Davis earns 2nd win at Rocket Mortgage, Thitikul/Yin team up for Dow Championship | The Sunday Swing

The Sunday Swing 
June 30th, 2024

Welcome back to another edition of the Sunday Swing presented by 2nd Swing Golf. This week the PGA Tour was back in the Midwest at the Detroit Golf Club for the Rocket Mortgage Classic, while the LPGA Tour was also in Michigan at Midland Country Club for a team event in the Dow Championship.

Rocket Mortgage Classic - Tournament History 

The Rocket Mortgage Classic is one of the newest events on the PGA Tour schedule, debuting in 2019. While the tournament may be new to the players, the course itself opened 125 years ago in 1899. The Donald Ross design measures 7,370 yards, and plays as a standard par-72 with four par-5’s, four par-3’s, and ten par-4’s. While the course does have some length to it, it still has played relatively easy for the players with the highest winning score in 5 editions being 18-under par. Par-5 scoring and approach play typically are at a premium this week, as the field must make loads of birdies if they want to contend on the weekend. The previous five champions are as follows: 

2024 - Cam Davis (-18)
2023 - Rickie Fowler (-24)
2022 - Tony Finau (-22)
2021 - Cam Davis (-18)
2020 - Bryson DeChambeau (-23)

The Big Swing 

This week the Big Swing belongs to Cam Davis. Davis has won this event in the past (his only other tour victory) in 2021. This year the field consisted of a handful of high end players including Cam Young, Tom Kim, Akshay Bhatia, Min Woo Lee, and Rickie Fowler who was hoping to defend his title. Bhatia and Kim were coming off a week in which they both played in the final group with Scottie Scheffler at the travelers that ended up being a victory for Scheffler in a playoff over Tom Kim. Cam Young also placed highly last week, finishing in a tie for 9th. All three players were looking to continue their momentum this week, and it was Young and Bhatia who came out strong on Thursday shooting rounds of 67 and 64 respectively. Tom Kim struggled out of the gate, carding a 1-over par 73. Meanwhile, Cam Davis showed he was still comfortable here, opening with 68. 

Scores remained low on Friday, and more players moved toward the top. Englishmen Aaron Rai was the pace setter, opening with rounds of 66 and 65. Cam Davis fired a 66 on Friday, setting himself up for another opportunity on the weekend. Cam Young also shot a Friday 66, while Akshay Bhatia posted 67. It’s worth noting that 15-year old Miles Russell made his PGA Tour debut this week on a sponsors exemption. Russell measures just 5’7, 120 pounds but was still hitting ball speeds of up to 170 mph with the driver. Russell opened with a 2-over 74, and was able to shoot 2-under 70 on Friday but would miss the cut by a few. For his first showing at such a young age he was very impressive and certainly has a bright future ahead. 

On Saturday, inclement weather delayed the start of the third round by a few hours. When the players finally got their round underway, they were greeted by a very soft course. The fairways had standing water in several spots, and the greens were more receptive then they’d been all week. The players knew scoring would be low, and many took advantage. Min Woo Lee was amongst them, as he posted 66 and got it to 14-under for the championship. Akshay Bhatia and Aaron Rai also played well and shot 68, and the pair would share the lead through 54 holes (Rai’s first ever 54-hole lead). Cameron Young and Cameron Davis also made moves, both getting to 16-under just one shot back of the lead. Perhaps the most impressive round of the day came from 20-year old amateur Luke Clanton, who fired a 65 and got within three of the lead. Clanton had hopes of doing what Nick Dunlap did earlier this season and win on tour as an amateur. 

As the final round began, the players faced a much different challenge. The course had dried out a bit and it was setup tougher. Scores were much higher across the board on Sunday, giving the chasers a chance to catch the leaders if they could go low.  As the final pairing of Bhatia and Rai began their round, it was the Englishmen who came out firing as he made birdie on the first hole to retake solo possession of the lead. The rest of the front nine was a struggle for Rai however, and he dropped shots on 6 and 9 to turn on 1-over 37. Meanwhile, Bhatia had managed a 1-under 35, and found himself at the top. Cam Davis also moved to the top of the leaderboard, after opening with a front nine 34. His playing partner Cam Young was struggling off the tee, but was able to grind out a front nine 35 and was just one back. Davis Thompson, who started the day out at 13-under, had made a big move on Sunday. After making birdies on 3 of his last 4 holes, Thompson posted 17-under in the clubhouse and had a chance but would need some help from the players coming in. Down the stretch it was tight at the top, after Min Woo Lee got it to 4-under on the back which included an electric chip-in birdie on the par-3 16th. After another birdie on the 17th, he had moved to 18-under par and grabbed a share of the lead. After airmailing his approach on the 72nd hole, Lee was unable to save par and would also finish at 17-under for the championship. As the last couple groups made their way to the finish, it was Cam Davis that set the new clubhouse lead at 18-under after he finished at 2-under for the day thanks to a birdie at the 17th. Akshay Bhatia stood on the 18th tee at 18-under, and had a chance to win if he could birdie the last. His approach shot ended up about 30 feet from the hole, and it was looking like a playoff was inevitable. After a tentative first putt came up 4-feet short, Bhatia now faced a par effort that he would need to make to force a playoff. A poor stroke resulted in a miss for Bhatia, and his first three putt of the week came at the worst possible moment costing him the tournament. With his miss Cam Davis (who was preparing for a playoff on the range), became the champion- his 2nd win in Detroit and his 2nd on Tour. 

Winner’s Bag - Cam Davis 

Australian Cam Davis claimed his 2nd Rocket Mortgage Classic victory on Sunday after a gritty final round. Davis is unique in the sense that he plays one grand through the bag- Titleist. With the launch of the Titleist GT woods for tour players a couple weeks ago, he has the option to play the new model or stick with the TSR line which is what he’s elected to do so far. At the top of the bag, he games the TSR3 (10 degrees). He carries just one fairway wood, which is also a TSR3 (15 degrees). Instead of a higher lofted wood, Davis elects to play a T100 3-iron, which is accompanied by a set of 620 CB’s (4-PW). Around the greens he carries a trio of bokeh’s including two SM10’s (52 and 56 degrees) as well as a WedgeWorks lob wedge (60 degrees). Davis, like many other players has been experimenting with different putters this season in hopes of finding the one that makes the difference. This week it did, and the club to do it was a Scotty Cameron TourType Special Select Masterful Prototype. Though it is a mouthful, it helped him to a top-20 finish on the greens where as the putting is usually a weakness for him  (ranks 124th on the season). It was a well balanced attack overall on the week, and Davis finished inside the top-30 in every statistical category. 

In the World of Women’s Golf 

This week the LPGA Tour was at Midland Country Club in Midland, MI for the Dow Championship. Very similar to the Zurich Classic in the PGA Tour, this weeks event was a team format and players would partner up and play two rounds of fourball and two rounds of alternate shot. Some of the notable teams in the field included Charley Hull & Georgia Hall, Jennifer Kupcho & Ally Ewing, and Atthaya Thitikul and Ruoning Yin. It was pretty much a shootout the entire week, with low scores being posted all over the place. The rotation of formats was played so that Sunday was fourball and mot alternate shot (opposite the Zurich Classic). Jennifer Kupcho and Ally Ewing had the lead through 54 holes, but Yin and Thitikul were right behind them. As the final round was coming to a close, it was a tie at the top between the aforementioned teams. Kupcho and Ewing were unable to birdie the final hole and would finish at 21-under par. Atthaya Thitikul on the other hand, made a clutch birdie at the last to get the duo to 22-under for the tournament and 8-under 64 on Sunday to steal the show. The win marks the first of the year, and third of the career for both players.

Kevin Kraft

Special shoutout to 2nd Swing’s very own Kevin Kraft for qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open this week! The U.S. Senior Open was suspended with the tournament finishing up on Monday and needed a playoff to determine the champion. Richard Bland and Hiroyuki Fujita would finish the 72nd hole tied atop the leaderboard, forcing a playoff. After both were still tied after the two-hole aggregate playoff, they would go to a sudden death playoff. After both players bogeyed the first sudden death playoff hole, they would go to a 2nd. Neither found the 18th green in regulation, and after Fujita came up well short with his 3rd shot, Bland nearly holed out from the greenside bunker, leaving him a tap in for par. After Fujita's par narrowly missed, Bland would claim the U.S. Senior Open as he has now won the last 2 Senior Majors after winning the Senior PGA Championship.