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Cam Davis wins Rocket Mortgage Classic again after Akshay Bhatia bogeys the 18th

Tony Paul, The Detroit News on

Published in Golf

They were shaking after the officially won the title, given the long road it's been to get back to the winner's circle, including a rough season in which he has acknowledged he hasn't been in the right head space. The emotional struggles even led him to recently start working with a hypnotherapist.

Bhatia, 22, led after the first, second and third rounds, and was looking for his third PGA Tour title, and second this season. Only Scottie Scheffler (six) and Rory McIlroy (two) have multiple wins this season. And he played nearly flawless golf all week, until a bogey at the par-4 third, his first bogey of the week.

No matter, the lefty bounced back with birdie at the par-5 fourth, making a 30-foot putt. He also made birdie at the easy seventh hole. But then he made 10 straight pars — albeit, the one at the par-4 13th was an incredible salvage job, after he hooked his tee shot into the trees, just 97 yards, leaving him nearly 300 for his second. But he also parred both par 5s on the back. He blasted from the greenside bunker to 8 feet at the 17th, but missed the putt.

He had 175 yards into the 18th and hit his approach 28 feet left of the pin. Right would've been better. He had to play it safe with the 28-footer, left it 4 feet, 3 inches short, and hooked it for the crushing, stunning bogey.

"I mean, it's hard. You've got so much slope there, so you don't want to run it 5, 6 feet by," said Bhatia, who opened the tournament with 56 holes without a bogey. "Just a little bit of nerves, honestly. I'm human."

This was the second straight week Bhatia was in the final group on Sunday. He lost to Scottie Scheffler, who beat Tom Kim in a playoff at the Travelers Championship, and tied for fifth there.

 

This was the second time Rai, 29, ever has played in the final group on Sunday. He showed no nerves from the get-go, making an opening birdie to take the outright lead early.

But he made three bogeys in a six-hole stretch from Nos. 6 to 11 (he had made one bogey total in his first 59 holes), also failed to make birdie at No. 17, which was ranked the easiest hole all week, and then drove his tee shot into the right rough on 18. That made a difficult approach, which he hit into the greenside bunker. He needed to hole it to match Davis, but settled for par, making a putt just longer than Bhatia's and on a similar line.

Rai shot 72, and fell short of his first PGA Tour win.

"I think it was tricky out there for both me and Akshay," said Rai, of England. "We didn't really have our best stuff. We both hung in there well. It wasn't quite enough for us today."

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