Monash Country Club’s Cameron Davis has grabbed a share of the first-round lead in the PGA Tour’s Vivint Houston Open.
The Sydneysider is in a seven-way tie at the top after carding a three-under-par 69 at the testing Memorial Park Course in Houston, Texas.
Starting on the tenth, Davis got going in the best possible way with a birdie. A second on the 13th got him to two under, but sadly bogeys on the next two holes and another on 18(his 9th) saw him turn at one-over.
The 2017 Australian Open Champion soon found his way again, and birdies on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th saw him climb to the top of the leaderboard. Another birdie from just over 4 metres on the 7th got Davis to three under.
He had a chance to grab the outright lead on the last; however, his birdie putt from just over three metres slid by.
“I played really solid, to be honest, the last couple of days.
“I was trying to find my rhythm again, so it was a little bit scratchy when I went out there and played.
“I took advantage of a couple of good early shots, stumbled a little bit through the middle of the round, but it was nice to do a lot of really good ball-striking coming in,” Davis said post-round.
Aussie Feel
Davis likened the tough Memorial Park Course to playing back home in Australia, adding the key was driving the ball from the tee to give himself the best opportunity of holding the firm, fast greens.
“It’s more the firmness of the greens. If you’re not in the fairway, you can’t really hold them, so driving becomes very important.
“You’ve got to drive it down there a long way so that you can spin it. It’s just the ability to get the ball near the hole.
“It’s been a while since I’ve played a course on Tour that’s really done that, and it’s great, it reminds me a lot of back in Australia.
“It does have a nice feel to it, but it just means that your ball striking has to be really on, and today it was pretty good.”
