Cam

Davis

Davis arrived in Memphis ranked 62nd in the FedExCup standings. He was 76th on that board just a month ago but rattled off three straight top 10s to keep his season rolling. “I’ve turned a really kind of up-and-down year into a pretty positive year just out of three really good weeks in a row.” The Aussie is now 45th in the standings but will need another big finish if he wants to play his way to Atlanta for the TOUR Championship which features the top 30 in the FEC.

The Aussie had high hopes for his final round, “I was hoping more for like a 60 or 59 to be honest. It’s a little different story going out there and making it happen on a really hard golf course. You’re hoping for a perfect day where everything goes magically well so you can have a chance to win, but yeah, 65, I’m definitely going to take it because that’s probably my best round in a major at this point. " Davis gained 4.2 strokes tee-to-green today which was the story of his week. He walked off the course ranked 5th off-the-tee, 9th on approach, and 6th around-the-green, for the week. This will go in the books as his fourth career top 5 on the big stage and new personal best in a major championship (previously T39 at the 2018 Open Championship). A part of that is lack of volume as this was just his fifth career start in a major, maintaining a flawless 5-for-5 cuts made record.

The Aussie arrived with missed cuts in six of his last seven stroke-play events but had started to show more signs recently that his form was ready to return. It all clicked for him this week, at least from tee to green. He ranked 4th in that department but gave a stroke back with the putter. This was his third top 25 in three tries at Harbour Town with a T3 last year being the other notable finish on his tournament resume). Despite him being a big hitter, he continues to overperform and impress on tighter, tactical tracks.

The Aussie put on a short-game clinic this week, gaining 3.9 strokes around-the-green (8th) and 4.5 strokes putting (11th). More importantly, he spoke on an illness that was preventing him from practicing early in the season, “I’ve been unwell for the first couple months of the year. Haven’t really been able to practice much. I let a few things get to me.” He went on to add that he’s feeling better in the last few weeks so gamers may want to forgive that stretch of missed cuts if they want to be early on a potential hot streak. With this finish, he jumps from 127th to 99th in the FedExCup standings.

The Aussie opened on the 10th tee and got his scoring started in the wrong direction with a three-jack bogey at the 12th. He would later add another three-putt bogey at the 5th but he erased those blemishes with two birdies and two eagles. The big birds came at the par-5 18th and par-5 ninth, first from 35'11" and then from 5'9" to end his day at the ninth. “Very similar to the way I played the sandbelt style golf in Melbourne. You got to be really strategic instead of overpowering. There are shots around here where you can take it on, like on 18 trying get over the corner and get a bit of an advantage distance-wise by doing that. Most of golf course is very strategic, and so you got to keep plotting it around and building your score that way.” Davis missed the cut in his 2019 Sony Open debut but has now fired sub-69s in 11 of his last 13 rounds at Waialae Country Club.

The Aussie made it look easy today with 12-of-14 fairways hit and 15 GIR. He swallowed an opening bogey but gained 5.2 strokes over the field on his final 17 holes. “A bit of a rough one on the first hole, just needed to get that first one out of the way, and then after that I played some really solid golf. I hit a lot of really good quality iron shots and mid to long irons into these greens, which is important to hit these greens with the run-off, run-up areas can take it a long way away. So I kept myself in good positions and made a couple of nice putts to keep some momentum going.” Davis is currently T3 on the leaderboard which is just the fifth time he’s been T3 or better after round one of a PGA TOUR event. He’ turned just one of those four into a top-25 finish but he’ll be hoping to improve on that record this week at Congaree.

Davis played in all five match sessions for the International Team, going 2-3-0 including a Sunday singles’ loss to Jordan Spieth. The Aussie told reporters Wednesday in Japan that he got the “full experience” and looks forward to more similar opportunities. “It was just some really big memories for me to take back from that week of playing really good golf under some intense pressure,” he said. While he finished T-37 last week in Las Vegas some of his International teammates flourished, including 36-hole leader Mito Pereira and eventual winner Tom Kim. Davis hopes to have similar success on the individual front this week at Narashino CC, where the world No. 64 will make his Zozo tournament debut. He shared plans to play next week in the CJ Cup before returning home to Australia for a series of events in December.

The Americans raced out to a 3UP thru 7 lead and still held a 2UP lead after 14 holes. That is where the fireworks starts for the International squad. An errant drive from Scheffler lead to a double bogey at the 15th then Kim built on the momentum with a 10-footer for birdie to win the next hole and tie the match. Davis stuffed his approach inside of four feet at the next hole to really apply the pressure and take a 1UP lead into the final hole. Burns lost his drive into the trees at the last hole which all but sealed the win for the International Team. Davis would add some comments after the match, “Early on, I was just a little shaky and nervous, my first time experiencing this. It took me a little while for me to find my rhythm... We both got into a place where we started feeling comfortable. Right when it became really important, it started going in. Super, super great feeling.” Kim is now 1-1-0 in foursomes play at the Presidents Cup while Davis is a rookie so he has never lost a match.

Score Update: Team USA: 3 International Team: 1

The Aussie put on a ball-striking clinic today with 13-of-14 fairways hit and 15 GIR. The steady striking helped set up five birdies and an eagle. That was his second eagle of the week which certainly helps in this week’s format as eagles are worth 5 points, two and a half times the value of a birdie. David entered the week at 85th in the FedExCup race so he doesn’t need the big finish as much as many of the others in the field, but that’s not going to stop him from trying to chase down Chez Reavie (+37) on Sunday. Davis is looking to pick up his second career PGA TOUR title (2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic).

The Aussie, who checked in off a T56 at last week’s Travelers, cashes a third paycheck at the Deere in as many visits, brushing aside a prior-best T53 two tries ago in 2019 during his rookie campaign. He improves to 13-for-20 on the season with four top 25s, all four doubling as top 10s, and after handing in laps of 68-68-65-68, bags his second top 10 in his last four starts (T7, Charles Schwab). For the festivities, the 27-year-old totaled one eagle and 20 birdies against five bogeys and a double, and currently ranks No. 1 SG: Off-the-Tee (4.697), 10th SG: Approach (4.392), 51st SG: Around (-0.821) and 38th SG: Putting (1.377), including a -0.295 SGP on Sunday. He is not in the published field at either of the two events scheduled for next week, and has not yet qualified for the 150th Open at St. Andrews in two weeks.