DETROIT – Nate Lashley’s week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic didn’t start with an opening-round 63.
Instead he got things going with a bogey-free 68 in a Monday qualifier just up the road from Detroit Golf Club, one that missed the mark by two shots and sparked a week of limbo in the Motor City for a player whose performance through 54 holes is a shining testament to the fine lines that exist in the professional game.
“Another one of those rounds where I played well, but just not well enough,” Lashley said. “You’ve got to make a lot of putts on those Mondays, and I guess I was saving them for the tournament.”
That might register as the understatement of the week, as Lashley once again laid waste to this week’s inaugural host venue while leaving the rest of the field in his wake. A sterling 63, one that once again mixed nine birdies and nine pars just like his first-round effort, means that Lashley will carry a six-shot lead into the final round as he looks to win for the first time.
It’s an opportunity he’s dreamed about for years, but one he wasn’t sure would even be possible Monday when he trudged away from another failed qualifier. Lashley was first alternate at last week’s Travelers Championship and ultimately didn’t get into the field, but this week the break went his way. He learned Wednesday afternoon that he would snag the 156th and final spot in the field based on his conditional status after a late injury withdrawal from David Berganio Jr., and it’s been downhill ever since.
“I was just really happy. Really, I just felt like I really needed to be in the tournament because I was playing well,” Lashley said. “Being first alternate’s no fun, to be out of the tournament by just one spot. So realistically I’m just real thankful to get in this week, and glad I took advantage of it.”
Lashley has been teetering on the brink of status for much of the summer. Playing this season without a firm schedule in place, the 36-year-old started the week 132nd in points and had goals that largely related to cracking the top 125 and clinching a card for 2020. But now the bar is much higher than that, as he turned a one-shot advantage into a near-runaway by burying birdies on four of his final seven holes.
“You’re seeing the talent that he possesses,” said caddie Ricky Romano. “You’re just seeing Nate for who he is. He’s a really calm, cool dude. He’s a man’s man. You can go and just drink beer with him, he loves sports. I’ve been telling him, ‘I want everybody to know the Nate Lashley that I know.’ And he’s showing it right now.”
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While Lashley’s name appears stenciled on the trophy, things can change quickly on a course that offers up ample birdie chances. Look no further than last week in Hartford, where Zack Sucher saw a five-shot weekend lead evaporate in a span of 20 minutes.
Lashley has an eight-shot cushion over former Masters champ Patrick Reed, but the two players closest to him are, like the leader, in search of a maiden win. That includes J.T. Poston, who sits alone in second place at 17 under and will join Lashley in Sunday’s final pairing.
“I think a lot of us at this level have won on many other levels,” Poston said after a third-round 66. “It’s not that we don’t know how to win, it just might be that we haven’t done it at this level yet. So there will be some pressure, some nerves I’m sure tomorrow trying to win your first event out here.”
But to do so he’ll need to chase down Lashley, whose life has been anything but ordinary and whose path to the PGA Tour was anything but direct. Lashley’s parents and girlfriend died in a 2004 plane crash while traveling back from watching him play a collegiate event when he was at the University of Arizona. His pro career struggled to get going in the aftermath, and he didn’t earn a Tour card until becoming a 34-year-old rookie in 2017.
Even as recently as 2012, he had put his clubs away and gotten his real estate license, opting to flip houses for a few months before the lure of competition proved too strong to resist.
“I thought I was pretty much done with golf,” he said.
But he decided to give the professional ranks one more shot, worked his way up through the LatinoAmerica and former Web.com Tour and now sits on the precipice of a career-altering victory.
And to think, he almost skipped town Monday empty-handed.
“I always felt like I had the talent and ability to play out here, and it was just a matter of getting out here and getting comfortable,” Lashley said. “It’s not an easy thing to do, by no means, but I took some time and I feel like I’m finally there. Hopefully I can take advantage tomorrow.”