Lashley one day closer to winning ‘a life-changing event’

DETROIT – Likely, you have asked yourself a couple of questions over and over and over whenever you have truly sat down to think about professional golf:

Why in the heck do these golfers travel the continent in pursuit of roll-the-dice qualifiers? Oh, can golf be effectively explained?

The answers are: Nate Lashley and no.

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We arrived at an intersection of both answers on another sweltering hot, sun-soaked day at Detroit Golf Club when Lashley in Saturday’s third round of the debut of the Rocket Mortgage Classic scripted another chapter to a story that is part gut-wrenching, part improbable, but 100 percent impossible not to embrace. The 36-year-old Lashley shot his second bogey-free 9-under 63 in three days to push to 23-under 193 and open a six-stroke lead, a set of circumstances that puts him on the cusp of victory in just his 33rd PGA TOUR tournament.

So many birdies, so many positives, yet Lashley has remained calm, almost stoic and he explained why. “It is,” he said of this chance to win, “a life-changing event.”

Word of advice: Believe him on this point, because if anyone in this TOUR field would know what a life-changing event is, it’s Lashley.

His story has been well-documented – how his parents, Rod and Char, and his girlfriend, Leslie Hofmeister, flew to Oregon to watch him in the 2004 NCAA Regional, but were killed in a plane crash on the flight back to Nebraska; how in the aftermath he understandably struggled with pro golf; how he walked away from the game and got into real estate; how he returned to it and persevered through the minitours and finally won on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017 to help him to a rookie year on the TOUR at 35.

“I thought I was pretty much done with golf,” laughed Lashley, when asked about those real-estate days of flipping houses. But here is a truism that can only accurately be understood by those with a brilliant talent for golf and a competitive fire in their bellies: They are never really done with the game. The competition is addictive. The belief is real and if it requires a qualifying tournament, so be it.

Pack the clubs.

Which is where we come to the flavorful slices of this story that encapsulate pro golf beautifully. Lashley, the man who is on the threshold of a $1.314 million winner’s check here, failed to advance out of a Monday qualifier for this Rocket Mortgage Classic. One of pursuers, albeit nine shots back, is Doc Redman, who did make it through that Monday qualifier. Another chaser, the esteemed Patrick Reed, who sits eight behind, owes a large part of his TOUR career to impressive success as a Monday qualifier.

Harris English, who is tied for 19th here, heard that and knew how it could be translated. A guy, Lashley, who fails to get through a Monday qualifier, then gets in as the last alternate, and now leads by six. Impossible game to explain, no?

English smiled. “Everyone out here has won somewhere along the line. That’s why they go to the qualifiers,” he explained. And, no, he didn’t need to be introduced to Lashley.

“He beat me in a playoff for the final spot in a U.S. Open qualifier in Canada (June 3),” said English. “Then, he went and played well in the U.S. Open (T-28).”

A short while later, Ricky Romano picked up on that theme.

“What this all proves is that the level of talent out here is through the roof,” said Romano, who first met Lashley when they played against each as collegians – Lashley at the University of Arizona, Romano at the University of Houston. They then became friends through minitour golf and for two years Romano has caddied for Lashley.

For three days at this old-school, Donald Ross classic, Lashley has been immense: His 24 birdies have been spread consistently as he has yet to go more than four holes without putting a circle on the scorecard and he has made a birdie on every hole at least once, save for the par-4 third and par-3 11th. It would be a bit of an exaggeration to say hasn’t made a bogey since the Pistons played at Cobo Arena, but he was bogey-free in the Monday qualifier (his 68 missed the playoff by two), then in Rounds 1 and 3 and his only bogey came early Friday in Round 2, at the 11th.

Impressive stuff, but more than his ball-striking (he’s hit 31 of 42 fairways and 45 of 54 greens), or his precision (there were 14 birdie tries from inside of 20 feet in Round 3, six of them inside of 6 feet), or his uncanny putting stroke (at 7.992 he is ranked third in Strokes Gained: Putting), it was the man’s demeanor that kept earning praise.

Romano nodded.

“That’s Nate. I’ve seen the talent he possesses. He’s a calm dude. He’s a man’s man.”

There were questions about the 122-yard third shot he squeezed between trees with his 50-degree gap wedge to set up birdie. “Just a perfect shot,” marveled Romano.

And questions about his strategy for Sunday. “Try to play golf and see what happens at the end of the day,” Lashley said.

And even questions about failing to get through the Monday qualifier. “You’ve got to make a lot of putts on those Mondays and I guess I was saving them for the tournament,” he laughed.

And, finally, a question about that life-changing event from 14 years ago. “It definitely crosses your mind,” Lashley said, slowly. “At some points, it’s not easy. But it goes through your mind and it’s something that’s always going to be there for me.”

Somehow, you have to think that what also is going to be there for him come Sunday is the support of a great many people.