Akshay Bhatia loses Rocket Mortgage Classic with 3-putt on final hole
Akshay Bhatia didn’t have a single three-putt at the Rocket Mortgage Classic until the final hole of the tournament, giving Cam Davis the win.
- Michigan State University senior golfer Ashton McCulloch received a sponsor exemption to play in the PGA Rocket Classic.
- McCulloch is returning from a hand injury that sidelined him for his senior season.
- The Rocket Classic will be McCulloch’s fourth PGA Tour event.
Graduation is always an emotional time full of celebrations for anyone. But Michigan State senior Ashton McCulloch had even more reason to celebrate, as he learned that he had earned one of the eight sponsor exemptions in the 2025 Rocket Classic, the PGA Tour event returning to Detroit on June 26-29.
MSU men’s golf coach Casey Lubahn and former Spartan athletic director and current tournament executive Mark Hollis surprised the star golfer with the news at his graduation.
“I had no idea what coach and Mr. Hollis were doing behind the scenes,” McCulloch said Friday, June 20. “But to have my family, teammates and friends there was really cool. Kind of the best graduation gift I could have asked for.”
The tournament, which runs from July 26-29 at Detroit Golf Club, is the PGA Tour’s stop in Michigan. More than 36 top golfers are committed to play in the tournament, although recently crowned U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun withdrew on Friday.
It is not McCulloch’s first time playing in a PGA Tour event. In 2024, he participated in both the U.S. Open and the RBC Canadian Open, and he participated in his second Canadian Open earlier this month. He has never made the final cut of a tournament, missing it at the Canadian Open by one stroke two weeks ago.
The Canadian Open is special for McCulloch because both courses were three hours from his hometown of Kingston, Ontario. Even though he didn’t make the final cut of the tournament either time, he loved getting to play in front of friends and family in his home country.
“It’s super cool to play in front of Canadians and have so many people behind your back cheering for you,” McCulloch said.
Back from injury
This year, the Canadian Open was McCulloch’s first competition since returning from an injury that ended his season. In January, he learned he had broken a bone in his hand and torn a ligament, which he believes he sustained due to persistent training on practice mats.
McCulloch’s hometown and school are both in a cold climate, meaning that he’s spent pretty much every offseason of his golf career training indoors on mats and not on grass, which is more responsive and less likely to cause injuries.
McCulloch was in a cast for 2½ months and lost his senior season with the MSU golf team. He stayed with the team all year, helping to coach a young group to the NCAA regional in Tallahassee, Florida. He began playing again in May and said he will play at the Rocket Classic with no issues.
McCulloch plans to return to MSU for his final season of eligibility, which is lucky for the Spartans — as he’s among the best golfers in program history, holding the best single-season scoring average (70.89) and career average (71.74), both set his junior year.
He was also the third player in program history to be named NCAA Freshman of the Year. (The first was Ryan Brehm, who will also be playing in the Rocket Classic.)
In the era of NIL, he could almost certainly make more money transferring to a golf powerhouse such as Oklahoma State or Virginia. But McCulloch always has been committed to MSU.
Lubahn was the first to call him when his recruitment window opened his junior year of high school. Even when more schools came calling after he had a breakout season later in his junior year, he kept his commitment.
“There was a lot more coaches that came and reached out and I went on those visits, but it was always the fact that (Lubahn) was the first one there,” McCulloch said. “He believed in me when other coaches at a high Division I level didn’t yet. And it just felt like home when I was there.”
Close to home
Now, he’ll play a professional tournament in his second home. McCulloch has never played at Detroit Golf Club, but he believes that the classic build of the course with its tree lines will lend itself well to his strength in driving the ball.
The difficulty for McCulloch lies not in any technical difficulty with the course, but in adjusting to the biggest stage in golf. The PGA Tour is intimidating, especially with players like World No. 4 Collin Morikawa participating.
While he has played in a major before, which is the pinnacle of golf, every opportunity at the pro level is a nervewracking one. He’s hoping to change that this weekend.
“I feel like I’m slowly gaining that confidence to be able to play against the best players in the world and feel comfortable,” McCulloch said. “And I really feel like this week, being my fourth opportunity to play against those guys, I feel like I can finally break through and play how I know I can play.”
It’ll help that he’ll have plenty of support. He has received multiple messages from MSU fans saying they will be in attendance and cheering him on. Kingston is six hours away as well, meaning he will have some family in attendance.
And it’s special for McCulloch to play on the border of both the countries he considers home.
“That helps a lot, obviously, to know that you’re not alone, and also to have so many people that are supporting you, regardless of how you play,” McCulloch said. “Obviously, they want me to play well. I want myself to play well, obviously.
“But no matter what, I know that they’re going to be out there supporting me and being there for me regardless of how I play because of the human I am. And that’s definitely the most calming and best part about having all those people come out and watch.”
Contact Matthew Auchincloss at mauchincloss@freepress.com.
