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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

Finished tied for sixth at 15 under, three strokes back, were Rico Huey, who shot the round of the day with a 5-under 67, Eric Cole (69), Erik van Rooyen (72) and Young, who finished runner-up at the Rocket in 2022 and was seeking his first PGA Tour win. Young struggled off the tee much of the day, hitting three of his first 10 fairways. Sick of that, he leaned hard on his driver on the 14th tee and it broke; he used 3 wood into the house, and made no more birdies.

Tied for 10th at 14 under, four back, were amateur Luke Clanton (72), Taylor Moore (69), J.J. Spaun (69), Dylan Wu (69), Hayden Springer (70), Sam Stevens (73) and Nick Dunlap (71), who won on the PGA Tour earlier this season as an amateur, a feat Clanton was looking to match Sunday. Clanton, 20, a Florida State junior-to-be, gave it a run, getting to 16 under at one point, before fading.

In fact, there was more fading or players stuck in neutral than we're used to seeing at DGC, which played barely under par Sunday, to a 71.92 scoring average, the highest of the 24 rounds in Rocket history.

Defending champion Rickie Fowler tied for 31st at 9 under, after a 2-over 74.

Davis didn't know the plight others were having, so it didn't make him feel any better after he bogeyed his first hole, or after he burned the cup on putts, short and long, on four holes in a five-hole stretch on the back nine. Or when he found the pond on his approach at the par-5 14th, leading to a bogey.

He thought he had messed it up. Rather, he had doubled it up.

 

"I was very frustrated," said Davis, who also takes home the winner's check of $1.656 million. "It felt like there was a point where there's nothing I could do. Honestly, the putts were very frustrating to see miss. It was almost more frustrating to see both of the 3 woods I hit on 14 and 17 come up short. I couldn't have hit either of them any better. For that ball to roll back in the water on 14, when I finished 18, I was already thinking back to that hole going, 'Geez, I reckon if that ball stays up, it's a very different turn out to the event.

"The fact that all of that didn't go my way, I felt like I left six or seven shots out there just purely based on I felt like bad breaks.

"I felt it was almost a spectacular round. But it ended up just being enough."

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