DETROIT >> The kid’s got game, and the kid’s got guts.

Aldrich Potgieter, all of 20 years old, had the lead, lost the lead, tied for the lead — before, finally, on the fifth hole of a sudden-death playoff that lasted more than an hour, he drilled a putt of nearly 18 feet for birdie win the Rocket Classic on another wild and crazy Sunday at Detroit Golf Club.

It was the first PGA Tour victory for Potgeiter, who told his parents half a lifetime that this was going to be the goal.

“He was 8 years old when he said he was gonna play on the PGA Tour,” said his father, Heinrich Potgieter, who was an admitted nervous wreck following his son around Donald Ross’ Detroit masterpiece on Sunday.

“It’s a dream the whole family worked at.

“There’s no words.”

But there sure were screams, one mighty roar from Potgieter when his final putt fell, and he finally beat Max Greyserman, 30, in a playoff that featured one narrowly missed putt after another, eliciting groan after groan from the fans, before they began running down the fairways to watch the next playoff hole. Greyserman had a birdie putt on the fifth playoff hole, the short, par-3 15th, but his 34-footer just slid by the left, setting up Aldridge for the heroics.

When the putt dropped, Potgieter screamed, then chucked the ball into the gallery that remained in DGC’s AREA 313 Village as the sun began its descent on Palmer Park. Potgieter got caught up in the moment.

Grandma Dolly usually gets his trophies, and that’s not going to sit well.

“I give her all my stuff that I’ve won with,” said Aldrich Potgieter, “so she’s not going to be pretty happy.”

The way Potgieter played this week at DGC, no worries. There certainly will be more trophies.

Chris Kirk, 40, was eliminated on the second playoff when he pulled his par putt to the left from inside 4 feet.

Sunday’s was the longest playoff on the PGA Tour this season, and longest since the 2021 BMW Championship when Patrick Cantlay beat Bryson DeChambeau (another former Rocket winner) on the sixth hole. Aldridge emerged victorious on his 77th hole of the week, and 23rd of the day.

“It was definitely a tough day,” said Potgieter, of South Africa. “The start didn’t go my way. I struggled to make putts, left a lot short. Finally got one to the hole, and I just saw the ball roll end over end and I knew it was going to go in.”

Potgieter won the third playoff in Rocket Classic history, joining Cam Davis, who also won a five-hole affair (and finished it on 15) in 2021, and Rickie Fowler, who won with a birdie on the first playoff hole in 2023.

Even though he made birdie at the par-4 first hole, it was a shaky start to the day for Potgieter, who took a two-stroke lead into the final round, then was trailing by two within an hour, when he made two bogeys in his first five holes, including at the short par-3 fifth hole.

Potgieter admitted not sleeping well on the lead Saturday night, then had a lot of time to kill Sunday morning, because he had to check out of his Airbnb by 10 a.m. He went and got some coffee, he had a little lunch, and then he was on the first tee well before his 1:55 p.m. tee time, even well before the group ahead of him had teed off.

It all led to a tentative start, including having to take a drop on a wayward tee shot on the par-4 second.

He was 1 over on the day through five holes, and found himself looking up at the leaderboard. Oddly, that was almost comforting.

“He loves to chase,” Heinrich Potgieter said in the media center after Sunday’s round, before posing for pictures with his son and the trophy. “I think he went a little bit into a defensive mode and realized … ‘I’ve got to attack again.’”

Potgieter got aggressive, just like he was in Thursday’s first round, when he shot a then-course-record, 10-under 62.

“Once I did that,” Potgieter said of putting the foot on the gas Sunday, “it was kind of a big game-changer.”

Potgieter made birdies at the par-5 seventh and par-4 eighth holes, and had a good look for another birdie on the ninth, too. But he missed on a day when his putting wasn’t as good as it had been all week.

Still, he went 4 under on a seven-hole stretch, before making another bogey on a short par 3, the 15th.

He then a good look at eagle on the 17th, inside 20 feet, with a chance to take the lead, but settled for birdie (everybody on the leaderboard made birdie there Sunday), and had a nice two-putt on 18 to get his shot in the playoff.

Potgieter bookended his first-round 62 with a final-round 3-under 69 to get to 22 under, and into the playoff with Kirk (67) and Greyserman (67). Interestingly, his two best rounds of the week were played when he didn’t start the day with the; his two worst were when started with the lead.

At 20 years, nine months and 16 days, Potgieter is the seventh-youngest winner on the PGA Tour since 1983 and he’s the youngest since Nick Dunlap won (twice) in his 20s last year. Potgieter is one of five international-born players to win on the PGA Tour before 21, joining Tom Kim, Joaquin Niemann, Rory McIlroy and Seve Ballesteros.

Last year at 19, he became the youngest player ever to win on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Meanwhile, the wait continues for Greyserman, still seeking his first PGA Tour win.

“I did a lot of good things,” said Greyserman, who was delayed getting to the tee on the first playoff hole, after he had to replace a shoe spike that got caught walking into the clubhouse at the end of regulation. “Obviously wish I could have had a few shots back or a few putts.

“Sometimes, putts don’t go in.”

Greyserman had his chances to win, in regulation, when he missed a 12-footer on 18 that would’ve done it, and in the playoff, when he missed from 12 feet on the second sudden-death hole and 16 feet on the third. Potgieter also just missed a 16-footer for birdie on the third and a 21-footer for eagle on the fourth.

Greyserman and Kirk, who was looking for his seventh PGA Tour victory, shot 67 in the final round.

For Kirk, it’s his fifth top-25 finish at the Rocket in seven appearances in Detroit.

He’s now been in contention multiple times on Sunday at the Rocket, but missed a 16-footer for birdie on the 18th hole in regulation that could’ve won it, and then a 10-footer on the first playoff hole. He recorded his first top-five finish since winning the 2024 season-opening Sentry, not that was any consolation in the immediate aftermath Sunday.

“Yeah, obviously just really disappointed right now,” Kirk said. “It’s a shame that first playoff hole. Hit just three perfect shots, and misread that putt a little bit. That’s the way it goes sometimes, unfortunately.”

Potgieter becomes the third player to make the Rocket his first PGA Tour victory, along with Nate Lashley, the inaugural winner in 2019, and Davis, who got his first at the Rocket in 2021, and then his second in 2024.

Potgieter, who hadn’t played on the PGA Tour in a month, took home the winner’s check of $1.728 million, more than his entire season earnings entering Rocket week.

“I’m just happy to walk away as a winner,” Potgieter, making his just his 20th start on the PGA Tour, said moments after his winning putt went into the cup.

Said Heinrich, of the nerves watching his son fulfill a dream: “It’s always so much worse for the parent than the player.”

Finishing a shot back of the leaders at 21 under were Michael Thorbjornsen (67) and Jake Knapp (68), the latter who set a course record (the fourth in three days at the Rocket) on Saturday with an 11-under 61. He missed a 12-footer for birdie on 18 on Sunday to miss the playoff. Finishing at 20 under were Nico Echavarria (66) and Jackson Suber (68).

Former major champs Collin Morikawa (68) and Matt Fitzpatrick (67) tied for eighth at 19 under, with Thriston Lawrence (69), Andrew Putnam (70) and Kevin Roy (67), who matched Potgieter’s 62 on Thursday.

For those curious, the longest playoff in PGA Tour history was 11 holes, at the 1949 Motor City Open at Meadowbrook Country Club in Northville. And the youngest winner in PGA Tour was Michigan’s Chuck Kocsis, who was just out of high school, and 18 years, six months and nine days, when he won the 1931 Michigan Open as an amateur.

The 2026 Rocket Classic will be later in the summer, July 30 through Aug. 2.