One man’s loss is another man’s treasure, and that adage certainly rang true at the conclusion of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Cameron Davis reached the clubhouse at 18 under par, while Akshay Bhatia was tied for the lead at the 72nd hole. The 18th hole was a long par 4 at 472 yards. This dogleg left hole ranked as the most difficult hole of the final round, with a stream bisecting the fairway and meandering down the right side of the green.
But Bhatia had no problem off the tee: He hit a line down the middle of the fairway, then launched his approach shot to within 32 feet of the far right pin and into the far left corner of the green.
And then disaster struck.
Bhatia went for birdie but missed by four feet with a bad stroke, then hooked the par putt. Lips on the lower side It gave Davis the win. It was Bhatia’s first three-putt of the week.
“It’s the worst I can think of any other way to describe it,” Bhatia said after the round.
“It’s awful. It’s difficult. It’s so steep, you don’t want to run five or six feet. It just makes me a little nervous, to be honest. I’m human and the greens here get slower and slower during the day. The annual bluegrass is pretty tough.”
Davis, meanwhile, had four birdies and two bogeys for a 2-under 70. The first came on the par-4 first hole and the second came on the par-5 14th hole after an unlucky break. The Australian hit a 3-wood from 281 yards and landed just short of the green, but the ball rolled into the penalty area.
The chance seemed gone, but Davis birdied the par-5 17th hole to get back to 18 under. He hit a 3-wood again on that hole, his second shot landing just short of the green, then Davis effortlessly got up and down for birdie.
Davis was at 18 under and a playoff was possible, but the par-5 17th hole produced a plethora of birdies and someone like Bhatia or Ming Woo Lee seemed destined to reach 19 under and narrowly miss out on Davis’ second PGA Tour win.
But fate left Davis with his second career Rocket Mortgage Classic title and he’s hoping to make the international team for this fall’s Presidents Cup. He has the game to do that, so hopefully this win will give him some momentum in the coming months that he hasn’t had recently.
Before this week, Davis hadn’t recorded a top-20 finish since tying for 12th at Augusta National in the Masters. He’d missed the cut at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open and most recently finished tied for 48th at the Travelers Championship. But Davis proved to International Captain Mike Weir that he can turn things around quickly, which is essential in match play.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
