DETROIT — Perhaps paying homage to Detroit and its roads, every damn road, the leaderboard after the first round of the PGA Tour's Rocket Mortgage Classic looked like a traffic jam.

Akshay Bhatia, trending in the right direction the previous three weeks, finished with two birdies and an eagle over his final three holes to put the exclamation point on an 8-under 64 on a chilly-turned-glorious Thursday at Detroit Golf Club. But one quick look in the rearview mirror, and he'll see a whole lot of company.

Bhatia leads by one stroke over Taylor Montgomery and Michael Kim at 7 under, and by two over a group of five at 6 under, including two of the biggest stars in the field, defending champion Rickie Fowler and Will Zalatoris. Eight players were at 5 under, and all told, 34 players were within four strokes of the lead after Round 1, including Michigan native Ryan Brehm at 4 under.

Bhatia, 22, ranked 29th in the world, is coming off finishes of tied for 22nd at the Memorial, tied for 16th at the U.S. Open and tied for fifth last week at the Travelers Championship. The Travelers and the Rocket are birdie blitzes.

"Played the U.S. Open. It was really hard. Then you come last week and this week, and you're making birdies," said Bhatia, seeking a third PGA Tour win, and second this season. "So you feel like it's pretty fun again."

A lot of guys had a whole lot of fun Thursday, including Aaron Rai, who like Fowler shot a bogey-free round for a 66, joining fellow 6-unders Eric Cole and Matti Schmid. Cameron Young, the second-highest-ranked player in the field at world No. 23, opened with a bogey-free 5-under 67, and was tied for the likes of Nick Dunlap, who won on the PGA Tour as an amateur earlier this year, and Neal Shipley, who was low amateur at the Masters and U.S. Open earlier this season before turning pro last week.

Shipley's round was highlighted by a 102-yard holeout for eagle at the par-4 first hole. Others at 5 under included Ben Kohles, Ben Silverman, Jhonattan Vegas, J.J. Spaun, Ben Griffin and Blaine Hale Jr.

Bhatia was 4 under through his first 15 holes, then made birdie on the par-4 16th, chipped in for eagle from in front of the green on the par-5 17th, and stiffed it from the rough at the par-4 18th. He seized the lead in the afternoon, while the course was firming up.

Montgomery, 29, also playing in the afternoon, and playing his first tournament since May because of torn labrums in both shoulders, opened with a first-nine 30, and played bogey-free, as well. In his previous five tournaments, he missed three cuts and withdrew twice because of the injury. He had no idea what to expect Thursday.

"I had no idea what I was getting into," said Montgomery, who had never played the Rocket before this week.

"Come out and shoot 7 under. Like, what the hell? Like, how is that possible. Like, it's so weird."

Fowler had the opposite-type round as Montgomery, starting slow and finishing strong.

Fowler, who last year snapped a four-plus-year winless drought at the Rocket, was 2 under early on his front nine, then made nine straight pars while everyone around him was making birdies.

Fowler then birdied four of his last five holes, including, of course, the 18th, draining a 14-foot, 5-inch putt for a closing birdie. He birdied the 18th twice on Sunday last year, once at the end of regulation to get into a playoff and then again the playoff to raise the trophy.

"I definitely made a handful of birdies there," said Fowler, 35, who's struggled since winning the Rocket last year, though he did find something on the greens a week ago at the Travelers to give him a little glimmer of hope his game was rounding back into form. "See if we can keep the streak going.

"That's at least three in a row."

The pairing of Fowler, Zalatoris, 27, and 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic champion Cam Davis (68) shot a combined 16 under par, before the largest gallery out on the course. Zalatoris drained a 30-foot birdie putt down the hill on the 18th hole to delight the crowd, before Fowler stepped right up and doubled the fun.

It's a good start, but only a start, with a whole lot of capable chasers.

Chief among them is Young, who had three bogeys and an eagle at the par-5 14th for a flawless 67. He finished tied for second at DGC in 2022, the only previous time he's played the Rocket. Hard to believe then that he'd still be winless now, though he's also trending, after firing a blistering 59 at the Travelers Championship last week.

"It's a really nice test," Young said of DGC, which was playing tricky in the morning, with soft conditions and every par 5 playing into the wind. "The scoring tends to be pretty good, but at the same time it's not like it's wide open, (not like) the greens are all flat. People are just really good at golf, and it's one of those places that if you do get comfortable, you do have some wedges and you do have some attackable holes.

"I feel like I've been playing some decent golf for a while and scoring poorly, and to kind of see the scores come a little bit more is really promising."

Rai, 29, an Englishman who's won twice on the DP World Tour (old European Tour), also is seeking his first PGA Tour win, and also went bogey-free in the opening round, with four birdies on the first five holes of the front nine.

He's most known on the PGA Tour for wearing two golf gloves.

He'll need two hands to hoist the Rocket Mortgage Classic trophy Sunday night, if this continues.

"I felt like I drove it well off the tee, which is important any week, but very important this week. The rough is pretty thick in areas," said Rai, who hit 12 of 14 fairways.

"Really good all-round start. Good all-around game, as well."

A shot back of Rai, and tied with Young, was Dunlap, who could've been in much better shape if not for speedbumps on his back nine.

It's not easy to win on the PGA Tour, though Dunlap, 20, made it look easy when he won The American Express earlier this year to become the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson more than 30 years ago.

Given the two-year PGA Tour exemption that comes with winning, Dunlap had no choice but to leave Alabama and turn professional shortly after that victory. He's missed five of 13 cuts since, and has just two top-15 finishes, but one of those came recently, a T12 at the Memorial earlier this month.

He was scorching early Thursday, at 7 under at one point, after making seven birdies in a nine-hole stretch. He hit his first 13 greens in regulation and was on cruise control. But the short par-3 fifth quickly deflated his tires, as he pulled his tee shot left into the greenside bunker. He short-sided himself, leaving an impossible bunker shot that he blasted long. He failed to get up and down and made double bogey. Dunlap followed that with a bogey at the par-4 sixth before steadying the ship with birdie at the par-5 eighth.

"If you short-side yourself, it's going to be tough," Dunlap said. "But overall, very, very impressed with the way I kind of navigated around today."

Brehm, 38, a Traverse City resident and Mt. Pleasant native who was followed by 30 to 40 family members and friends and was serenaded all day with "Go Green! Go White!" led a large pack at 4 under that also included world No. 36 Min Woo Lee, playing his first Rocket, and world No. 33 Chris Kirk, who's never missed the cut here. Brehm has had a pretty rough season, at the wrong time, with his PGA Tour exemption for winning the 2022 Puerto Rico Open running short on time, missing 10 of 15 cuts, but he posted his best opening round ever at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and his second-best round ever at Detroit Golf Club (67).

Thursday's opening round got started off with a bang, when 2019 winner Nate Lashley made a hole-in-one at the tough par-3 11th. It was his first ace on the PGA Tour, and it was the eighth ace in Rocket history.

Lashley was 4 under on the par 3s Thursday, but 2 over on the other 14 holes, to post an opening 70.

"Yeah, that's a problem," said Lashley, 41, still looking for a second PGA Tour win. "Gotta clean that up for sure."

Same goes for Tom Kim, the pre-tournament favorite and highest-ranked player in the field at world No. 16 who struggled early and carded a 1-over 73, leaving him with a daunting task of making the cut. He's playing for an unbelievable ninth straight week, and, even at 22, could be running out of gas. Bhatia is playing his eighth straight.

Other notable names in the field include rising star Michael Thorbjornsen (4-under 68), two-time major champion Zach Johnson, world No. 44 Robert MacIntyre (1-under 71) and No. 45 Nicolai Hojgaard (71), and No. 41 Stephan Jaeger (3-over 75). Johnson, 48, who hasn't won since the 2015 British Open, had it to 6 under late in his opening round but double-bogeyed his last hole, the par-3 ninth.

Miles Russell, the 15-year-old phenom from Florida in the field on a sponsor's exemption, opened with a bogey and finished with a 2-over 74 in his PGA Tour debut, which comes before the reigning American Junior Golf Association player of the year and Junior PGA champion is even legally allowed to drive. He's the youngest player ever to compete in the Rocket Mortgage Classic, coming in a year where the prime storyline is youth over stars.

"I feel older saying this now," said Young, who's not so young anymore, compared to the steady stream of ridiculous talent coming out onto the PGA Tour, "but every group of people that comes out here is younger and younger, and more prepared to compete out here."

And at the Rocket, unlike Michigan roads these days, there's simply no pumping the brakes.

Otherwise, you'll get lapped like you're going 10 over on the Lodge.

©2024 The Detroit News. Visit detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.