From Last Man In To Last Man Standing: Nate Lashley Wins Inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic

Nate Lashley is champion of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The event, which was held this weekend at the Detroit Golf Club, is the first ever PGA Tournament to take place in the city limits of Detroit.

This is also Lashley’s first ever win on the PGA Tour. He took a big lead into Sunday's final round and ended up finishing six strokes ahead. He collected first-place money of $1.314 million.

Lashley missed out on Monday's qualifier and needed at least three withdrawals to get an invite. He started as the last man in the field.

"I'm just so thankful I got into the golf tournament, really... I'm just really happy," a tearful Lashley said on the green late Sunday afternoon.

Lashley's trying journey to become a PGA Tour winner took the spotlight this week.

A Cinderella Story

In 2004, while competing for the University of Arizona, Lashley’s parents and girlfriend at the time were killed on the way back from watching him play in an event. Because of his relatively little notoriety over the past decade on the PGA Tour, this aspect of his life was—for the most part—unknown to many golf fans until this past week.

As a result, Lashley gained an abundance of support throughout the tournament. His -9 score in round 3 propelled him to a winning position going into Sunday’s final round, in which a score of 2-under par was more than enough to carry him to victory.

.@NateLashley’s final putt to win the @RocketClassic, his first PGA Tour victory. #RocketMortageClassic pic.twitter.com/ujhLphl722

— Benzinga.com (@Benzinga) June 30, 2019

Helen Reinhardt, a close friend of Lashley, was thrilled.

"I've known him since he was playing junior golf. It is an unbelievable Cinderella story," Reinhardt told Benzinga.

Other players of the tournament included Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and recent U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland.

Lashley now qualifies for next month's British Open.

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Photo credit: @PGATour