Question 1: Who won and how?
Cameron Davis has a few ways to answer that “how.” First, he was solid. Not quite the adjective “great,” but that's on purpose. Davis' only PGA Tour win came at this tournament in 2021, in a playoff with Troy Merritt and Joaquin Niemann, with the exact same score of 18 under par, starting in the penultimate group and finishing just one stroke behind leader Akshay Bhatia. But the leaderboard is crowded, and if you told most people Davis would shoot 70, they'd naturally say he wouldn't win. After all, this is a tournament dating back to 2019, and every winner except Cameron Davis has reached at least 23 under par.
Still, it was a surprisingly ordinary day for almost everyone. Aaron Lai, who was in the final group with Bhatia, shot 72, Cam Young (Davis' partner) shot a worse 73, and Bhatia couldn't get any better than an even-par 72. It was arguably the worst round of the tournament for any player, especially Davis Thompson and Ming Woo Lee, who both finished one stroke back, but even those who made moves only managed 68 and 69, respectively. The 66s that were handed out like candy on Saturday were gone.
Under those circumstances, Davis' 70 was enough to win, but you can't talk about his victory without mentioning the iconic moment of the day when Akshay Bhatia, who was tied with Davis at 18 under, came to the final hole: Facing a crosswind, he hit a 299-yard drive down the middle, hit a perfect 32-foot approach and left it woefully short with a birdie putt to win.And then this happened:
Davis deserves credit. He thanked a hypnotherapist after his round for the changes he'd made over the past few weeks, and he persevered all day to win. Plus, he had to make two brave up-and-down plays on the 17th and 18th holes, the first for birdie, the second for par. But, as he later admitted, he needed Bhatia's first three-putt of the week and the second bogey to clinch the win.
Question 2: Who had the worst day?
This may sound odd because Akshay Bhatia was able to come back from a great week with a three-putt on the 18th hole to get some reprieve, but his disappointment was down to one putt missing. Meanwhile, Cameron Young, who was hoping to win on the PGA Tour, had a miserable afternoon recently. Young has been runner-up seven times in his career and is arguably the best player yet on Tour, yet to win, but he started the week one stroke behind the leader and then dropped back down the back nine.
What went wrong? On a practical level, it was putting. Young was 127th in SG: Putting on Tour this week, and while he wasn't all that bad this week (50th tournament-wide), he was among the worst of the field on Sunday (66th out of 74), with some putts left short, particularly on the back nine, being the highlight.
Worse than that, he looked so miserable all the way to the end that Trevor Immelman spoke about the need to “be kind to yourself” in pressure situations, and, yes, he had a particularly bizarre incident when he cracked his driver on the 14th hole.
Young is on a roll right now, shooting 59 just last week, and this day backed up all our beliefs about his ability to perform when a win is on the line. This seems like an especially tough result for Young, especially with Rory making it to the majors and all the negativity that's been generated around these losses.
Question 3: What did they say?
Here are the best quotes from the main contenders: You'll be shocked to know that Young didn't speak to the media after the round.
Cam Davis: “I am a completely different person today than I was a few weeks ago. This is a bit emotional for me, to be honest. I would never want anyone to go through what happened to Akshay, but I've been working a lot to get myself out of a tight spot, and all of a sudden I have, so I'm very happy.”
Aaron Lai (on whether it feels different on the 18th hole with a chance to win): “Yeah, I think it does. I mean, it's a cliché, really trying to follow the process and really do what you always do when you're hitting a shot, but my body definitely feels different, and I think most players in that situation do too. There's definitely a little bit more adrenaline, it feels a little bit heavier. Again, those situations are great to experience, just to manage it and figure out your tendencies in that situation and be able to do a little better next time.”
Akshay Bhatia: “It's the worst. There's no other way to describe it. It's just the worst.”
Question 4: What are three other stories we should know about?
1. Remember when I said Cameron Young had a bad day on the greens? It was Joel Dahmen who hit the worst putter in the field in strokes gained, and that's what sank him. In fact, his 76 was his second-worst score of the day, dropping him from three strokes behind the lead to T-25. Still, between this day and his T-10 at the last Canadian Open, one of the most popular players on tour is starting to show some form.
2. Aside from Cam Davis, perhaps the best day was had by Rico Hoey, who not only shot the only 67 of the day, but also improved to a tie for sixth place and won another $300,000. This was a surprise for Hoey, an American-Filipino who was born in Manila and raised mostly in California. His PGA Tour season has seen him miss the cut multiple times so far, with his best result being a tie for 14th place. It's a big payday for the 28-year-old and a big step towards retaining his card.
3. This week was also great news for Nick Dunlap, who earned himself a top 10 finish for the first time in his PGA Tour career. In fact, you could even say the first top 10 finish of his professional PGA Tour career. Since shocking the world by winning the American Express as an amateur earlier this year, Dunlap has come close to a top 10 finish, but he hasn't quite made it there yet. But with a score of 14 under par, Dunlap earned himself a top 10 finish here and a huge, up-and-coming $206,233.33 in real money.
Question 5: Should I mention a hypnotherapist?
After a string of mediocre performances on tour and two missed cuts at the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, Cam Davis looked really lost and pretty depressed. But then a few weeks later he won on tour and it was Grace the hypnotherapist who was the first to take credit. Not to flatter myself, but we've been on this trend for a decade now and Davis' experience is just one of the many ways golfers can hone their mental game in 2024.
“Honestly, I haven't been in a good place mentally for about the last six months,” Davis said Sunday night. “I haven't played good golf this year and I felt like the opportunities were slipping away from me. I had a great week at the Masters, but since then it just felt like everything just slipped away from me. I felt like I absolutely needed to change direction. I'm definitely the type of person who starts things, so I was really going to stick with it. If I don't feel like it's working right away, I'll stop. Sticking with the work I'm doing with Grace has had a big immediate effect. I was in a good place last week, even though it didn't show in my scores. I can't believe it's happened this week. I wasn't in a good place a couple of weeks ago. “
The hypnotist craze is sure to continue after Davis' success… whoever Grace is, we can expect her phone to ring more frequently than usual in the coming weeks.
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