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
Location	Detroit, Michigan
Established	1948
Course(s)	Knollwood Country Club
Par	71
Tour(s)	PGA Tour
Format	Stroke play
Prize fund	US$35,000
Month played	July
Final year	1962
Tournament record score
Aggregate	267 Bruce Crampton (1962)
To par	−17 as above
Final champion
Bruce Crampton
Location map
Knollwood CC Location in the United States Show map of the United States Knollwood CC Location in Michigan Show map of 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.[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.^[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

• 1948, 1949, 1954, 1959 Meadowbrook Country Club (Northville, Michigan)
• 1950, 1952 Red Run Golf Club (Royal Oak, Michigan)
• 1956 Western Golf and Country Club (Redford, Michigan)
• 1962 Knollwood Country Club (West Bloomfield, Michigan)

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[a]
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.