel)

NOTES: The 144-player field will be cut to the top 70 and ties following Saturday's second round. ... Hataoka set the tournament scoring record of 21-under 192 in winning last year's event. ... Each of the past six champions are in the field. ... Nelly Korda leads the Tour with eight top-10 finishes this year and is second in the USA Solheim Cup team standings (477.5 points) to Lexi Thompson (517). ... Ko leads the Tour in scoring average (69.396) and greens in regulation (78.6 percent).

NEXT TOURNAMENT: Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, Oneida, Wis., July 4-7

CHAMPIONS TOUR

LAST TOURNAMENT: American Family Insurance Championship (Jerry Kelly)

THIS WEEK: U.S. Senior Open Championship, June 27-30

The Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind. (Par 70, 6,943 yards)

Purse: $4 million (Winner: $720,000)

Defending champion: David Toms

Charles Schwab Cup leader: Scott McCarron

Television: Thursday-Friday, 3-8 p.m. ET (FS1); Saturday, 3-4 p.m. (FS1), 4-7:30 p.m. (FOX); Sunday, 2-7:30 p.m. (FOX)

NOTES: This is the first college-affiliated course to host the event. The Warren Course previously hosted the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship in 2010 ... The field features each of the top 36 players in the Charles Schwab Cup standings. ... Toms beat Kelly, Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez and Tim Petrovic by one shot last year to claim his first Champions victory. ... Steve Stricker will make his U.S. Senior Open Championship debut after tying for second last week. He claimed his first major championship at the first major of the season, the Regions Tradition. ... Bernhard Langer holds the record with 10 major championship titles on the Champions tour. ... Major champions making their tournament debuts: Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke (2011 Open Championship), South Africa's Retief Goosen (2001, 2004 U.S. Opens), Shaun Micheel (2003 PGA Championship), Scotland's Paul Lawrie (1999 Open Championship) and New Zealand's Michael Campbell (2005 U.S. Open).

NEXT TOURNAMENT: Senior Players Championship, Akron, Ohio, July 11-14

--Field Level Media

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.