Motor City Open

This article is about a former PGA Tour event. For the squash tournament, see Motor City Open (squash).

Motor City Open
Tournament information
LocationDetroit, Michigan
Established1948
Course(s)Knollwood Country Club
Par71
Tour(s)PGA Tour
FormatStroke play
Prize fundUS$35,000
Month playedJuly
Final year1962
Tournament record score
Aggregate267 Bruce Crampton (1962)
To par−17 as above
Final champion
Bruce Crampton
Location map
Knollwood CC
Location in the United States
Knollwood CC
Location in Michigan

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.

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.[citation needed]

In 2019, the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club in the city of Detroit replaced The National in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.[citation needed]

Tournament hosts

Winners

Year Winner Score To par Margin of
victory		 Runner(s)-up
1948 Ben Hogan 275 −9 Playoff Dutch Harrison
1949 Lloyd Mangrum
Cary Middlecoff		 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 Bob Rosburg 284 −4 Playoff Ed Furgol
1957–58: No tournament
1959 Mike Souchak 268 −16 9 strokes Billy Casper
Doug Ford
1960–61: No tournament
1962 Bruce Crampton 267 −17 3 strokes Dave Hill
Don Massengale
  1. ^ Title shared when darkness ended play with Mangrum and Middlecoff still tied after 11 holes of a sudden-death playoff.

References

  1. ^ "Cary Middlecoff bio". World Golf Hall of Fame. Retrieved 5 November 2007.[dead link‍]
    - Brent Kelley (1 June 2017). "Longest Sudden-Death Playoffs". ThoughtCo. Archived from the original on 19 January 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2024.


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