2026 Rocket Classic odds, picks: Surprising predictions from golf model that's nailed 17 majors
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Cameron Young is the +1200 favorite at the 2026 Rocket Classic per FanDuel, with Jackson Koivun, Xander Schauffele and Chris Gotterup tied at +2000; Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are skipping the week.
- SportsLine's model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, has nailed 17 majors entering the weekend, including the 2026 Masters (its fifth in a row) plus last year's PGA Championship and Open Championship.
- Jackson Koivun, coming off a 3M Open win that included a 61 on Saturday, is being faded by the model — which projects he barely cracks the top 10 — partly because he missed the cut at the John Deere Classic just weeks earlier.
- J.J. Spaun, priced at +3000, is a model-backed target: he ranks 20th in the FedEx Cup Playoff standings, has four top-10 finishes this season and posted two top-10s at this event in the prior three years.
- The field tees off Thursday at Detroit Golf Club as the PGA Tour's final two regular-season events play out before the FedEx Cup Playoffs; the model is also flagging a +3500 longshot for its projected leaderboard.
- Wyndham Clark, Si Woo Kim, Russell Henley and Patrick Cantlay sit at +2200 to +2500, while marquee names like Jordan Spieth (+7000), Rickie Fowler (+4500) and Brooks Koepka (+5000) sit deeper in the market.
Why it matters: With only two events left before the FedEx Cup Playoffs, every player in the Rocket Classic field is chasing either a win or critical standings points — Spaun sits 20th and Koivun is a rising rookie whose trajectory the model says bettors are overvaluing after one hot week.
