Cam Davis under the radar but very much a PGA Championship contender

Cam Davis on course this week – image Australian Golf Media

Former Australian Amateur and Open champion, Cam Davis, plays this week’s BMW Australian PGA Championship under the radar to some extent, but given his standing amongst Australian golfers he deserves to be one of the favourites to win his third Australian flagship event.

The winner of the 2015 Australian Amateur Championship, the Eisenhower Trophy Team’s event and World Amateur Championship in 2016 and the Australian Open in the very early stages of his professional career in 2017, Davis is now a successful PGA Tour player having not only won two events there but having made the elite Tour Championship field in 2024 and finished inside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings.

By nearly every measure he deserves to be one of the favourites ahead of this week’s Australian PGA Championship but with the higher profiled Jason Day, Cam Smith and Min Woo Lee taking much of the limelight, he has again escaped the attention he deserves. Perhaps by week’s end it will be a case of him having let his clubs do the talking.

The former Sydneysider, who these days lives in Seattle in the USA where he is married to an American wife, now has an embarrassment of riches in terms of lucrative playing options, having access to all the signature events on the PGA Tour in 2025 and all majors.

Given the platforms he continues to build for himself in his, still, relatively young career, then there is every reason to believe he could well find himself amongst the favourites in any event he contends, not just the Australian PGA Championship.

Earlier in the week Davis addressed the media and expressed his desire to do well at home.

“I want to play my best. I feel like every tournament I tee it up in, I want to play my best, but there’s just a little extra desire to play well at home.

“I mean I don’t try and put any extra pressure on myself, but I’m definitely trying to bring my best golf to each week that I play, whether it’s this week or next week. So yeah, it doesn’t really change as the years go on, just want to keep trying to win tournaments over here.

“I mean even if I don’t have two great weeks on the golf course, it’s still so nice to finish the year here. It would mean a lot to finish the year with a bang because the next season’s so close by now that it’d be great to kind of roll into 2025 with some really good form.

“But yeah, regardless it’s just so nice to finish it up at home. So yeah, I’m really looking forward to two weeks with familiar accents around me and familiar golf courses. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Davis has played this event and the course in recent years and was asked his thoughts on how he might perform this week.

“I feel like last few years I’ve actually hit the ball pretty well, but you just have a couple of days where the putts don’t go in. I mean the greens are grainy. Some pin positions can get really tricky out here and it’s just a matter of making putts because about 20-under par usually wins.

“When it gets like that, it’s usually a bit of a putting contest. Fingers crossed a few more drop in this year and that’ll get me higher up the leaderboard.”

There is something to like about the understated manner and career of Cam Davis to this point. If he was to add yet another Australian flagship event to his already impressive list this week then this writer, for one, would not be surprised.