Propelled by a chip-in birdie at No. 12 and a fist-clenching birdie putt at the last, Michael Thorbjornsen shot a final-round, bogey-free 7-under 63 at Detroit Golf Club to win the Rocket Classic in Detroit by two strokes over Xander Schauffele and win for the first time on the PGA Tour.
Thorbjornsen, 24, joined the Tour as a rookie after finishing No. 1 in the 2024 PGA Tour University Ranking, earning membership through the 2025 season. Last year, he finished No. 70. This marked Thorbjornsen’s 65th career start on Tour. Last week, Jackson Koivun, 23 and another PGA Tour U grad, won the 3M Open in just his third career start on Tour as a pro. Thorbjornsen, who shot his career low in the final round, said don't forget about me when talking about the top
young players in the game. The last time two Americans age 24 or under won in back-to-back weeks on the Tour? Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau in 2017, who both have gone on to win two major titles in their career.
Much has been expected from Thorbjornsen, who won the 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur, represented the U.S. in the 2019 Junior Presidents Cup, starred at Stanford University and finished fourth as an amateur at the 2022 Travelers Championship.
Thorbjornsen entered the final round trailing by four shots and rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt to fuel his charge in the Motor City. He wedged to inside 5 feet at the fourth for another birdie and did the rest of his damage on the back nine. At 10, he wedge from 127 yards to 7 feet and sank the putt. Then, after getting out of position, he opened his wedge up wide and slid the blade under the ball, holing the delicate shot from 35 feet right of the green.
“That’s a 1 in 100 shot right there,” CBS Sports's lead golf analyst Trevor Immelman said.
Thorbjornsen tacked on birdies at the par-5 14th and planted a short iron at the par-3 15th to 7 feet to become the first player to reach 17 under. That proved to be the difference.
An exclamation point to a final round!
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 2, 2026
Michael Thorbjornsen fires a career-low 63 to hold a two-stroke clubhouse lead.
📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/DyN3sAXuDN
A slew of players were in the trophy hunt. Michael Brennan birdied two of the first three holes to get to 16 under but hit his tee shot out of bounds and made double bogey at No. 7 and never recovered. He shot 73 and finished T-15. Rasmus Hojgaard was attempting to become the first Dane to win on Tour. He made the cut on the number at 3 under and then vaulted into the final group by tying the course record of 9-under 61. He eagled the par-5 fourth and improved to 16 under with a birdie at 10 but stalled from there and finished T-3. Xander Schauffele (65) held the lead briefly until he made his lone bogey of the day at 13 and finished second.
Riley, the 54-hole leader, made three bogeys in his first six holes but settled down and rebounded to reach 16 under with a birdie at No. 14 but bogeyed 17 and settled for T-3, his best result of the season.
Thorbjornsen rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt at the last to finish at 18-under 262 and became the eighth first-time winner of the season.
Adam Schupak is a Golfweek senior writer covering the PGA Tour.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Young guns part II: Michael Thorbjornsen wins first PGA Tour title at Rocket Classic
