What a wild third round it was at the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic! Due to some unfortunate weather, golf fans had to wait for the players to tee off after a slight rain delay — but rest assured, once the action got started, it was as entertaining as could be.
The low round on Saturday went to an amateur, Luke Clanton, who shot a 65 to push himself into the top-7 on the leaderboard. And with other players going nearly just as low — with seven shooting 66 on the day — there are now a whopping 13 players within four shots of the lead as Sunday’s Round 4 gets going.
As we enter Sunday’s final round from Detroit Golf Club, everyone’s still looking up at Akshay Bhatia and Aaron Rai, who are both at 17-under and have shared the top spot on the leaderboard since after Round 2.
Bhatia’s on the hunt for his third career PGA Tour victory, while Rai is seeking is first. The former briefly spoke about what it’s going to take to rise above the pack and finish the job on Sunday.
“I love the feeling of just all the adrenaline and fan support, so I’m excited for [Sunday],” said Bhatia. “This is what I want, I want to win. It’s just going to be fun whether or not it happens and just being in this position, it’s awesome.”
Meanwhile, Rai seems to be soaking in the moment and trying to enjoy the run he’s been on the past few rounds this week. He also seems excited to, once again, be paired with Bhatia for Sunday’s final round at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
“Yeah, it’s always fun playing with Akshay. We know each other pretty well, and it was nice [Saturday] that we both played well and kind of kept the rounds going and kind of fed off each other at certain times,” said Rai. “Akshay’s been playing some great golf as well over the last few months really, so I’m sure it’ll be fun tomorrow and I look forward to it.”
While we’ll all have to tune in to see how the tournament unfolds, one thing we do know is the payout amount at this year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, with the field competing for a pretty sweet payday: $1.656 million of a $9.2 million purse (which is an increase from last year’s $8.8 million).
You can check out the entire purse breakdown for the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic below.
2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic purse
Winner: $1.656 million
2: $1.002 million
3: $634,800
4: $450,800
5: $377,200
6: $333,500
7: $310,500
8: $287,500
9: $269,100
10: $250,700
11: $232,300
12: $213,900
13: $195,500
14: $177,100
15: $167,900
16: $158,700
17: $149,500
18: $140,300
19: $131,100
20: $121,900
21: $112,700
22: $103,500
23: $96,140
24: $88,780
25: $81,420
26: $74,060
27: $71,300
28: $68,540
29: $65,780
30: $63,020
31: $60,260
32: $57,500
33: $54,740
34: $52,440
35: $50,140
36: $47,840
37: $45,540
38: $43,700
39: $41,860
40: $40,020
41: $38,180
42: $36,340
43: $34,500
44: $32,660
45: $30,820
46: $28,980
47: $27,140
48: $25,668
49: $24,380
50: $23,644
51: $23,092
52: $22,540
53: $22,172
54: $21,804
55: $21,620
56: $21,436
57: $21,252
58: $21,068
59: $20,884
60: $20,700
61: $20,516
62: $20,332
63: $20,148
64: $19,964
65: $19,780
