01 Jul 2024 | Professional golf |
Aussies on Tour: Davis stunned by second Detroit win
by Golf Australia
An emotional Cam Davis has credited two weeks of hypnotherapy for the sudden form reversal that has yielded a second win at the PGA TOUR’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
Three years after holing a bunker shot on the 71st hole and emerging victorious from a three-man playoff for his breakthrough win, Davis could not hide the enormity of his second victory at Detroit Golf Club, the first player with multiple wins at the event.
With putts repeatedly burning the edge of the hole and a lasered second shot into the par-5 14th that somehow dribbled into the water, it looked as though the golf gods would conspire against Davis.
Fellow Australian Min Woo Lee (69) made a back-nine charge to earn a share of the lead at 18-under but made bogey on the final hole when his approach shot finished in the rough behind the green and he was unable to get up-and-down for par.
Davis, too, needed to scramble from the rough on 18 for a 2-under 70 to claim the clubhouse lead at 18-under.
He did that with a superb chip from right of the green and then looked on in shock from the range as American Akshay Bhatia (72) three-putted for the first time all week on the 72nd hole to hand the Aussie a one-shot win.
Ranked 77th in the FedEx Cup standings entering the week and without a top-10 finish all season, Davis was at a loss to explain a form reversal that resulted in victory.
“From where I was a couple of weeks ago to today, just completely different person,” said the 29-year-old from Sydney.
“This is a little emotional actually. I wouldn’t wish what happened to Akshay on anyone, but I’ve done a lot of grinding to kind of get myself out of a hole and just all of a sudden to do that, it’s pretty good.”
While he described his playoff win over countryman Adam Scott at US Open qualifying as a “little shining moment”, Davis revealed that it has been his recent visits to a hypnotherapist that has unlocked his love for the game again.
At the urging of his wife, Jonika, Davis began seeing a hypnotherapist two weeks ago and is adamant in the role that it has played in earning a long-awaited second win.
“My career trajectory was not where I wanted it,” added Davis, who has been working with Canadian-based coach Ralph Bauer for the past year.
“It’d been a long time since I’d won and I felt like I wasn’t playing anywhere near good enough golf to keep up with the best players in the game.
“We’ve only been working together for a couple of weeks and I’ve gone from almost disliking the game to feeling like I’ve got a bit of that magic back, so it’s made a huge difference.
“I can entirely put it down to fact that my team’s had my back through every dark day I’ve had over the last couple of couple of months to Grace, who’s helped me through it all and got me back on a really good path.
“I’ve got a lot of people to thank, but definitely the biggest turnaround has happened with the hypnotherapy.”
In addition to the 1-2 finish in Detroit, there were Aussies in contention across the globe this past week.
Richard Green remains in the hunt as the US Senior Open was forced into a Monday finish due to dangerous weather while Grace Kim paired with American Auston Kim for a tie for fifth at the LPGA Tour Dow Championship.
David Micheluzzi rebounded from some indifferent form of late for a top-10 finish at the Italian Open, Rhein Gibson shot 63 in rounds two and four to be tied for eighth on the Korn Ferry Tour and Cassie Porter is projected to move to second on the Epson Tour Race For The Card after a tie for seventh at the Dream First Bank Charity Classic.
Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Results
PGA TOUR Rocket Mortgage Classic Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan 1 Cam Davis 68-66-66-70—270 $US1.656m T2 Min Woo Lee 68-68-66-69—271 $616,400 T67 Ryan Fox (NZ) 71-67-76-71—285 $19,412 T72 Aaron Baddeley 68-70-72-76—286 $18,768 MC Tim Wilkinson (NZ) 74-70—144 MC Harrison Endycott 74-71—145
PGA TOUR Champions US Senior Open Newport Country Club, Newport, Rhode Island Round 4 to be completed Monday due to dangerous weather 1 Hiroyuki Fujita 63-66-67—196 3 Richard Green 63-67-69—199 T8 Steven Alker (NZ) 71-67-67—205 T14 Cameron Percy 70-65-70—205 T25 Mark Hensby 75-63-74—212 T25 Michael Long (NZ) 72-69-70-68—279 T40 Greg Chalmers 72-70-70—212 T45 Stuart Appleby 67-74-71—212 T57 Michael Wright 68-72-73—213 T60 Mathew Goggin 66-73-77—216 MC Rod Pampling 67-78—145 MC Richard Lee (NZ) 73-73—146
LPGA Tour Dow Championship Midland Country Club, Midland, Michigan 1 Atthaya Thitikul/Ruoning Yin 64-66-66-62—258 $US364,572 ea T5 Grace Kim/Auston Kim 67-61-69-65—262 $60,177 T17 Hira Naveed/Sofia Garcia 69-64-70-62—265 $19,206 T27 Lydia Ko (NZ)/Danielle Kang 71-62-72-63—268 $9,322 MC Gabriela Ruffels/Esther Henseleit 69-65—134 MC Stephanie Kyriacou/Olivia Cowan 68-66—134 MC Robyn Choi/Minji Kang 71-64—135 MC Sarah Kemp/Alena Sharp 74-65—139
DP World Tour Italian Open Adriatic Golf Club Cervia, Milano Marittima, Italy 1 Marcel Siem 69-68-66-71—274 €516,774.24 Won in sudden-death playoff T10 David Micheluzzi 70-68-69-70—277 €45,141.75 T10 Sam Jones (NZ) 72-68-68-69—277 €45,141.75 MC Haydn Barron 70-73—143 MC Jason Scrivener 74-71—145 MC Daniel Hillier (NZ) 70-77—147
Ladies European Tour VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open Golfpark Holzhausern, Switzerland 1 Alice Hewson 68-69-65—202 €45,000 Won in sudden-death playoff T19 Kelsey Bennett 71-68-69—208 €4,230 T34 Kirsten Rudgeley 66-72-72—210 €2,385 T43 Momoka Kobori (NZ) 72-72-68—212 €1,656 T56 Whitney Hillier 69-73-75—217 €1,110 MC Amy Walsh 77-80—157
Korn Ferry Tour Memorial Health Championship Panther Creek Country Club, Springfield, Illinois 1 Max McGreevy 63-66-62-69—260 T8 Rhein Gibson 69-63-69-63—264 MC Brett Drewitt 69-72—141
Challenge Tour Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil, Le Vaudreuil, France 1 Joel Moscatel 71-67-66-70—274 €43,200 Won in sudden-death playoff T10 Jeff Guan 69-65-72-73—279 €5,670 T29 Andrew Martin 74-68-73-68—283 €2,160 T50 Hayden Hopewell 71-71-76-68—286 €1,096.20 MC Tom Power Horan 74-76—150 MC Connor McKinney 78-73—151
Epson Tour Dream First Bank Charity Classic Buffalo Dunes Golf Course, Garden City, Kansas T7 Cassie Porter 69-73-68—210 T14 Amelia Garvey (NZ) 69-71-71—211 T22 Maddison Hinson-Tolchard 70-72-71—213 MC Amy Chu 69-78—147 MC Soo Jin Lee 71-78—149
Korean PGA Tour Biz Play-Wonder Club Open Club 72 Country Club (Sky Cse), Korea 1 Heo In-hoe 66-68-68-65—267 T7 Junseok Lee 67-67-67-71—272 T52 Sungjin Yeo (NZ) 64-71-72-74—281 T69 Kevin Chun (NZ) 70-70-76-69—285
PGA TOUR Americas ATB Classic Northern Bear Golf Club, Strathcona County, Alberta 1 Frederik Kjettrup 68-68-67-69—272 $US40,500 T8 Grant Booth 70-68-72-68—278 T33 Karl Vilips 65-73-74-72—284 MC Harry Hillier (NZ) 72-74—146
LET Access Series MoreGolf Mastercard Open Varbergs Golf Klubb, Sweden 1 Kajsa Arwefjall 70-69-67—206 €6,400 T10 Belinda Ji (a) 70-69-77—216 ------- T32 Hanee Song (NZ) 73-75-74—222 €484 MC Wenyung Keh (NZ) 76-75—151 MC Munchin Keh (NZ) 76-76—152
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