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Lashley
leads
wire-to-wire
in
Detroit
for 1st
PGA Tour
win
By
LARRY
LAGE
5-6
minutes
DETROIT
- Nate
Lashley
walked
toward
the 18th
green at
Detroit
Golf
Club on
the
verge of
winning
his
first
PGA Tour
title,
thinking
about
the
plane
crash
that
killed
his
parents
and
girlfriend.
“It
was
surreal,”
Lashley
said
Sunday
after
completing
an
unlikely
wire-to-wire
victory
in the
Rocket
Mortgage
Classic.
“I
didn’t
know
what to
think.
There
was a
lot
going
through
my
mind.”
Lashley
closed
with a
2-under
70 to
finish
at
25-under
263 and
win by
six
shots,
the
margin
he took
into the
day.
His
parents
and
girlfriend
were
killed
in a
plane
crash 15
years
ago. He
dabbled
in real
estate
after
graduating
from the
University
of
Arizona,
briefly
quit
playing
professional
golf
several
years
ago and
resumed
playing
in the
PGA
Tour’s
minor
leagues.
“Without
my
parents,
I
wouldn’t
have
started
playing
golf
when I
was
little,”
said
Lashley,
who
began
playing
when he
was 8.
Monday
qualifier
Doc
Redman
shot a
67 to
finish
second.
Rory
Sabbatini
(68) and
Wes
Roach
(68)
were
another
stroke
back.
The
36-year-old
Lashley,
the
353rd
ranked
player
in the
world,
slipped
into PGA
Tour’s
first
event in
Detroit
as an
alternate
Wednesday.
“It’s a
great
story —
last man
in the
field,”
he said.
“I was
happy to
get in
the
field.
And to
win it,
it’s a
dream
come
true.”
The
Nebraskan
took
full
advantage
of the
opportunity,
shooting
a
career-low
63 in
the
first
round to
take a
lead he
refused
to lose.
Lashley
stayed
atop the
leaderboard
with a
67 on
Friday
and gave
himself
a
cushion
with
another
9-under
63
Saturday.
On
the
brink of
breaking
through
during
his
second
PGA Tour
season,
his
sister,
girlfriend,
buddies
and
family
friends
flew to
Detroit
to join
him.
Brooke
Lashley,
who
lives
near her
younger
brother
in
Arizona,
was in
awe of
as fans
followed
and
cheered
for her
little
brother
as they
stood
along
the
ropes
from tee
to
green.
“I’m
sure a
lot of
these
people
didn’t
know him
a couple
days
ago,”
she
said,
standing
near the
No. 8
green.
“He’s
doing
all he
can to
focus,
but this
is so
incredible.
It’s
foreign
to him
because
he’s
never
had this
much
attention.
He’s
never
played
in front
of a
gallery
like
this
with TV
cameras
all over
the
place.”
His
parents,
Rod and
Char
Lashley,
and
girlfriend
Leslie
Hofmeister,
all of
Scottsbluff,
Nebraska,
were
missing
for
three
days
before
their
bodies
and the
wreckage
were
found
near the
13,780-foot
Gannett
Peak in
Wyoming
after
watching
him play
in a
tournament
for the
University
of
Arizona
in 2004.
“It
rocked
our
community,”
recalled
Helen
Reinhardt,
a family
friend.
Reinhardt
and her
husband,
Jim,
boarded
a
charter
plane in
Nebraska
that
stopped
in
Minnesota
to pick
up
Lashley’s
girlfriend,
Ashlie
Reed,
and
arrived
in the
Motor
City on
Sunday.
“It’s
great to
be here
to watch
his
dream
come
true
after
watching
him play
in the
Dakotas
Tour and
work his
way up
to
here,”
said
Jeff
Peck,
one of
about a
dozen of
Lashley’s
friends
at
Detroit
Golf
Club.
When
Lashley
was
flipping
houses,
he
thought
his
playing
career
was
over.
Lashley
gave the
game
another
shot,
playing
on the
PGA Tour
Latinoamérica
circuit
in 2015
and
moved up
to what
is now
called
the Korn
Ferry
Tour two
years
later.
He
made his
PGA Tour
debut
last
season
in his
mid-30s,
but he
had to
end his
year
after 17
events
because
of a
knee
injury.
He tied
for
eighth
in
February
in the
Puerto
Rico
Open —
played
opposite
the
World
Golf
Championships-Mexico
Championship
— for
his only
top-10
finish
previously
on the
tour. He
started
the
tournament
No. 132
in the
FedEx
Cup
standings.
Lashley
would’ve
had to
collapse
and one
of the
contenders
would’ve
had to
have a
sensational
performance
to put
the
final
result
in
doubt.
Neither
happened.
He
made a
slow-rolling,
downhill
putt
from 15
feet to
birdie
the
first
hole. At
No. 3,
he
started
confidently
walking
toward
the cup
before
his
10-foot
birdie
putt
went in
to put
him at
25
under.
“The
birdies
on 1 and
3 really
calmed
me
down,”
Lashley
said.
Lashley
had two
bogeys
on the
front
nine —
one more
than he
had the
previous
three
rounds —
and
coasted
to
victory
on the
back
with two
birdies
and no
bogeys.
Family
and
friends
stood
near the
edge of
the
green as
he
closed
out the
round.
Lashley’s
girlfriend
and
sister,
choking
back
tears,
went
onto the
green to
give him
a hug.
“I’m
just
real
emotional,”
he said
later.
“I’m
just
thankful
I got in
the
tournament.”
___
More
AP golf:
https://apnews.com/apf-Golf
and
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