Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, MI — June 27, 2019
Nate Lashley did not even know he would be playing in the Rocket Mortgage Classic until he entered the field as an alternate on Wednesday. A day later he leads the tournament with a PGA Tour career-best score of 63. Lashley’s round at the Detroit Golf Club featured 9 birdies and no bogies. He closed out with 5 birdies over the last 6 holes.
Overcoming Adversity
Last year, his rookie season on the PGA Tour, Lashley finished 172nd in the FedEx Cup standings. This year he is playing events on tour via a minor medical exemption, only getting in as an alternative. Making 14 tournaments so far he is ranked 132nd in FedEx Cup points.
That may be a difficult way to regain his tour card. However, Lashley knows hard times. In 2004 he played in an NCAA Regional in Oregon representing the University of Arizona during his Junior year. Excited to cheer Nate on, his girlfriend and his parents flew in from Nebraska to attend. A plane crash on their way home took the life of all three.
1st Round Leaders
Ryan Armour and Nick Watney share 2nd place with scores of 8 under par. Charles Howell III, Talor Gooch, Chez Reavie, Chez Reavie, Chez Reavie, Adam Schenk, and Chase Wright are in a log jam tied for fourth after shooting 65 good for seven under par on the Detroit Golf Club layout.
Notables
Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler are in a group tied for 33rd at 4 under. The U.S. Open Champion, Gary Woodland, is 10 strokes back tied for 131st at one over par. Dustin Johnson is 1 under and fan-favorite Ernie Els is three over par, all three are in danger of missing the cut. The lowest scoring 70 players, plus ties, will play on the weekend. If that standard were applied today it would have taken a score of 3 under to survive.
Leaderboard
Here is the entire leaderboard, check out where your favorite sits heading into Round 2.
Position Player To Par Score 1 Nate Lashley -9 63 T2 Ryan Armour -8 64 T2 Nick Watney -8 64 T4 Stewart Cink -7 65 T4 Talor Gooch -7 65 T4 Chas Howell III -7 65 T4 Chez Reavie -7 65 T4 Rory Sabbatini -7 65 T4 Adam Schenk -7 65 T4 Chase Wright -7 65 T11 Bronson Burgoon -6 66 T11 Cameron Champ -6 66 T11 Harris English -6 66 T11 Dylan Frittelli -6 66 T11 M. Hughes -6 66 T11 Kevin Kisner -6 66 T11 Jason Kokrak -6 66 T11 Danny Lee -6 66 T11 Martin Piller -6 66 T11 J.J. Spaun -6 66 T11 Scott Stallings -6 66 T11 Kevin Streelman -6 66 T11 Brian Stuard -6 66 T24 Jonas Blixt -5 67 T24 Chad Collins -5 67 T24 Luke Donald -5 67 T24 Joey Garber -5 67 T24 Tom Hoge -5 67 T24 J.B. Holmes -5 67 T24 Curtis Luck -5 67 T24 Carlos Ortiz -5 67 T24 Wes Roach -5 67 T33 Byeong Hun An -4 68 T33 Scott Brown -4 68 T33 Wyndham Clark -4 68 T33 Rickie Fowler -4 68 T33 Brandon Harkins -4 68 T33 Russell Henley -4 68 T33 Max Homa -4 68 T33 Peter Malnati -4 68 T33 H. Matsuyama -4 68 T33 Joaquin Niemann -4 68 T33 Ted Potter Jr -4 68 T33 Doc Redman -4 68 T33 Patrick Reed -4 68 T33 Seth Reeves -4 68 T33 Brendan Steele -4 68 T33 Sepp Straka -4 68 T33 Nick Taylor -4 68 T33 Josh Teater -4 68 T33 C. Tringale -4 68 T33 Kevin Tway -4 68 T33 Jimmy Walker -4 68 T33 Bubba Watson -4 68 T55 A. Albertson -3 69 T55 D. Bozzelli -3 69 T55 Bud Cauley -3 69 T55 Brice Garnett -3 69 T55 Charley Hoffman -3 69 T55 Billy Horschel -3 69 T55 Billy Hurley -3 69 T55 Sungjae Im -3 69 T55 Smylie Kaufman -3 69 T55 Anirban Lahiri -3 69 T55 Martin Laird -3 69 T55 Scott Langley -3 69 T55 Denny McCarthy -3 69 T55 Alex Prugh -3 69 T55 Sam Saunders -3 69 T55 Ben Silverman -3 69 T55 Kyle Stanley -3 69 T55 Shawn Stefani -3 69 T55 Austen Truslow -3 69 T55 Aaron Wise -3 69 T75 Sam Burns -2 70 T75 Roberto Castro -2 70 T75 Jason Dufner -2 70 T75 Brian Harman -2 70 T75 Kramer Hickok -2 70 T75 Viktor Hovland -2 70 T75 F. Jacobson -2 70 T75 Kyle Jones -2 70 T75 Whee Kim -2 70 T75 Patton Kizzire -2 70 T75 Colt Knost -2 70 T75 Kelly Kraft -2 70 T75 Hank Lebioda -2 70 T75 N. Lindheim -2 70 T75 Ryan Moore -2 70 T75 Trey Mullinax -2 70 T75 Rod Pampling -2 70 T75 J.T. Poston -2 70 T75 J J Rodriguez -2 70 T75 Brady Schnell -2 70 T75 Roger Sloan -2 70 T75 Cameron Smith -2 70 T75 Brandt Snedeker -2 70 T75 Robert Streb -2 70 T75 Adam Svensson -2 70 T75 Vaughn Taylor -2 70 T101 John Chin -1 71 T101 Austin Cook -1 71 T101 Roberto Diaz -1 71 T101 Cody Gribble -1 71 T101 Matt Harmon -1 71 T101 Wes Homan -1 71 T101 Beau Hossler -1 71 T101 Dustin Johnson -1 71 T101 Matt Jones -1 71 T101 Satoshi Kodaira -1 71 T101 Andrew Landry -1 71 T101 Luke List -1 71 T101 Adam Long -1 71 T101 Chip McDaniel -1 71 T101 Keith Mitchell -1 71 T101 Justin Suh -1 71 T101 Chris Thompson -1 71 T101 M. Thompson -1 71 T101 Peter Uihlein -1 71 T101 H. Varner III -1 71 T101 Ryan Vermeer -1 71 T122 Ryan Blaum E 72 T122 Tyler Duncan E 72 T122 Jim Herman E 72 T122 Stephan Jaeger E 72 T122 Kyoung-Hoon Lee E 72 T122 Hunter Mahan E 72 T122 Sam Ryder E 72 T122 O Schniederjans E 72 T122 Mike Weir E 72 T131 Alex Cejka 1 73 T131 Corey Conners 1 73 T131 Cameron Davis 1 73 T131 J.J. Henry 1 73 T131 Sung Kang 1 73 T131 Troy Merritt 1 73 T131 Sebastian Munoz 1 73 T131 Seamus Power 1 73 T131 Chris Stroud 1 73 T131 Martin Trainer 1 73 T131 Gary Woodland 1 73 T142 Will Claxton 2 74 T142 Brian Gay 2 74 T142 Si Woo Kim 2 74 T142 Will MacKenzie 2 74 T142 Zack Sucher 2 74 T142 Richy Werenski 2 74 T148 Ernie Els 3 75 T148 Fabian Gomez 3 75 T148 Chesson Hadley 3 75 T148 Michael Kim 3 75 T148 Matthew Wolff 3 75 T153 Sang-Moon Bae 4 76 T153 Morgan Hoffmann 4 76 155 Zachary Bauchou 6 78 156 Lee Houtteman 8 80
