Monday wrap-up: Rocket Mortgage Classic
Detroit Rock City was home to some great golf and a crowded leaderboard coming into the final round this past Sunday. Defending champion Rickie Fowler was around to play the weekend but never mustered a strong enough round to get back into contention for a true title defense. Cam Young may still be wondering “what-if” on that driver shaft snapping standing between himself and that elusive first victory on the PGA Tour. Australian Cam Davis clinched his second Rocket Mortgage Classic title in a manner that he said he wouldn’t wish on anyone. And Akshay Bhatia is ready to Turn the Page on Detroit and put this final round in his rearview.
This weekend saw quite a bit of action all around the course, from weather delays to birdie streaks, this tournament delivered a ton of quality golf. And then it delivered a lot of not so quality golf. If you’re a golf addict like me, then I’m trusting that you get up early to watch extensive Main Feed coverage of non-majors on ESPN+ where you get to see every shot from the early rounds. Don’t get me wrong…these guys are still PGA Tour professionals, which is something I’ll never come close to being. However, the number of shanks and mishits that show up early on the streaming platform make me take a little bit of comfort in how my game is progressing. The one shot that sticks in my mind from Sunday’s early round is Peter Malnati, a winner on Tour this season, hooking a shot out of the first rough onto the number 2 tee box. It didn’t just go left, it went way left, like waaaay outside type left. And yet he still scrambled to make par. Even when the pros hit a couple of bad shots they find a way to make par or salvage a bogey.
This isn’t to say that only the early Sunday tee times have all of the bad shots, oh on. In fact, the one shot that stands out even more than a couple of putts for Bhatia is his 97-yard drive coming down the stretch that found its way into some trees. And yet, somehow, he still found a way to par the hole and stay at the top of the leaderboard. For every miraculous shot we see on CBS for the afternoon coverage, there certainly were plenty of opposite shanks on the early morning coverage that typically never see the light of day. To me this is also what makes golf so challenging yet rewarding for everyone - a double digit handicap can pull off the same Tour-level wedge shot as a pro, while a pro can still hit a 97-yard pull into some trees.
While the first three rounds of the tournament witnessed plenty of birdies and sub-70 scores, Sunday showed its teeth a little bit thanks to a cooler and windy day. The third round delivered 39 rounds under par, while the final 18 holes only saw 11 rounds break par. Cameron Davis’s -18, 270, tied the highest score for a winner in the six year history of this event. That’s quite crazy to think that -18 ties the highest score for a winner, but the proof is in the numbers when you look at how difficult the conditions played on Sunday. The lowest round of the day belonged to Rico Hoey (67 | T6 | -15), a rookie on the PGA Tour, after he managed to eagle the 17th on consecutive days. Davis’s final round 70 was enough to secure the victory without needing a playoff and add a second trophy to his career wins-list. Coincidentally, his first win was the 2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic and he remains the only international winner of this event in its six-year history. While the victory does add 500 FedEx Cup points to the tally for Davis and vaults him up to 40th in the standings for end of season playoffs, it does not help his qualification for The Open Championship at Royal Troon this month. We’ll have more on Final Qualifying events for the final major of the year a little later this week.
Akshay Bhatia entered the final round as the only player with a bogey-free first 54 holes. Unfortunately, Bhatia would card two bogeys over the closing 18 holes, including a three-putt bogey on the final hole to miss out on a playoff. “It sucks, no other way to put it. I mean, just sucks,” is how Bhatia opened his time with the media on Sunday evening. I give him a lot of credit for even walking into the media center after the heartbreaking three putt. Bhatia has no reason to hang his head for long and this will certainly help build his character. The resilient 22-year old logged his second runner-up finish in the past two seasons (T2 - Puerto Rico Open), and was in the final grouping for the second week in a row after not flinching when paired with world number one Scottie Scheffler in a signature event the week prior. This is his fourth top-2 finish before turning 23. Bhatia, with strong support from his family, decided to turn pro instead of going through college and it certainly appears he made an absolutely great decision.
Weekly Pick ‘em Results
And now the most important piece of the weekend…the results from our weekly pick ‘em with some other minds in the golf apparel & content world. I really thought I was going to make it wire-to-wire with my pick in the hot hand of Akshay Bhatia. Honestly, I got a little nervous heading into the final round when I saw the comments from Joel Dahmen that he was going to come out firing for a trophy on Sunday. Unfortunately the final round was not kind to Joel, or Bhatia for that matter, and he found himself over par for the day that resulted in a tie for 25th. You can keep up with our weekly picks, as well as the social media accounts of all involved, over on Instagram: @longleafgolf.
All stats and figures obtained from the PGA Tour & ShotLink Reports. Player interview transcripts provided by ASAP Sports. Longleaf Golf is an independent media outlet not associated with the PGA Tour, Rocket Mortgage Classic, or any of their affiliates.
