State golf notes: Rocket's leader departs after six years to join Tiger Woods' venture

State golf notes: Rocket’s leader departs after six years to join Tiger Woods’ venture

Posted by Admin July 18, 2024 Golf

Detroit — Dan Gilbert brought the Rocket Mortgage Classic to Detroit.

But it was another man, Jason Langwell, who grew the city’s first and only annual PGA Tour tournament into one of the go-to events for Metro Detroit sports fans every summer.

Langwell announced this week he is leaving his role as the Rocket’s tournament director and will join TMRW Sports, specifically overseeing much of TGL, Tiger Woods’ new team golf league, which is scheduled to launch in 2025. Langwell will be TMRW Sports’ chief revenue officer.

Langwell is leaving Intersport, the Chicago-based marketing agency that was hired to oversee the Rocket before its debut in 2019. Langwell has been at Intersport for nearly 10 years.

“I will deeply miss my team at Intersport and have complete trust that they will continue the upward trajectory of the Rocket Mortgage Classic and The John Shippen,” Langwell said in a statement given to The News on Thursday. “I am extremely proud of all our accomplishments, and while I look ahead with great anticipation to my next challenge to continue growing this great game that I love, I also know that I will always remember my time working on these properties as a significant highlight of my professional life.”

The Rocket Mortgage Classic debuted at Detroit Golf Club in 2019, to massive galleries, before COVID-19 shut out the fans for the 2020 tournament. Still, in six years, the Rocket has raised more than $9 million for local charities, including more than $5 million for the event’s chief mission, ending Detroit’s digital divide by 2025.

The John Shippen, which aimed to help break down barriers for top Black pro and amateur golfers, launched in 2021, providing an exemption into the Rocket. The Shippen expanded and now gives exemptions into three LPGA tournaments, including the Meijer LPGA Classic in Grand Rapids and the Dow Championship in Midland.

Langwell’s biggest strength was recruiting the golfers to Detroit, which always seemed to be a hard sell, given the ping-ponging the PGA Tour did with the Rocket’s annual place on the schedule. Over the years, Langwell was able to bring into Detroit the likes of Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau (who won in 2020), Collin Morikawa (who lost in a playoff in 2023), Patrick Reed, Hideki Matsuyama, Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau (who won in 2022) and, of course, Rickie Fowler, the 2023 champion who doubles as a Rocket Mortgage endorser.

No year was tougher on Langwell’s recruiting chops than this year, when the Rocket was scheduled right after three straight marquee events that drew all the world’s best players. For the first time in tournament history, this year’s Rocket featured no players in the top 15 of the world golf rankings — though, yet again, the tournament proved fantastic theater, with Cam Davis winning for a second time after Akshay Bhatia’s missed 4-footer on the 72nd hole.

Langwell also made the Rocket Mortgage Classic a fan-friendly event, with some of the best public grandstand viewing spots on the PGA Tour, free admission and parking during practice days, the AREA 313 Celebrity Scramble, and free admission for children under 15 and service members, active or retired, all throughout tournament week.

“We appreciate the incredible contributions that Jason Langwell has made to the success of the Rocket Mortgage Classic and The John Shippen during his tenure as executive vice president at Intersport,” the title sponsor said in a statement. “Throughout his career, Jason has demonstrated the ability to help events grow from concepts to reality, bringing them to life in ways that add tremendous value for partners, fans and communities. His contributions will leave a lasting impact. We wish Jason all the best in his future endeavors continuing to grow the game of golf.”

A replacement for Langwell at the Rocket Mortgage Classic hasn’t been announced, though the tournament is expected to continue its partnership with Intersport.

Langwell started at TMRW Sports, based in Winter Park, Florida, earlier this week.

New links

For years and years after the golf course bubble burst, you’d have been more likely to spot Bigfoot in Michigan than see new courses being built. But there’s a new build surge going on, as golf continues to be a white-hot industry in Michigan. Courses saw a huge increase in interest starting amid the pandemic in 2020, and it hasn’t slowed down, with Michigan seeing record rounds and revenue the last three years.

Add another new build to the list: Island Resort & Casino, in Harris in the Upper Peninsula, announced this week it is building a new nine-hole course as part of a $19 million project that includes a new golf shop and convention space.

The project is set to take two years, with the course, called the Cedar Course (or Kishki, Cedar in Potawatomi), which will be on the site of Sage Run Golf Course. Paul Albanese, who designed Sage Run and Sweetgrass, also will design Island Resort’s new course. The course will be links-inspired.

The course will have a variety of holes, including short par 4s, with one a tribute to No. 10 at Riviera. There is likely to be a short par 3, and church pew bunkers, in honor of Oakmont.

The new course is a direct result of the golf boom.

“We are very busy in the summer and often booked on both of courses in the morning,” said Tony Mancilla, general manager for Island Resort & Casino. “We decided to add nine holes to accommodate our guests looking for early morning tee times before they head home.

“We are not adding to Sage Run but making these nine holes their own course.”

Island Resort & Casino is home every year to a tournament on the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s development circuit.

More hardware

Western Michigan women’s golf coach Kim Moore added another United States Golf Association trophy to her resume. While she finished runner-up at the U.S. Adaptive Open, the premier championship for golfers with disabilities, in Nebraska earlier this month, she did win her category, lower limb impairment for women.

Moore, who was born without a right foot, finished 12 over for the three-day tournament.

This marks the second straight year Moore, from Battle Creek, finished runner-up in the overall category of the tournament, which she won in its debut year in 2022.

“It’s special. It’s always special,” she said. “Being a USGA champion in anything is always a treat. Obviously, I would’ve wished to come home with a bigger trophy, but that’s just the competitiveness in me, the competitor that I am.

“It’s always special to just have that USGA medal that you can take home and have for the rest of your life.”

Moore returns to competitive golf later this month in The Cairns Cup, which is the Ryder Cup of disability golf, with Team USA playing Team Europe. The event is July 27 through Aug. 3 at Cherry Creek Golf Club in Shelby Township.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984