Ben Morris will tell you he's the best golfer on the Detroit City FC roster. Whether his teammates agree is another matter, but the forward is back on the course after missing last year's outing with an injury — and he's brought midfielder Maxi Rodriguez along to suffer through the back nine with him.
The 11th annual DCFC Golf Outing took over Rouge Park Golf Course on Monday, with players, coaches, and community members turning out for a full 18-hole round, welcome bags, snacks, drink tickets, and a luncheon courtesy of Pablos Tacos. Raffle prizes. The works. Every dollar from the foursomes goes directly to the DCFC City Youth Travel Soccer Program, which helps young players afford competitive travel soccer — the kind of structured development that tends to get priced out of reach fast.
Mid-season, but not a distraction
Eleven years in, this event clearly isn't a gimmick or a PR exercise. It's baked into the club's culture. And the timing — right in the thick of the USL Championship season — says something about how Detroit City operates.
Morris put it plainly: "We go to work, do training, everything's focused on that, and then even on the team events, we can get away from it, relax, and just kind of chill out while doing the community stuff."
Not every player is swinging clubs. Some are riding along in the cart, which is probably the smarter call for anyone with set-piece duties this weekend. DCFC hosts Loudoun United FC on August 15, then turn around to face Tampa Bay Rowdies on August 22 — both 7 p.m. home matches at the start of Week 25.
The stakes are real. Detroit currently sits third in the Eastern Conference at 9-5-4, good for 31 points. Loudoun, their next opponents, are 10th with 18 points and a 3-9-6 record — a match DCFC should be winning, and the kind that separates genuine playoff contenders from teams just taking up a table position.
Third place holds for now. But the second half of the season is where it counts, and Detroit will need more than community goodwill to stay there.
