The leaderboard at the Rocket Mortgage Classic is not full of names as big as the ones that littered the Travelers Championship last weekend, but one of the stars during last week’s event continued his great play at Detroit Golf Club on Thursday to lead by one after 18 holes of play.
Akshay Bhatia, who played in the final group with Scottie Scheffler and Tom Kim a week ago, shot an 8-under 64 in Detroit to take that one-shot lead over Taylor Montgomery and Michael Kim.
The trend is good with Bhatia, who has finishes of T22, T16 and T5 in his last three starts.
“I’ve been playing good the last three weeks,” he said. “I feel like the results haven’t been where I’ve wanted them to be, but I’ve been playing pretty solid. I’ve been right there for, you know, over 40 holes, I would say the last couple weeks. It’s just I’m having some hiccups either Saturday or Sunday. I’m just trying to figure that out. It’s nice to be in this position.”
It is nice to be in that position, but it’s not nice to try and hold off the guys Bhatia will be facing. Rickie Fowler, Will Zalatoris, Cameron Young and Nick Dunlap are four of the chasers going into the second round.
Let’s take a closer look at Round 1 and see what’s in store for the next few days of play.
The leader
1. Akshay Bhatia (-8)
I was shocked to learn that Bhatia is now 13th in the U.S. Presidents Cup standings and will certainly jump into the top 12 with a win or anything close to it this week. He’s had a tremendous year and is now playing in the strokes gained ballpark with guys like Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry and even Wyndham Clark.
This is a huge jump from where he was at a year ago — basically an average PGA Tour player — and a bit of a revelation for somebody who is still 22 years old with two wins under his belt and hunting for a third.
Other contenders
T2. Taylor Montgomery, Michael Kim (-7)
T4. Aaron Rai, Eric Cole, Rickie Fowler, Will Zalatoris, Matthias Schmid (-6)
T9. Cameron Young, Nick Dunlap, Ben Kohles, Ben Silverman, Neal Shipley (-5)
The Rocket Mortgage Classic has a short but nice history of producing big-name, big-hitting winners. I’m not sure Cameron Young necessarily fits the mold for the former, but he definitely does for the latter. Young shot a 5-under 67 on Thursday by dominating from tee to green.
This continues a run of hot play that saw him shoot 59-66 on the weekend last week at the Travelers Championship and briefly get into contention at TPC River Highlands. Can Young finally break through for his first PGA Tour victory ahead of the Open Championship in a few weeks, where he has found a ton of success and played quite well in his last few outings?
I say yes, but I’ve also thought yes before when Young has not come through.
“I mean, it’s certainly a nice thing to kind of have [a 59] in your back pocket,” said Young. “If it starts to feel like it’s not going great, like ‘Hey, I shot 59 not very long ago, so it’s in there somewhere.’ Yeah, I had frankly kind of a struggle leading up to through Thursday of last week, and I kind of just kept saying it’s going to go pretty hard the other way at some point. Yeah, I feel like I’ve been playing some decent golf for a while and scoring poorly and to kind of see the scores come a little bit more is really promising.”
The real Nick Dunlap
Following his win at the American Express as an amateur, Nick Dunlap played what had to have been some of the worst golf of his life. He missed cuts, finished 80th, T53 and everywhere in between. The talent was still in there, but for a 20-year-old out on the PGA Tour for the first time, the learning curve is always steep.
Dunlap, it seems, is slowly starting to put the pieces together. He finished T12 at the Memorial. He missed the cut at the U.S. Open and played poorly at the Travelers, but on Thursday he opened with a 67 at Detroit Golf Club.
“I haven’t started very well the last couple weeks,” he explained. “Swing felt really nice today coming out pretty early morning. I drove it great, ironed it nicely. Clean up on some speed work around the greens, but overall very, very impressed with the way I kind of navigated around today.”
The curve is difficult for anybody who turns pro, much less somebody who almost accidentally turned pro. It’s good to see him regain the confidence and the game a bit six months into all of this instead of six years. Because things can go sideways in a hurry in pro golf, but Dunlap seems to have righted the ship.
2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic updated odds, picks
- Akshay Bhatia: 33/10
- Cameron Young: 10-1
- Aaron Rai: 11-1
- Will Zalatoris: 12-1
- Rickie Fowler: 16-1
- Min Woo Lee: 16-1
- Michael Kim: 16-1
I’m not in love with any of these numbers, to be honest. Give me Dunlap at 35-1 ahead of all of these guys. If I have to choose somebody here, I’m probably going with Young at 10-1 over everyone else, though I’m intrigued by Zalatoris at 12-1 (even though I think he generally plays better on tougher golf courses).
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