DAVIS AIMING FOR HAPPY HOMECOMING
Cam Davis has much in common with Adam Scott.
Both have one Australian Open title. Both are mild-mannered and nice chaps. Both can give the ball a rip off the tee and shape the ball in the wind. And both have fired sizzling final rounds at The Australian in the Australian Open, albeit with different outcomes.
In 2015 Scott shot 65 on the Sunday but couldn’t run down Matt Jones, finishing runner-up (with Jordan Spieth) by a shot. In 2017 Davis came from the clouds to win after shooting a Sunday 64.
Davis was a genuine bolter then, a 22-year-old ranked No.1494 in the world. Today he’s earned $18 million on the PGA Tour and is 43rd in the world (Scott is 45th).
His tips for scoring at The Australian are well worth heeding.
“Having enough length to carry a lot of the fairway bunkers makes a big difference on quite a lot of holes out there,” Davis says. “If I give one a big rip there are holes where it opens up a lot more, versus trying to find a fairway (before the bunker) that’s half as big.
“Then it’s about ball-striking – hitting greens with irons. That’s been pretty strong for me lately and has always been something I feel I do pretty well. Especially in the wind, which I’m expecting. Pretty much every time I come back to Sydney the tournament is windy.
“So, getting used to playing in a 20-25km wind, and being able to shape the ball and hit the greens when they’re getting firm will be another benefit. Roll in a lot of putts and you’ll be looking towards a good score.”
Davis will be having his first round at The Australian since before Covid. But he grew up playing tournaments there and at The Lakes and knows both courses so well he can see the holes in his head.
“The Australian, I know it hasn’t changed much and that it’s getting better and better as it gets settled in over the years,” Davis says. “I can’t wait to get back. The Lakes, too, I’ve played a lot on. Both courses, I can close my eyes and picture the holes very clearly. It’s a matter of hitting good shots.
“Even if conditions are tough, you can make a lot of birdies out there.”
Davis shot 63-72-74-64 in 2017. Six years later at a good age for a golfer of 28, with a PGA Tour card already secured for 2024, he’s going in with the free-and-easy approach that saw him finish T10, T7, T6, 40, 3, T7, T12 in his last seven starts this year on the PGA Tour
He says it’s nice to be considered among the tournament favourites.
“I feel like I’ve been playing some really good golf and it’s nice to see that people are expecting really good things from me. I am as well. I’m seeing myself playing well.
“Not to put pressure on myself to win tournaments … but I have been in a very free and easy headspace right now playing golf. I’m not trying to keep my card, I’m just enjoying the tournaments I’m getting to play in. For me it doesn’t really kick off again until next year; that’s when the pressure will be back on there.
“But I do really want to win as many Aussie tournaments that I possibly can. So if that creates extra pressure on myself, that need to perform, I’m looking forward to that challenge, and looking forward to doing it front of friends and family.
“Being from Sydney I’m expecting to see a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time,” Davis says.
and beyond. He’s very keen to return and the discussions we had this year were more promising than any other year.”
Two weeks later it was announced that, as the early groups head out onto The Australian for day two of the Australian Open, Day will play in Tiger Woods’ 20-player Hero World Challenge invitational in the Bahamas.
The late and great Jack Newton, as big an advocate for Australian golf that ever drew breath, warned Day and other Australians making their living in America that they shouldn’t “get too full of the American BS.”
“You’ve got to come back and get a good dose of Australia into you and recharge your batteries and go back,” Newton said. “Because when you’re there, it’s a numbers game and they’re playing golf courses which suit the Americans.”
The Australian GC clearly suited Matt Jones and it’s puzzling that he, too, won’t be among this year’s drawcards. While not a market mover like Scott or Day or an international like Rory McIlroy or Jordan Spieth, there is no better example of the adage that some courses suit certain horses in Australian golf. Jones is Kingston Town at Moonee Valley.
He’s from Cronulla and was a junior member of The Australian. He played Pennants golf at The Australian. His coach, Gary Barter, is the teaching professional at The Australian. And, of course, he won two Australian Opens – 2015 and 2019 – at The Australian. And in between those victories he was runner-up by one shot to Davis (then ranked 1,494th in the world) in the 2017 Open at, of course, The Australian.
There’s also the question of legacy. For as the King’s third Cox Plate granted the gelding the immortal status of ‘champion’, another Open win would put Jones up there with Peter Thomson, Norman von Nida and Carnegie
your average Australian Open,” Kim told Golf Australia magazine.
“Last year in Melbourne, we had massive crowds, but doing it in your home state is something different too.”
This year has seen Kim go from strength to strength; she illustrates a beautifully wellrounded game with no glaring weaknesses. The Avondale Golf Club member has been one of the most accurate drivers of the golf ball, ranked 11th on the LPGA Tour, hitting 80.84 percent of fairways, and nobody has been more efficient out of the sand with Kim ranked first in sand saves (at the time of writing) – getting up and down 63.64 percent of the time.
The World No.73 has undoubtedly learnt a lot from her first year on the world’s premier circuit, and she believes she is a better player than when she ran fourth in Melbourne last year.
“I’ve definitely learnt a lot this year; just being on tour, it’s a lot different to what you just see on TV,” Kim said. “There’s lots of behind-the-scenes travelling and dealing with different stuff that you never had to deal with as a junior and amateur, but with that experience now, I definitely think I’m a better player and golfer.
“So, hopefully, I can show that this year, but in the end, I’m always just trying to inspire the new generation too.”
Last year’s finish just adds more fuel to the fire for Kim when she looks to go a few spots better and become the first Aussie woman to win her national Open since Karrie Webb in 2014. A par and a doublebogey on two of Victoria’s par-5s in the closing holes last year taught Kim some valuable lessons on what it is like to be in the cauldron against the world’s best.
“I can’t remember exactly what I did to finish the two par-5s not as [well] as I wanted,” Kim said.
“There were some top names in there, worldwide major winners, so, being amongst that finishing top-five was already a big achievement. But, you know, the result showed that I was up there for a while. I guess I’ve just got to back myself with that for this year.”
Playing into the local hope’s hands is her experience around the host venues. Although not teeing it up at The Lakes or The Australian recently due to her demanding global schedule, Kim has played a host of amateur and junior golf across the two layouts.
“The Lakes … there’s water, there is a few risk-reward holes for sure,” she said. “The Oz, it’s been a while since I played, but from memory, you kind of just got to keep it in play. There are some tricky little sneaky holes, but I think in the end, it all kind of comes (down) to putting.
“I believe the two courses have different grass, so it will be just hard to adjust to, but that’s fine because I grew up playing at those two courses a fair bit.”
Kim will have her work cut out to win the championship with in-form World No. 4 Minjee Lee and major champions Hannah Green and Jiyai Shin also confirming their presence in the field.
...HAVING THE SUPPORT FROM A HOMETOWN CROWD, ITS BIGGER THAN JUST YOUR AVERAGE AUSTRALIAN OPEN.
– GRACE KIM.
Clark as a three-time winner. Only people above those guys are Ossie Pickworth (four titles), Ivo Whitton (five), Greg Norman (five), Jack Nicklaus (six) and Gary Player (seven). Rare air indeed.
Jones, like Day, has an American wife, Melissa, a former Miss Idaho, and young daughters Savannah, Saber and Simone who would doubtless love to enjoy Thanksgiving with daddy whose occupation makes him regularly absent.
Jones has said one of the reasons he joined up with LIV Golf was the 14-tournament schedule meant more time with family. He also said the shortened schedule and threeround tourneys means “guys are grinding harder here than they do on the PGA Tour because we have the time.”
“You can spend more time in the gym, getting fit, because our bodies aren’t getting pounded week after week,” Jones said.
Given Jones’s last outing over 54 holes was in the season-ending LIV Golf teams event in Miami which ended October 22, one can assume burnout isn’t a thing. And one could also assume that at age 43 you could fit the Australian Open into a schedule if it meant a crack at joining the legends in the pantheon.
One could further assume, while one is in an assumptive mood, that Thanksgiving could be celebrated in Cronulla.
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Course superintendent Dan Cook tells Golf Australia magazine The Australian will be set up to “suit a guy that can drive the ball a long way and make a few putts.”
Several holes open up after the fairway bunkers so a player of Scott’s length will benefit more than a shorter hitter aiming at a narrower fairway before the bunker. Cook says it’s “a decent length without being crazy long.”
A greater challenge to today’s bombers will be the elements.
“The nor-east wind that blows normally in the afternoon in that November-December period, it’s a challenge,” Cook says. “And the design of the greens allows for tighter hole locations than at some other golf courses.”
Scott can hit it plenty far enough to clear the fairway bunkers. He has the ability to ‘golf ’ his ball in the wind and land softly on firm greens. If he makes a few putts, he’ll be up there with Cam Smith, Cam Davis, Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert as crowd and bookies’ favourites.
And if not this year for Scott, then when? Time’s running out for the 43-year-old. And he knows it.
“I don’t want to say I’m getting on too much, because I don’t feel it, but there are less Australian Opens for me to play in going forward where I’m competing seriously, so I want to make the most of every one I’m in … I’m kind of treating it, not like it could be my last, but I’m putting a lot of eort in still.
“I had dreams as a kid of putting my name on the Stonehaven Cup five and six times, like some of the greats of the game have. And it’s going to be hard for me to do that.
“But I’d like to get a second one.”
THE DESIGN OF THE GREENS ALLOWS FOR TIGHTER HOLE LOCATIONS THAN AT SOME OTHER GOLF COURSES...
– THE AUSTRALIAN GC COURSE SUPERINTENDENT, DAN COOK.