Potter Rebounds: He's 11 Under for 54 Holes at Rocket Mortgage Classic

Sunday, July 5, 2020

Golfer Magazine

Prior to this week's Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, Ted Potter's performance on the PGA Tour in his previous seven starts could only be termed as 'stagnant.' In that time, Ted made just one cut, when he shot 14 under par and tied for sixth at the Puerto Rico Open in February. In addition, it was only his fourth cut in what has now reached 15 events since the beginning of the wrap-around season in September, and his paychecks came to $345,565, well down the Tour's money list.

The string of missed cuts ended Friday when Ted tacked a second 68 to his opening round of 4-under-68 for 136, 8 under par, and he was just four strokes behind leaders Chris Kirk and Webb Simpson, both at 12-under-par 132. In round 2, he was just 5 under after 14 holes before making birdie putts of 16'5' on No. 15, 15 inches on 17, and 12'10" on 18 to ensure he wasn't flirting with the unusually high cut line of 5 under.

Yesterday, Ted kept his hot putter going on the front nine, making a birdie on No. 3 from 26'3," two-putting from 25'4" on the par-five fourth after he barely missed the green in two, and making par with a putt of 6'11" on No. 5. On the back, he birdied No. 11, then finished up with a birdie on 18 with a 15-footer. That put him at 11 under and in a tie for 19th.

Matthew Wolff is the leader at 19 under heading into today's finale as the leaderboard seems to change after every nine as the new breed of Young Turks keep bombing 300-plus-yard drives and make birdies at will. Ryan Armour and Bryson DeChambeau are three strokes behind at 16 under. Ted has a chance to make a big paycheck, though, because he's only three strokes out of fourth and with purse money of $7.5 million, the top 20 are assured of at least $100,000 or so.

Even Nate Lashley, last year's winner, won't be around for the finish - he bowed out at 4 under but he no doubt has a good chunk remaining of last year's payoff of $1,314,000.

No Gators or Seminoles are still around - Matt Every left at minus 4, Hank Lebioda with minus 1 and Brian Gay with plus 5.

Ted tees off at 12:05 in the finale in the company of Adam Hadwin.