Rocket Mortgage winner Nate Lashley goes from tragedy, alternate to first PGA win

Nate Lashley’s golf career was scarred by a terrible tragedy at the outset, with his parents and girlfriend dying in a plane crash. The 36-year-old left the game for a while, but returned to golf and has now won his first PGA Tour victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Nate Lashley was an alternate at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. But he established himself as the front runner at the Detroit Golf Club tournament by shooting a 63 on day one and proceeded to command the lead with wire-to-wire finishes, culminating in a final score of under 25 with a smooth birdie on the 17th hole followed up with a par finish on the 18th on Sunday.

Having failed the Monday qualifier, Lashley found out that he qualified as a last alternate on Wednesday, the day before he shot the nine under par that rocketed him to the lead on Thursday. He repeated the phenomenal feat on Saturday, another 63. Combined with his five under on Friday and two under for the final day, it gave the Nebraska native a storybook finish with 25 under.

The $1.38 million prize money equals Nate Lashley’s career earnings to date, who is currently ranked No. 353 in the world golf rankings, but No. 132 in the 2019 FedEx Cup position. The win in Detroit has put him in the running for The Open taking place next month, as well as the majors next year.

“Nothing’s quite sunk in yet,” Lashley told ESPN in 2107. “I’ve been through a lot.”

The surprise win for Lashley comes after some turbulent years with the game. A plane crash took the lives of his parents, Rod and Char Lashley, and girlfriend, Leslie Hofmeister, while they were heading back to Nebraska after watching the golfer at a 2004 NCAA West Regional tournament. His father had been piloting the Cessna aircraft. At the time, Lashley was a junior at the University of Arizona.

“I always thought I was good enough, but mentally I was holding myself back,” Lashley told ESPN. “Especially for the first few years after the crash, it just always felt like something bad was going to happen. It took a long time to get over that.”

“I thought I was pretty much done with golf,” said Lashley in a PGA Tour interview.

After splitting his time playing smaller tours while selling real estate, he refocused his efforts full-time on the game in 2015. The Scottsbluff, Nebraska native qualified for the PGA Tour LatinoAmerica that year. Five Top 10 finishes in 2015 spurred his career turnaround, which he followed up with three tour wins the following year. A win in the 2017 Korn Ferry Tour earned him rookie of the year. The golfer earned his PGA Tour card in 2018.

“Golf was a release, something to get away from it all,” Lashley said. “When you’re on the course, your focus is on golf. It took away some of the pain from thinking about my parents and my girlfriend and the crash.”

“It puts some perspective because you never know what’s going to happen,” Lashley said in another interview, in Golf Digest. “It makes golf a little easier from looking at the perspective that golf isn’t such a big deal.”

After making 11 out of 15 cuts on the PGA Tour this year, a Top 8 finish at the Puerto Rico Open, T-28 at the U.S. Open, and now his first PGA win in Michigan, Lashley’s victory after overcoming adversity was celebrated by all.

“We’re all rooting for him,” said commentator Jim Nantz at one point.

Lashley hasn’t spoken much about the tragic start to his career over the years but acknowledged that they were prevalent in his mind when he was closing in on his triumph.

“It took a lot of years for me to get over my parents’ death, for sure,” Lashley said. “It was mentally holding me back for a long time.

“There were a couple times out there late in the round where it’s — it happens all the time. I think about my parents all the time. And thinking about them today, I was getting a little emotional even walking up 18, even before I hit my second shot, thinking about my parents. Because without them, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

His emotional interview after the 18th spoke volumes.

“It’s just an unreal feeling. Just so happy to be in Detroit, and I’ll always remember this place,” said a grateful and poignant Lashley. “Going to be a special place to me.”

The “life-changing event” has established Nate Lashley as one of the players to watch at The Open next month, where he will likely have plenty of crowd support.