Cam Davis wins Rocket Mortgage Classic for 2nd time after Akshay Bhatia 3-putts 18th hole

DETROIT (AP) — Cam Davis won the Rocket Mortgage Classic for the second time, closing with a 2-under 70 on Sunday that gave him a one-shot victory when Akshay Bhatia three-putted from 32 feet on the final hole.

“I wouldn’t wish what happened to Akshay on anyone,” Davis said. “But I’ve done a lot of grinding to kind of get myself out of a hole and just all of a sudden to do that, it’s pretty good.”

Davis, a 29-year-old Australian who won his first PGA Tour title three years ago at Detroit Golf Club, had not finished better than 38th in sixth starts since he tied for 12th at the Masters in April.

“I started working with a hypnotherapist a few weeks ago just to take another angle into trying to get myself sorted out,” he said. “I saw a little bit of a spark last week, but nothing to show this coming.

"This is crazy.”

Davis pulled into a tie with Bhatia with a birdie on the par-5 17th hole.

That proved to be enough when the left-handed Bhatia, who uses a long putter, watched his 4-foot par attempt on the 18th miss low and left for his first three-putt of the week.

“Just a little bit of nerves, honestly,” Bhatia said. “I’m human.”

Davis finished at 18-under 270 on a day of missed opportunities for the final pairing of Bhatia and Aaron Rai, each of whom shot an even-par 72. Davis Thompson (68) and Min Woo Lee (69) also finished one shot back.

Davis became the first two-time winner of the event since its debut on the PGA Tour schedule in 2019.

The 22-year-old Bhatia was seeking his third PGA Tour title and second this year after leading or sharing the lead after each of the first three rounds. He was coming off a fifth-place finish at the Travelers Championship, where he was in the final group that was disrupted by climate protesters storming the 18th green.

“I know how to close a golf tournament. I’ve done it before,” Bhatia said. “Just today wasn’t my day.”

Cameron Young shot 73 and plummeted to sixth place with two bogeys over the last three holes.

The pressure to win for the first time on tour may have gotten the best of Young, who has been a runner-up seven times, on the par-5 14th when his drive traveled 254 yards into the rough way left of the fairway.

With the ball in flight, Young pushed his driver into the tee box and broke the shaft. He was unable to replace it for the rest of the round.

Davis surged into a tie for the lead with three birdies in a five-hole stretch on the front nine.

He lost a share of the lead with a bogey on the par-5 14th, where his approach landed in rocks bordering a pond, but one birdie and three pars over the final four holes ended up being good enough.

Playing just behind Davis, Bhatia hit his second shot into a greenside bunker on the 17th. He blasted out to 9 feet, but pulled the putt to the left and settled for par.

That was the first of two costly misses.

Earlier in the afternoon, there were signs that it might not be Bhatia’s day.

Rai, who shared the second- and third-round lead with Bhatia, went ahead on the first hole after hitting his approach from 142 yards to 5 feet for birdie.

Bhatia fell two shots back on the par-4 third hole, where his approach settled in thick rough. He only advanced his chip 9 feet, leading to bogey.

He responded with a 31-foot birdie putt on the par-5 fourth, the first of just two birdies on the day.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Cam Davis celebrates winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament at Detroit Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Cam Davis celebrates winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament at Detroit Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Akshay Bhatia chips onto the third green during the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament at Detroit Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Cameron Young hits from the fourth tee during the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament at Detroit Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Min Woo Lee hits from the fourth tee during the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament at Detroit Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Luke Clanton hits from the fourth tee during the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament at Detroit Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Aaron Rai hits from the fourth tee during the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament at Detroit Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Erik van Rooyen hits from the fourth tee during the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament at Detroit Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Akshay Bhatia hits from the fourth tee during the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament at Detroit Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Cam Davis hits from the fourth tee during the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament at Detroit Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Government leaders of Poland and Germany on Tuesday held wide bilateral consultations aimed at giving a new impulse to neighborly relations that sagged under Poland’s previous government, and to jointly declare responsibility for Europe’s security in turbulent times.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz traveled with 12 ministers and government members, including Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, for the meeting in Warsaw.

“We bring a very clear message: Germany and Poland are good neighbors, close partners and reliable friends. And we want to create a new dynamic for our cooperation,” Scholz told a joint news conference with Tusk.

He stressed that “close partnership between Germany and Poland is very important to us.”

Such wide consultations were most recently held in November 2018. After that, Poland’s right-wing government that was in power until last year adopted a hostile attitude toward Berlin, accusing Germany of excessive influence on European Union decision-making, and focusing on demanding reparations for the losses that Nazi German occupation caused Poland during World War II.

Tusk's government, which took office in December, is taking steps to mend the ties. They gained special significance in the face of Russia's war on Ukraine, just across Poland's and the 27-member EU's eastern border, and pressure of irregular migration from the Middle East and Africa, which Poland and the EU say is a part of Russia's and ally Belarus' hybrid war on Europe.

Tusk, a former EU Council head, said that Poland's and the continent's security was his priority and that “no one should have any doubts as to the importance of good cooperation in this area between Poland and Germany.”

Tusk said it was with great satisfaction that he heard Scholz's declaration that Germany is ready to take co-responsibility for the security of Poland's eastern border, through investment into the infrastructure and other security needs there. He criticized European countries for lacking coordination and determination in taking steps for the continent's joint security.

“The security of Germany and Poland is inextricably linked. This means that Poland’s security is also Germany’s security," Scholz said.

"This is what we stand for as neighbors, as NATO allies and as partners in the European Union. Our solidarity and our joint action are our common strength,” he said.

Scholz also pledged to “take measures to support the surviving victims of the German attack and occupation in the years 1939-45” in Poland and to “strengthen remembrance and commemoration of our painful shared history” by commemorating the Polish victims through the establishment of a German-Polish House that is "intended to be a visible sign against forgetting and a warning for the future.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk attend a press conference after German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in front of Prime Minister Chancellery in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk attend a press conference after German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk attend a press conference after German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)