Nate

Lashley

Lashley missed the cut last week at the Mayakoba. He’s now 3-for-5 on the season with just one top 50, a 35th-place finish at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Last season he posted a 4-for-6 record in the fall with a trio of top 35s. He’s a little behind pace in that regard but there are plenty of events left on the schedule this season. It’s possible we’ll see him return to action next week for The RSM Classic where he boasts a 4-for-4 record with all four finishes landing in the 37th to 59th range.

Lashley cited a toe injury when he withdrew in round two of the Wells Fargo Championship. That was back in May and he posted a 3-for-7 record to end the season while playing through the injury. His 13-for-25 record was good for 104th in the FedExCup race but without playing this week his season will come to an end.

The Arizona alum sits inside of the top 90 in the FedExCup race but was arriving with back-to-back missed cuts on his resume. That came on the heels of a run where he bagged six top 30s in an eight-event stretch. He is enjoying a nice bounce-back campaign after missing the FedExCup Playoffs last season. Gamers should remove him from all weekly lineups, though.

Lashley bobbed and weaved his way to an even-par opening lap at TPC Potomac. It was more steady play out of the gate today but one birdie and five pars before the wheels fell off. From there, he posted a trio of double bogeys, a par, and one bogey over his next five holes. That is when he called it quits for the week. This will go in the books as his fifth career mid-tournament WD, in 102 events played.

The Arizona alum has top 10’d twice in Puerto Rico, finished 4th at the stand-alone Corales Puntacana (Sep. 2020) and also won the latter in 2017 when it was a Web.com Tour event, so he’s obviously comfortable outside the 50 United States. This week, he’s handed in progressively better laps of 69-68-64, is the only player with multiple bogey-free rounds with two, and has played his last 41 holes in error-free 12-under. The Nebraska native owns one TOUR win in 100 events, the 2019 inaugural Rocket Mortgage in wire-to-wire fashion, cracking that field as the fourth (and final) alternate, claiming victory by six after being the 54-hole leader by six. So far this week, he’s totaled one eagle, a hole-out 2 today at hole 7 from 41 yards, and 14 birdies versus two bogeys and a double, all of those dropped shots occurring in R1, and ranks 34th SG: Tee-to-Green (3.582) and 4th SG: Putting (6.651), noting a recent change in PING putters in his post-round comments today (link below).

Lashley missed the cut in his latest start, the RBC Heritage, but had rattled off four straight top 30s leading up to that event. He’ll look to get back on track this week in Mexico. Working in his favor, perhaps, is the grass type used at Vidanta Villarta, which is wall-to-wall paspalum. Three of Lashley’s seven best finishes on the PGA TOUR have come on courses with paspalum greens. He also won on paspalum at Corales Golf Club in 2017 when it was still a Korn Ferry Tour event. Gamers should at least give him a long look this week in weekly formats, given his above-average 2022 form and historical success on similar setups.

The Arizona product ended his season with finishes outside of the top 65 in eight of his last nine starts. Perhaps the short offseason allowed him a proper recharge of the batteries or maybe he just needed to play closer to home. Whatever the case, he opened with 9-of-14 fairways and 13 greens in regulation which isn’t what you expect to see out of an error-free round. Lashley did a good job of managing those misses as he was able to keep a clean card while going 5-for-5 scrambling. Highlights included a pair of par-savers from the 12-to-15 foot range and a chip-in birdie from 49'7" at the par-3 seventh. The 38-year-old entered the week with a 1-for-4 record at Silverado Resort and Spa (T17/2019).

Lashley won the first edition of the event in 2019 when he got into the tournament as an alternate and shot 63 in the first and third rounds to finish at 25-under 263, six strokes better than Doc Redman. He missed the cut last year but arrives back in Detroit off two straight made cuts at the Travelers, where he finished T-76, the Charles Schwab, where he was T-32. Lashley has made 13 cuts in 21 starts this season and has two top 10s including a T-5 at Pebble Beach where he held a share of a lead through 15 holes in the final round before a triple bogey at 16. Lashley four-putted and infamously lost his cool, tossing his putter and slamming it into the green, although he finished with a birdie to shoot 3-under 69 and finish tied for fifth. He’s made six cuts in nine starts since then.

Lashley has shown flashes of form lately but failed to find any big finishes since a T5 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, in February. He’s been inside of the top 20 after round one in three of his last six starts but hasn’t finished inside of the top 25 over his last eight starts. Gamers should remove Lashley from all weekly lineups. His next chance to return would be the Travelers Championship in two weeks since he’s not in the field for next week’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

Lashley is a past champ at this event but he won while it was still a Korn Ferry Tour event. It’s the win that catapulted him onto the PGA TOUR. That’s not his only taste of success at the course as he also tossed together a solo 4th last fall with four rounds of 71 or better. Today he piped 12-of-14 fairways and landed 10 greens in regulation. “Yeah, it’s blowing probably 15 to 20 gusting and it seems like a lot of those holes play crosswind so it’s tough to get the ball close to the hole and make putts. Definitely pleased with 4 under.” The highlight of his round was an eagle splash from outside of 20 feet at the par-5 seventh hole. Fast starts are becoming the norm for Lashley who has now been T15 or better after round one in four of his last six starts.