Michael Thorbjornsen won the 2026 Rocket Classic by defeating Xander Schauffele by two strokes.
Thorbjornsen started the final round four strokes behind 54-hole leader Davis Riley. Thorbjornsen’s 63 in the final round included five birdies on the back nine and set the new record of the largest come-from-behind victory at the Rocket Classic. His previous best finishes on the PGA Tour were the 2024 John Deere Classic and the 2025 Corales Puntacana Championship, where he finished tied for second place in both.
Including this week, the last two PGA Tour winners hailed from the PGA Tour University, who earned their PGA Tour membership through the program. Jackson Koivun, who won the 3M Open last week, finished T31 this week. This is the first time this season that two players 24 years old or younger have won back-to-back weeks.
Thorbjornsen came into this week ranked 69th in the FedEx Cup rankings. His best finishes of the year were a T3 at the WM Phoenix Open and a T7 at the Genesis Scottish Open. With this win, he moved up to 38th in the rankings and is now exempt for the 2027 Players Championship, The Masters Tournament and the PGA Championship.
Thorbjornsen finished T4 at this event last year. In his post round press conference, he had this to say when asked about why he thinks he plays well on this course: “I think it’s a lot of drivers off the tee. Obviously with the redo there’s a little more character to the course and you have to think about where you want to place your tee shots. I like bentgrass. I’m from the Northeast so it’s very similar to kind of the courses that I played growing up.”
The last event of the PGA Tour regular season is next week at the Wyndham Championship. Cameron Young picked up his first career win at this event last year. He will look to defend his title against a field that includes Aaron Rai, Justin Thomas and Ben Griffin. At the conclusion of next week’s event, the top 70 players in the FedExCup rankings will qualify for the first event of the playoffs, the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
