Detroit Area Native Joe Hooks Gets Exemption Into Rocket Classic

Left to right – Mark Hollis (Tournament Director – Rocket Classic), Teresa Hooks (Joe’s mom), Joe Hooks (Sponsor exemption into the 2026 Rocket Classic), James Hooks (Joe’s dad), Keith Hazely (President, Detroit Golf Club)

Detroit area native Joe Hooks has accepted a sponsor’s exemption to play in the 2026 Rocket Classic.

Hooks made his PGA TOUR debut in the 2025 Rocket Classic and will play in the 2026 event July 30-August 2.

Hooks, 32, grew up in Southfield and Commerce Township, and is a 2011 graduate of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, just two miles from Detroit Golf Club. He was an all-state selection as a junior and senior, and estimated he has played more than a thousand rounds at DGC throughout his life. He started playing the course at seven years old, and during summers, his parents would drop him off at the course on their way to work and pick him up on the way home.

Hooks attended Wayne State University. He turned pro in 2017 and has since won four times on the Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour. He won The John Shippen last June at Detroit Golf Club.