Neal Shipley continues to make waves in the PGA #GoBucks
What a ride the past few months have been for former Ohio State golfer Neal Shipley. Shipley played in both the Masters and the U.S. Open and was the low amateur in both events. Impressive to say the least.
The former Buckeye is now a professional, playing on the PGA Tour America which represents about 28,000 PGA teaching professionals at 10,000 golf facilities around the country. The PGA Tour on the other hand represents tour players exclusively.
After performing well at his first PGA Tour America event, Shipley was invited to play at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit this past weekend on a sponsor’s exemption. And the young man did not disappoint in his first PGA event coming in tied for 20th place overall.
Shipley earned $113,068 for his first PGA tournament as a professional. Not a bad payday for a week’s worth of work. Shipley does not yet have his PGA Tour card, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see him earn that soon as he seems to be skyrocketing through the ranks.
— Ohio State Mens Golf (@OhioStateMGOLF) July 1, 2024
Shipley joined the Buckeye golf team as a grad transfer in 2022. In the 2023-24 season with OSU, Shipley averaged his best scores ever with a 71.35 which earned him PING All-American honors, PING Midwest All-Region honors, as well as a unanimous All-Big Ten First Team selection.
Big things are certainly ahead for the former Ohio State golfer.
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Aussie Cam Davis made more money in four days in Detroit than he had made in his previous 16 PGA Tour starts this season.
Davis, 29, closed in 70 and won the Rocket Mortgage Classic for the second time in his career. In doing so, he took home $1.656 million from a purse of $9.2 million. Davis hadn’t recorded a top-10 finish all season. His best result was a T-12 at the Masters in April. His season earnings soared to $3,061,884.
Akshay Bhatia was the hard-luck loser after missing a 5-foot par putt at 18. If it’s any consolation, the 22-year-old surpassed $7 million in career earnings, which is making his decision to skip college look like a wise one.
Aaron Rai, a 54-hole co-leader, settled for T-3 but cracked $6 million and passed Jack Nicklaus ($5,734,031) and Hale Irwin ($5,966,031) on the career money list. Among those at T-3 was 25-year-old Aussie Min Woo Lee, who crossed $5 million in career earnings.
Cameron Young (73) cracked the shaft of his driver in anger on the 14th hole and settled for a T-6 finish. It wasn’t all bad news for Young, who is still seeking his first Tour title. He did pass major winner Steve Elkington on the career money list as he neared $16 million in earnings.
The purse at the Rocket Mortgage Classic is $9.2 million with $1.65 million going to the winner.
The two 36-hole leaders, Akshay Bhatia and Aaron Rai, are still tied atop the leaderboard after the third round of the PGA Tour’s 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club. Bhatia and Rai shot matching 4-under 68s and hold a one-shot lead over Cam Davis and Cameron Young.
Young, the 23rd-ranked player in the world, is still looking for his first Tour win. In 16 previous starts this season, Young has finished inside the top 10 five times.
Sam Stevens and Erik van Rooyen are tied for fifth at 15 under, two back.
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s everything you need to know for the final round of the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic. All times listed are ET.
Sunday tee times
Groupings and starting times for the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic pic.twitter.com/xvTxJVs5s1
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) June 30, 2024
Will Zalatoris withdrew from the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic during the third round due to his back. Zalatoris shot an opening-round 6-under 66 on Thursday before a 1-under effort on Friday. He was 3 over through eight holes on Moving Day before withdrawing from the tournament.
In April 2023, after withdrawing from the Masters, Zalatoris had back surgery that kept him out for the rest of the season. He made his return at Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge in December 2023. His initial back injury occurred at the 2022 BMW Championship.
In 15 starts prior to this week in Detroit, Zalatoris tallied three top-10 finishes: T-2 at the Genesis Invitational, T-4 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and T-9 at the Masters. He hasn’t finished inside the top 40 since Augusta National.
The purse at the Rocket Mortgage Classic is $9.2 million with $1.65 million going to the winner.
The first two days of the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club are in the books and two names are tied atop the leaderboard. Akshay Bhatia, who won the Valero Texas Open earlier this season, and Englishman Aaron Rai, looking for his first PGA Tour win, each sit at 13 under, two shots ahead of a pack at 11 under.
Some of the big names in the mix include Cameron Young (11 under, two back), Cam Davis (10 under, three back), Joel Dahmen (10 under, three back) and Jake Knapp (9 under, four back).
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s everything you need to know for the third round of the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic. All times listed are ET.
Saturday tee times
Groupings and starting times for the third round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic pic.twitter.com/MmYr7ki9SN
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) June 29, 2024
The purse at the Rocket Mortgage Classic is $9.2 million with $1.65 million going to the winner.
A familiar face is on top of the leaderboard after the opening round at Detroit Golf Club.
Akshay Bhatia, who last week played in the final group alongside Tom Kim and Scottie Scheffler, is the solo leader at 8-under 64 at the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic. Bhatia, aided by a 17th hole eagle, leads by one over Taylor Montgomery and Michael Kim.
Rickie Fowler, the event’s defending champion, is T-4 at 6 under alongside Will Zalatoris, Aaron Rai, Eric Cole and Matti Schmid.
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s everything you need to know for the second round of the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic. All times listed are ET.
Friday tee times
Groupings and starting times for the first and second rounds of the Rocket Mortgage Classic pic.twitter.com/2Z68ybJOKu
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) June 25, 2024
Akshay Bhatia didn’t know who Sauce Gardner was, but that didn’t stop him from providing some free instruction for the New York Jets cornerback.
Bhatia, who shot a bogey-free 8-under 64 to grab the first-round lead at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, was asked if he knew who the shut-down corner out of Cincinnati was during his post-round press conference.
“Sorry, who?” Bhatia said.
“Sauce Gardner,” the interviewer repeated.
“I don’t,” he said.
LMK when you want to come on the channel for a lesson, we'll get you dialed in @iamSauceGardner
Gardner, 23, recently took up golf and has been posting videos on social media. Bryson DeChambeau replied to one of them and offered to give him a lesson on his YouTube channel. But Gardner, who also got some help from the PGA of America, got some free analysis from Bhatia when the interviewer asked him to look at one of Gardner’s videos – presumably on his phone.
“On his short game, he’s using a lot of lower body, which you don’t really want to do, so that was first off,” Bhatia said. “Other than that, it looks pretty good. He’ll just get used to kind of releasing the golf club. Looks like he kind of holds on a little bit. He’s got some work to do, but off to a good start.”
Rickie Fowler echoed that sentiment.
“I like the possibilities. There’s a lot of good athletic moves and speed in there. A little work, watch out,” Fowler said.
Asked for a tip, Fowler said, “Keep swinging hard and then a big thing is work on short game and putting. For a lot of people, I feel like high handicappers, I feel like that’s kind of the easiest way to start taking strokes off. Then you can worry about the long game later.”
Will Zalatoris also had nothing but encouraging words for Gardner.
“I mean, he’s got some speed, for one,” Zalatoris said. “The dude’s an athlete, we know that, but that’s pretty impressive. Clean up a little bit of the short game there and he’s going to be pretty good pretty quick. All those football guys are freak athletes. I played with Calvin Johnson and Aidan Hutchinson on the 313 on Tuesday and those guys were silly good around the greens. That’s pretty impressive.”
There you have it. Follow the advice of the firm of Fowler, Bhatia & Zalatoris and Gardner’s pitch shots should have a little Tour sauce.
I just went back and watched the video of my swing. You are 100% right coach! I'm back on the course today so I will put those tips to use🫡 https://t.co/4K4c9IKzRT
With the final men’s major championship on the horizon — The Open is scheduled for July 18-21 — the PGA Tour first headed to Detroit and the Detroit Golf Club for the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic. Defending champion Rickie Fowler and Mr. 59 Cameron Young highlighted the field taking on the Donald Ross design.
But it was Cam Davis coming out on top, avoiding a playoff when Akshay Bhatia missed a five-foot putt on 18 leading to his only three putt of the week and making Davis a two-time champ at Detroit Golf Club.
Davis will take home $1.65 million of the $9.2 million purse and 500 FedEx Cup points.
The 35-year-old fan favorite is mired in a season-long slump that has him on the outside looking in for the FedEx Cup playoffs at No. 91 in the standings with just six weeks until the top-70 advance to the first of three playoff events in Memphis.
Fowler is hoping that a return to the Motor City and the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club will jumpstart a playoff run. Much like the rebirth of Detroit itself, Fowler a year ago capped off a resurgence in his game in the city with his first victory in more than four years. He sank a 12-foot birdie putt to win a three-man sudden-death playoff.
That win was his first as a father and pictures with Maya from that day always will be a treasured memento. So, too, will the photo of his reaction as his winning putt dropped. No caption necessary: the image of him, head tilted ever-so-slightly to the sky is the definition of pure relief.
Rickie Fowler and his caddie Ricky Romano react with joy after making birdie on the 18th green to win the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY Sports)
“I was kind of just still and quiet and everyone was going crazy around me,” Fowler said. “It was a nice moment just to kind of feel like the weight on my shoulders was finally off.”
Fowler, whose world ranking had plummeted to No. 185 and had barely qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs when the top 125 made it, rose to No. 22 a week after his Rocket Mortgage Classic win and went on to be chosen to the 12-man U.S. Ryder Cup team. Although the Tour no longer gives out such an award, he would have been an unanimous choice for winner of the Tour’s Comeback Player of the Year. But ever since the calendar flipped, Fowler has lost his swagger again.
He enters the week at No. 50 in the world and has recorded just two top-20s in 16 starts, including missing the cut at the Memorial and U.S. Open in June. Whereas last year he entered the Rocket Mortgage Classic with three top 10s and a top-15 finish, Fowler has no top 10s and five missed cuts in 23 starts since tasting victory a year ago.
“I’ve basically played terrible this year. Pretty simple way to sum it up,” he said. “I’ve been putting the work in but just need to stay patient and wait to see some progress.”
His ball-striking, which sparked his resurgence, has been a key reason for his decline. Last season, he ranked seventh in Strokes Gained: Approach. This season? He’s No. 142.
Precision was part of Fowler’s winning formula last year at Detroit GC as he ranked second in the field in greens in regulation, hitting 61 of 72. To hear Fowler tell it, what he really needs to do is get his putter back in his good graces. He entered the week ranked No. 131 in Strokes Gained: Putting after finishing at 48th last season. He ranked fifth in that category on the undulating, tiered putting surfaces at Detroit GC a year ago.
Rickie Fowler walks off the 18th green with his daughter Maya and wife Allison Stokke after winning the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY Network)
“I think a big part of freeing myself up and allowing myself to play better golf starts on the greens and helps when I’m making putts,” said Fowler, who noted the putter cooperated a little more last week, where he recorded a top-20 finish at the Travelers Championship. “When I’m putting at least up to my standards or at least average, it kind of frees up the rest of the game.”
With rain already having fallen this week and more in the forecast, Detroit GC should be ripe for the taking again. Fowler, who led the field in par breakers last year, is a fan of the Donald Ross layout, which dates to 1916 is scheduled for a renovation before next year’s tournament.
“We don’t get to play very many old-school golf courses like this so it’s a treat for a lot of guys who can appreciate kind of old-school golf course architecture,” Fowler said.
Perhaps coming back to one of his happy hunting grounds and site of his sixth career Tour title will provide the necessary spark. After all, it had been 1,610 days, or 4 years, 4 months, 29 days between victories, the longest drought of his Tour career. He called his T-20 last week “good progress” and a momentum builder that instilled a boost of confidence that his game may be as close as he thinks it is.
“We’ll see if we can kind of reignite some stuff from then and get past the little bit of a slow year it’s been and just go have some fun this week,” he said.
