This is the week of the Rocket Mortgage Classic and all eyes are on defending champion Cam Davis who broke through on the PGA Tour this time last year. Excerpts from an interview:
We like to welcome our defending champion, Cam Davis, to the interview room here at the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic. Cam, back here on site with the first Tour victory, what’s the reception been like for you?
CAM: It’s been so cool. It’s awesome walking around the golf course where we had
so many defining moments of your career kind of all compressed into one event. Happened, like I walked around on Monday without a golf club, without a golf ball, just walked around, toured the spots where I hit shots that really made the tournament for me last year; the bunker on 17, where I hit the 3-iron over the water on 14 in the playoff. Trying to relive a few moments. Once I got through that, you know what, it’s another tournament, it’s another year, my game’s in a different place, I need to get back to work. so I’ve been working hard the last couple of days to get everything back and ready to go. Yeah, super stoked to be back. The course is firmer and faster and bouncier than ever and I love it, so yeah, can’t wait to get started.
View this post on Instagram
You just mentioned your game’s in a different place. How would you compare your game to last year before you won? You’re coming in here, you’ve had five top-10s this season and two in the last month, John Deere and Barracuda. How would you assess that?
CAM: Last time I played this event I came here after about a three-week break, my
game wasn’t in a very good spot. I went back home and took like two weeks of not touching a golf club and just tried to refresh everything and start again basically.
This time I’m coming in with some decent form, everything’s in a pretty good place. I’m
hitting my driver a little further now so the course is a little different just off the tee. I mean, to be honest, the course hasn’t changed I think other than the driver going a little further. If I can hit the ball with my irons the same way as last time, that’s all I could ask for. If that’s in a good place, yeah, it should be good to go. Yeah, it’s just — it’s not soft like last year as well, so that’s going to play a little different. Yeah, it’s still the same and hopefully bring back the same vibes.
Cameron, a hard hitting question here: Cameron Smith won The Open, Cameron
Young was second, you’re the defending champion here this year, Cameron Tringale is having a pretty good year Cameron Piercy is here. Have you ever sort of sat back and said, jeez, there’s quite a few of us, or had a conversation with any of the other Camerons about what a year you guys are having?
View this post on Instagram
CAM: We’re all doing well. My name got changed to Cam just out of nowhere, so I
think I know why. I think we needed something to start defining us a little bit more as
individuals because we all just seem to be collecting out here. I don’t know, something in the name. I’m proud that the Camerons are doing well. It’s nice to be one of them. Yeah, I don’t know what it is, but it seems to be a popular name in a certain age range at the moment. We’ll see if any more turn up. I think there’s still a few more in the pipeline on their way up here, so we’ll see.
Watching the playoff last year and it seemed sort of only a matter of time before you won, the way you were hitting it from tee to green. Have you ever been that on from tee to green as you were in those final couple hours of the tournament?
CAM: I mean, I go through maybe a couple times a year where things are clicking
and it’s just a matter of making putts. Obviously I didn’t make a putt in that playoff, but I did make a couple of shots, one from off the green, a couple of putts coming down the stretch to make the most of that ball-striking. I’d say it comes and goes, but to have it happen like that in that situation for me was obviously the first time I had a real good chance to win. In a playoff, it’s one-on-one match play. I’ve always loved match play and it gives you a little more freedom to go for it because it’s do or die basically. It was just great that my swing, my confidence, my mental game, everything was synching up at the right time that I was actually to hit those shots that I was trying to hit when it was under pressure.
To be honest, it just was a super fun, exciting, like exhilarating hour of hour or two. I don’t
know how long it lasted for, it went for a long time. I was actually enjoying it rather than
being nervous about it. I just felt like get me on the green, I want the putt to go in. See if we can get that another crack this year because that would be cool.
View this post on Instagram
What’s been the best perk of being a PGA Tour winner?
CAM: I mean, first of all, the sense of accomplishment. You’ve been working really hard for a long time to finally achieve. That is just monumental I think for someone coming through, to know you can do it, to know you can win a tournament. It’s all a dream up until it actually happens. And then all the bonuses that came along with that. I mean, getting to play my first Masters this year, getting a PGA Championship out of it, getting boosted up the rankings in the FedExCup so I’ve got access to all the great tournaments, invitationals, all that. It pretty much felt like it launched me into a different stage of my career.
And yeah, I feel like I’m doing my best to hit the ground running with that and keep that
going. Seems to be still continuing on a pretty good path since then. I’m really looking
forward to trying to make it happen again. Looking for that second win, I don’t want to just
stop at one, but it’s been just a really cool progression in my career. Yeah, it’s a very big
impact on someone who’s been out here for a couple years.
Related: How Tony Finau ‘willed his way’ to 2022’s first win
