Lashley finishes wire-to-wire win
lose. Lashley stayed atop the leaderboard with a 67 on Friday and gave himself a cushion with another 9-under 63 Saturday.
On the brink of breaking through during his second PGA Tour season, his sister, girlfriend, buddies and family friends flew to Detroit to join him.
Brooke Lashley, who lives near her younger brother in Arizona, was in awe as fans followed and cheered for her little brother along the ropes from tee to green.
“I’m sure a lot of these people didn’t know him a couple days ago,” she said, standing near the No. 8 green. “He’s doing all he can to focus, but this is so incredible. It’s foreign to him because he’s never had this much attention. He’s never played in front of a gallery like this with TV cameras all over the place.”
His parents, Rod and Char Lashley, and girlfriend Leslie Hofmeister, all of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, were missing for three days before their bodies and the wreckage were found near the 13,780-foot Gannett Peak in Wyoming after watching him play in a tournament for the University of Arizona in 2004.
“It rocked our community,” recalled Helen Reinhardt, a family friend.
Reinhardt and her husband, Jim, boarded a charter plane in Nebraska that stopped in Minnesota to pick up Lashley’s girlfriend, Ashlie Reed, and arrived in the Motor City on Sunday.
“It’s great to be here to watch his dream come true after watching him play in the Dakotas Tour and work his way up to here,” said Jeff Peck, one of about a dozen of Lashley’s friends at Detroit Golf Club.
Family and friends stood near the edge of the green as he closed out the round.
“I’m just real emotional,” he said later. “I’m just thankful I got in the tournament.”