Motor City Open | |
Location: | Detroit, Michigan |
Establishment: | 1948 |
Course: | Knollwood Country Club |
Par: | 71 |
Tour: | PGA Tour |
Format: | Stroke play |
Month Played: | July |
Final Year: | 1962 |
Aggregate: | 267 Bruce Crampton (1962) |
To-Par: | −17 as above |
Final Champion: | Bruce Crampton |
Map: | USA#USA Michigan |
Map Relief: | yes |
Map Label: | Knollwood CC |
Coordinates: | 42.545°N -83.328°W |
The Motor City Open was a PGA Tour event played at various clubs in and around Detroit, USA, eight times between 1948 and 1962.
The PGA Tour record for the longest sudden-death playoff was established at the 1949 Motor City Open. Cary Middlecoff and Lloyd Mangrum played 11 holes at Meadowbrook Country Club in Northville, Michigan and were still stalemated when darkness arrived. Tournament officials, with their mutual consent, declared them joint winners.[1]
In 1955, the Motor City Open was originally to be played at Meadowbrook Country Club. This was abandoned however, when Meadowbrook's professional, Chick Harbert, won the PGA Championship in 1954. Meadowbrook petitioned for and won the opportunity to host the 1955 PGA Championship and, because of this development, the Motor City Open was not held in 1955. This is the only time that a defending champion of a major championship has hosted the tournament the following year.
In 2019, the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club in the city of Detroit replaced The National in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.
Year | Winner | Score | To par | Margin of victory | Runner(s)-up | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1948 | 275 | −9 | Playoff | Dutch Harrison | ||
1949 | 273 | −11 | Title shared | |||
1950 | Lloyd Mangrum (2) | 274 | −14 | 1 stroke | Sam Snead | |
1951: No tournament | ||||||
1952 | Cary Middlecoff (2) | 274 | −14 | Playoff | Ted Kroll | |
1953: No tournament | ||||||
1954 | Cary Middlecoff (3) | 278 | −6 | 2 strokes | Tommy Bolt Marty Furgol Gene Littler | |
1956 | 284 | −4 | Playoff | Ed Furgol | ||
1957–58: No tournament | ||||||
268 | −16 | 9 strokes | Billy Casper Doug Ford | |||
1960–61: No tournament | ||||||
267 | −17 | 3 strokes | Dave Hill Don Massengale |