Smylie Kaufman has suggested what Cameron Davis did better than anyone else in the field on the final day of the Rocket Mortgage Classic after the Australian managed to win by one in Detroit.
Cameron Davis has the second Rocket Mortgage Classic victory of his career, with the 29-year-old shooting a two under round of 70 on the final day in Michigan.
Davis went into Sunday one shot behind Akshay Bhatia and Aaron Rai, but plenty would probably have expected him to struggle to keep track with the leaders after what has been a difficult time since The Masters.
However, when Bhatia had a putt to take the tournament to a play-off on the 18th green, he was unable to find the bottom of the cup, handing Davis the title.
Where Cameron Davis impressed more than Akshay Bhatia on final day of Rocket Mortgage Classic
Bhatia was far from being the only one to struggle on the putting surfaces during the final round, with the 22-year-old making a three-putt on the last. And speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman suggested that Davis’ performance on the greens proved to be a key reason why he was able to end that three-year wait for a second PGA Tour victory.
“That was a big story today was the north-west wind, the sun wasn’t out until the very end of the day, and the greens were not good. They were a tough scene, I could tell very early in the day that it was going to be a bit of a battle, a bunched leaderboard because of the wind direction, of how hard it was blowing, being a north wind – that’s always going to make this golf course more difficult, all the par fives playing more back into the wind – and then, the greens were bouncing all over the place,” he said.
“You could tell that when the poa annua got wet, they were not rolling very true. Because you saw guys miss putts from inside of eight feet, they’d miss it by a foot; you’d be like, ‘what happened?’ Cam Davis did that on the par five fourth hole, he hits this beautiful wedge or nine iron in there, five or six behind it, and I’m telling you he missed this putt by a foot. And the next hole, rolls in this awesome putt for birdie.
“He was the only guy, it felt like all day, even Akshay at times, Cam Davis was putting the best out of the entire bunch today, and really was close to making a ton of putts.”
Australian left very frustrated with his final day display
Interestingly, it seems that Davis was not as impressed as Kaufman when it came to what happened on the greens during his final round.
Davis admitted that he walked off the 18th hole feeling very frustrated after missing a number of chances on the greens, particularly on the front nine, before then having to deal with a couple of bad breaks after the turn.
But clearly, it was not only him who was struggling to make the most of the opportunities on the greens, with Bhatia probably wondering how exactly he was unable to get the job done.
Davis meanwhile, can perhaps be optimistic that this victory could prove to be a turning point in his career after struggling for some time.
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