Presidents Cup Internationals impress in Las Vegas
Cameron Davis – file photo Bruce Young
Several of the international players who performed with distinction at the recent Presidents Cup have backed up with impressive starts to the PGA Tour event in Las Vegas, the Shriners Children’s Hospital Open.
Mito Pereira leads the event through 36 holes at 12 under and one ahead of Robby Shelton who is back on the PGA Tour after another good season on the Korn Ferry Tour.
The rising star of the game, Tom Kim, is tied for 3rd at 10 under par along with fellow International team member Si Woo Kim and Australian Cameron Davis put together a round of 66 to be tied for 6th at 9 under and just three from the halfway lead.
Pereira, the Kims and Davis were all part of the International Presidents Cup team and, as if buoyed by the experience, have followed up their encouraging weeks at Quail Hollow with an opportunity to contend late into this event at the TPC Summerlin.
Sure, the four golfers were part of a losing team but they all experienced some level of success during the week in Charlotte and they appear to have benefited from the experience of being involved at that level.
For Davis, who was out early on day two, he bogeyed early in his round but bounced back immediately with four birdies and an eagle in his next five holes and although he could only play the final nine holes in even par he had done enough o put himself right in the mix for the weekend.
Davis’ eagle came at the reachable par 4 15th which was his 6th hole of the day when he drove 308 yards to 10 feet and converted.
The Sydney golfer confirmed the benefit the experience at Quail Hollow had.
“Everything at Quail Hollow is a positive experience for me. I mean, it’s always great to experience playing really good golf under the highest pressure that I’ve experienced playing this game.
“I mean, it was so much fun being in that environment, but to actually have a few stretches there where I played some awesome golf. It’s one thing to tell yourself you can do it, but nothing to experience it. It’s just a few more memories in the back of my mind whenever I’m trying to hit an important shot that I can do this.
“That was just a great experience of dealing with pressure regardless of where your game’s at normally. You only experience that when you’re playing really good golf and you’ve worked your way into that position.
“When you start on the 1st tee every day at the Presidents Cup and it feels like you’re in the last round of a major, which I actually don’t know what it feels like being in a final group on the last day, you have to figure out a few strategies to make that work. And yeah, I got a lot of really good stuff out of that.
“My game’s in a decent place. Not playing super great in terms of how everything feels, but in terms of decision-making and the plan that Andrew and I are putting together around this place, it’s been working pretty well so far.”
Jason Day and Lucas Herbert are tied for 38th at 5 under par and seven from the lead, while Harrison Endycott produced an all important late birdie to sneak inside the cut line, making the weekend for his second time in three PGA Tour starts since earning his playing rights via the Korn Ferry Tour this season.
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