Detroit ― Breaking up is hard to do, they say. But, apparently, not in Detroit.

Four years ago, then-defending champion Bryson DeChambeau and his caddie Tim Tucker called off their partnership before the start of that year’s Rocket Classic.

And, on Wednesday, word came out that Collin Morikawa, the No. 5-ranked player in the Official World Golf Rankings, is changing caddies. Morikawa has split with caddie Joe Greiner, who he started working with earlier this year, after breaking up with longtime caddie J.J. Jakovac in April.

Greiner previously caddied for Max Homa, before they split this year.

On Morikawa’s bag this week will be his former teammate at Cal, KK Limbhasut, who is a Korn Ferry Tour player, and attempted to make his own way into the Rocket during Monday’s qualifier at Fieldstone Golf Club in Auburn Hills. Limbhasut Monday-qualified into the Rocket in 2022, and tied for 44th that week.

“When I split with J.J. Jakovac, I had him except for one tournament my entire career, and you get used to that,” Morikawa said Wednesday, ahead of Thursday’s start of the Rocket Classic. “So when I leave that, it’s a process for me to find (someone), because I only know one way. I think people, they’re going to be surprised, but the way I put it is just because two people are great at what they do doesn’t mean they’re going to be great together.

“I think Joe is an amazing caddie, but I think just the way we kind of saw things or just day-to-day how we kind of went about it, we were just a little bit on a different page.

“That doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong, but for me, it just didn’t feel right.”

Morikawa, the highest-ranked player in this week’s PGA Tour field, is a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, with two major titles, the 2021 PGA Championship and 2022 British Open.

He hasn’t won since October 2023, and he recently dropped to No. 7 on the Ryder Cup points standings for Team USA. The top six are automatic qualifiers.

This is Morikawa’s second appearance in the Rocket. He made a three-man playoff in 2023, losing to Rickie Fowler.

Morikawa said he’s not sure who will be on his bag moving forward, including next month’s Open at Royal Portrush.

“For right now, it just felt like I needed a fill in,” Morikawa said. “Got my buddy on the bag who played (at) Berkeley with me who’s actually still on the Korn Ferry (Tour). So I appreciate him doing it.

“And we’re going to go out and have a blast.”

The news of Morikawa’s caddie split ― he was with Greiner for just five tournaments ― was first reported Wednesday by Golfweek’s Adam Schupak, leading to a testy exchange between the two during Morikawa’s press conference at Detroit Golf Club, then another one, one-on-one, outside the media tent.

Bradley splits attention

Keegan Bradley doesn’t have a split personality, but he certainly has to split his attention these days, as the captain of Team USA in this fall’s Ryder Cup, and a still-great player who is ranked No. 7 in the world after winning the Travelers Championship in thrilling fashion last Sunday.

Bradley again will split his focus this week, using his time in Detroit to scout some potential players on his Ryder Cup team (heck, he might and probably should be one of them), and to chase another title.

“For me, the only time I can escape the Ryder Cup thoughts are when I’m inside the ropes,” said Bradley, who’s making his fifth start at the Rocket Classic. “I’m able to escape the Ryder Cup a little bit when I get inside the ropes. When I leave those ropes … I have some Ryder Cup stuff I have to do.

“But I’ve been doing a pretty good job this year of when it’s time to tee it up in the tournament, of being a player first. Then when I leave there, I have to be the captain.”

Bradley is ninth in Ryder Cup points after he won at the Travelers. He had said he would have to earn his way onto the team in points to be a playing captain (Team USA’s first since Arnold Palmer in 1963, when Palmer was 34; Bradley is 39). But after winning Sunday, Bradley said that could change things.

He has said he has contingencies in place should he make the team as a player, including leaving more heavily on his vice captains, including Webb Simpson and Kevin Kisner, who are in the Rocket field this week.

Bradley was famously left off the 2023 Ryder Cup team, in drama caught by Netflix cameras for “Full Swing.” Last year, Bradley was given the captaincy by the PGA of America, whose leadership noted that a playing captain could happen.

“I mean, look, right now he’s playing as one of the best Americans and one of the best golfers in the world,” said Morikawa, who’s played in two Ryder Cups. “It’s not it wasn’t a possibility that could happen.”

Hooks hooked on golf

There’s nobody in the Rocket Classic field that’s played Detroit Golf Club more than Joe Hooks, a 32-year-old who as a kid in the summers would get dropped off by his parents in the morning and picked up in the evenings.

That’s when he wasn’t working at the family grocery store.

Hooks, 32, a Wayne State alum, is in the field after winning the John Shippen Men’s Invitational, a unique-to-the-Rocket tournament that was created to tear down barriers for Black golfers, amateurs and professionals.

“The history of Detroit Golf Club within the city is very, it tends to be very complicated, right,” said Hooks, 32. “It’s very rich, but still very complicated, you know? Like, we weren’t necessarily, Black people weren’t necessarily very welcome here in the ’80s, right, and to fast forward to now and the significance of what the John Shippen is and just the membership as a whole, you know, 120-plus Black members, which is by far miles more than any other place in the country.

“And for me to … represent that history or be a part of that history here at Detroit Golf Club is such a blessing.

“You know, let’s just see how much more history we can make this weekend and hopefully look forward to more opportunities, you know, for other players, especially in the John Shippen.

“Hopefully, I don’t have to win that again to get in.”

Hooks shot 10 under over two days, last Saturday and Sunday, to win the Shippen by three strokes, becoming the first Detroiter to win the event, and the second Michigan native to win it, after Flint’s Willie Mack III, a good friend of Hooks’, won it in 2024.

This is the first PGA Tour appearance for Hooks.

Chips & divots

▶ By far the coolest golf bag on the DGC grounds this week belongs to PGA Tour rookie Taylor Dickson, who is going to win over a few fans this week with his Happy Gilmore-themed bag. The bag is black and gold, with “Gilmore” etched on one side and a Happy Gilmore hockey-like logo on the other side, and Gilmore’s old hockey number, 18, on the front, and on the strap.

“Happy Gilmore,” starring Adam Sandler, is a cult-classic comedy that came out in the mid-1990s. The long-awaited sequel drops next month on Netflix, and features cameos from several current golf stars, including Morikawa.

Dickson, 32, of North Carolina, isn’t just making his first Rocket appearance this week. It’s his first time in Detroit.

▶ Ryan Brehm has been a mainstay on the PGA Tour for several season, but he lost his card at the end of last season and is playing just his third PGA Tour event of the season, thanks to a sponsor’s exemption. He missed the cut in the first two. Brehm, 39, a Mt. Pleasant native, Traverse City resident and Michigan State alum, isn’t sugarcoating how tough and humbling this season has been for a guy who won on the PGA Tour just three years ago.

“You know, it’s a little depressing, really. It’s hard,” Brehm said this week. “You don’t want to be in this situation. … I mean, it’s really hard to keep your card, it’s hard to have a long career, and it’s only getting harder.

▶ As has become custom for this tournament, DGC has gotten hit with fast and furious storms again this week, with Rocket officials forced to blown the horn both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. There’s been no significant storm damage, but the rain is softening up a course that the grounds crew had hoped to make fast and firm. Translation: Hello again, low scores. There’s even been chatter on the course about 59 watch. There’s never been one at the Rocket.

“It would be fun to see it stay dry and see this place kind of bake out and get firm,” Rickie Fowler said Wednesday, after his pro-am. “I’m hopefuly we can get some dryer conditions, but right now, it’s very scoreable.”

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984