The Punter's De-brief: 74/1 Davis triumphs at Rocket Mortgage Classic

• In-play drama in Italy and Detroit

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• Read my John Deere Classic preview here

Pre-event 24.023/1 chance, Akshay Bhatia, led the Rocket Mortgage Classic by a stroke after a brilliant bogey-free 64 on Thursday and he was tied for the lead with 42.041/1 chance, Aaron Rai, through rounds two and three.

The 22-year-old Californian was in search of his third PGA Tour title, and he was at the head of the market after every round, but it was his playing partner, Rai, who began round four the best.

The Englishman birdied the first to take the lead on his own and, after a slow start by Bhatia, Rai was matched at a low of 2.186/5, but he lost his way with bogeys at six and nine.

On a tricky day, with the wind swirling, scoring wasn't as low as we usually experience at Detroit Golf Club but after birdies at four and seven, following a dropped shot at three, Bhatia looked in command again and he was matched at a low of just 1.330/100.

Bhatia gave himself two great chances to birdie the par fives on the back-nine but by the time he reached the par four 18^th tee, he'd been caught by pre-event 75.074/1 chance, Cam Davis, who had just made a brilliant up-and-down for a par to post 18-under-par.

After his birdie at seven, Bhatia had parred his next 10 holes-in-a-row. When his approach found the green on the 72^nd hole, 32 feet from the hole, a simple enough two-putt par looked likely to take the event into extra-time. But it wasn't to be.

Winning is hard.

The first miss inside 6 feet this week for Akshay Bhatia leads to bogey and a victory for Cam Davis. pic.twitter.com/MeifeElEsm

-- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 30, 2024

That was Bhatia's first three-putt of the week and although it appeared to hand Davis the title, on the balance of play in round four, the Australian deserved his win.

The 29-year-old, whose only previous victory on the PGA Tour had been at this event in 2021, hadn't had the rub of the green all day so he deserved his bit of fortune at the end.

Sensational Siem makes it six

Over on the DP World Tour, for the third event in-a-row, we experienced all sorts of in-running drama.

Following Sebastian Soderberg's remarkable collapse at the Scandinavian Mixed, and Guido Migliozzi's bizarre victory at the KLM Open, where he'd drifted out to 30.029/1 after being matched at odds-on before eventually winning a three-man playoff, we witnessed an incredible finish to the Italian Open yesterday.

On a blustery day, with the course getting firmer by the hour, anyone posting a low round from off the pace with an early start, might just post a target that the latter starters couldn't match.

England's Dan Bradbury, who had begun the final round trailing by five, looked the most likely candidate when he birdied four holes in-a-row from the fifth. He tied the lead with another at the par four 11^th.

Bradbury was matched at just 10.519/2 but he failed to birdie either of the par fives on the back-nine before playing his last three holes in three-over-par.

His playing partner, pre-event 18.017/1 chance, Tom McKibbin, having been matched at 1000.0999/1 in-running, finished his round nicely to post a six-under-par 65 and a 10-under-par total. But with Marcel Siem and Antoine Rozner both starting their fourth rounds nicely, having began the day on -10, it didn't look like McKibbin's score would be anywhere nearly enough.

His caddie, David McNeilly, had made his way to the train station to begin his journey home and Tom's dad had packed the clubs away, but things started to get very interesting on the back-nine.

Shubhankar Sharma was matched at a low of 3.711/4 but he never really looked like winning. We were set for a straight fight between pre-event 230.0229/1 shot Siem and 80.079/1 chance Rozner.

The Frenchman was matched at a low of 1.538/15 when he reached 13-under-par with a birdie at the par five 12^th to edge ahead of Siem but he lost his way badly after that and eventually finished tied for fifth. But instead of capitalising on the Frenchman's poor finish, Siem wobbled badly himself.

Playing in just his fourth start following hip surgery, and with his sixth DP World title within his grasp, the 43-year-old German looked like he'd thrown the event away with bogeys at 11, 14, 15 and 17. Having been matched at a low of 1.511/2, he must have thought he'd blown it when he stood on the 18^th tee.

McKibbin's price had dipped to a low of just 1.061/18 as Siem played the tough 18^th but, after a torrid run of holes, the German summoned the mental fortitude to hole from outside 20 feet for birdie at the last and we were into extra time.

THAT. IS. CLUTCH! @SiemMarcel saves his first birdie of the back nine for the last to force a play-off against @tommckibbin8!#ItalianOpen pic.twitter.com/OW8xA8aGPg

-- DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) June 30, 2024

McKibbin was understandably trading as the odds-on favourite as the playoff began and, after both men hit it close with their approaches, the market was struggling to split them. But after McKibbin's birdie attempt slipped by, Siem stepped up and rolled his in for his sixth DP World Tour title.

Unsurprisingly, Siem sounded delighted about his sixth success, which came more than 20 years after his first (the Alfred Dunhill Championship in Jan' 2004).

He said: "Holing that putt on 18 was one the coolest moments in golf for me and doing it again in a play-off was fantastic, it's just amazing.

"Everything went so quick, my whole team is really really good... My family, they push me so hard and believe in me so much. I love this sport; I just love it and it's so much fun to work hard for it if you get rewards like this now. I love life, I love golf, it can't get any better at the moment."

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