Motor City Open Explained

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.

Tournament hosts

Winners

YearWinnerScoreTo parMargin 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

Notes and References

  1. Web site: World Golf Hall of Fame . Cary Middlecoff bio . 5 November 2007.
    - Web site: Longest Sudden-Death Playoffs . Brent Kelley . 1 June 2017 . ThoughtCo . https://web.archive.org/web/20180119120044/https://www.thoughtco.com/longest-sudden-death-playoffs-on-the-pga-tour-1565890 . 19 January 2018 . 27 April 2024.