Rocket Mortgage Classic leader Akshay Bhatia (1st/-8) has his second career 18-hole lead/co-lead on the PGA TOUR and first since the 2024 Valero Texas Open, which he went on to win (led outright after each of the first three rounds and won in a playoff).
Related: After Travelers heartbreak, Joohyung Kim seeks redemption
One of five players with multiple 18-hole leads/co-leads on TOUR this season (most: 3, Xander Schauffele).
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Third opening-round score of 64 or better this season, tying Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele for the most such scores.
Played Nos. 16-18 in 4-under, becoming the second player in tournament history to do so (first: Trey Mullinax, R4/2022).
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Win at the Valero Texas Open earlier this season was his second career PGA TOUR title (first: 2023 Barracuda Championship).
Played in the final group in the final round at last week’s Travelers Championship, finishing T5.
Is making his second start at the event; missed the cut in his tournament debut in 2023.
Neal Shipley (T9/-5) is making his first start on TOUR as a professional (competing on a sponsor exemption).
Low amateur at the 2024 Masters Tournament (T53) and 2024 U.S. Open (T26); first player to accomplish that feat since Viktor Hovland in 2019.
Qualified for the Masters and U.S. Open as the runner-up at the 2023 U.S. Amateur.
Finished T9 at last week’s Beachlands Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist on PGA TOUR Americas, his professional debut.
The John Deere Classic announced today that Shipley received a sponsor exemption for next week’s event.
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Defending champion Rickie Fowler (T4/-6) is looking to become the first player in tournament history to win back-to-back.
Fowler’s win in 2023 was his sixth win on TOUR and first since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open.
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In his first career round on the PGA TOUR, 15-year-old amateur Miles Russell cards a 2-over 74 with birdies at Nos. 3 and 7.
Russell made the cut at the 2024 LECOM Suncoast Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour and went on to finish T20, becoming the youngest player to make the cut in Korn Ferry Tour history.
2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic winner Nate Lashley’s hole-in-one was the first of his career and third on the 11th hole at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
