PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2023

Cam Davis

Oak Hill Country Club

Flash Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Cam Davis is joining us now at the 105th PGA Championship.

Cam, a 5-under 65 for you today. How did it go out there for you?

CAM DAVIS: It was a good round, yeah. Yeah, I battled a little bit through first seven holes there. I was making a lot of nice par saves, and from the 8th hole onwards, I played some really good golf. I hit a lot of fairways. I kept the ball in play really well and made a lot of nice putts.

So it all accumulated to a pretty good score today which, yeah, today was the day to get a really low score after it softened up yesterday and we got perfect weather today. I'm glad I took advantage of that and had a good finish.

Q. Looking at the weekend to end, it looked pretty solid. Is that how it felt?

CAM DAVIS: Honestly, felt like I played the same as today all the way through the week. Didn't quite keep the momentum going and kept on stumbling right at the finish. Felt like I was under par coming down the last three holes every day and really struggled to get over the finish line.

But today was nice, especially 17. That one has been really bugging me, and I finally hit a good drive and followed it up with two more good shots. You know, would have been really nice to make that last putt, just have it drop over the front instead of finish up short.

Yeah, 65 is nothing to be ashamed about. 5-under in a major is always a really good score. I'm very pleased and very happy with the trend.

Q. What did you hit in at 17, and how big was the eagle at 14?

CAM DAVIS: On 17 I had a 7-iron in. Just tried to hit a low draw and run it up to the pin. Came off really nice.

Then on 14, I hit -- as soon as I hit the driver, I felt this is as good as I could hit it. I was almost worried about it going long with the wind kind of switching downwind, but it ended up about seven, eight feet, and it was a nice easy right on the right edge. You just have to hit a good putt and snuck it in there. A couple of nice holes towards the end of the round.

Q. Beside the shot on 14, the reaction, your emotion and the reaction of the fans, can you describe that?

CAM DAVIS: It was awesome. Any time you make an eagle in a major in front of a big crowd is a really awesome experience. Yeah, really nice to do that towards the end of the final round where every birdie or eagle you make at that point scoots you pretty high up the leaderboard.

I was pretty pumped up, but at the same time you have to to go to the next hole and calm yourself down and hit a finesse shot. It's a pretty unique up-and-down of emotions. Hit a lot of good ones. Feeling really pumped up today, which is great.

Q. What do you do to calm yourself down after that?

CAM DAVIS: Well, I mean, I don't think I'm going to win, so I'm not sitting here trembling while I'm waiting. I'm just relaxed and feel really pleased with myself that I followed up a solid three rounds with a really good last round. I feel like I might have played my way into the other majors now, which was a pretty good goal to come out of it. A Top-10 I think was just going to scootch me into the U.S. Open, so I had a few things riding on it, but I wasn't thinking about it while I was out there. It was just nice to keep hitting good shot after good shot.

Q. Last one from me, because of that, do your plans for preparation or calendar, all that, change now?

CAM DAVIS: I think it was going to go one way or the other, and it went down a positive path. So yeah, I think I've got a few more really nice tournaments to look forward to, and I can plan out a little further ahead now, which is nice.

There were a few kind of gray spots in the schedule where I wasn't sure what I could be doing. As everyone says, good golf kind of sorts it all out.

Yeah, very pleased with the week, and I think it's setting me up well for the next few months ahead, which is -- yeah, it's been trending in a good direction.

Q. You mentioned par saves early in your round, keeping you afloat early. What was one in particular you can remember that was impressive?

CAM DAVIS: I mean, the putt that I missed on 18 yesterday was, like, a 3-footer, which is like a little right-to-lefter. And I missed a legal short one, and I had a short right-to-lefter on 2, and I had a little bit of it back in my mind. I've been pulling a couple of these, so that was really nice to see go in.

Honestly I had right-to-lefters for par on the first five holes and I made them all. Each and every one of those is just like momentum; we're only 1-over and we can turn this around. The fact that I didn't move backwards after the first hole was really key. Second hole, instead of going bogey, bogey to start that was a nice change of direction for me.

Q. And 14, because the weather was what it was in the middle of the weekend, did the strategy on that hole change day-to-day for you in particular? Did you approach it the same way each day?

CAM DAVIS: I would say, I think it was first or second round, it might have been downwind and we were very concerned about the ball landing on the green and bouncing over the back, so we played 3-wood one of the days to make sure we ended up short. But yeah, yesterday and today, the winds were favorable for the balls to stop, even if the greens had not gotten all the water they had from yesterday.

But it was a perfect number to hit a really hard, high driver and know that it was going to land somewhere in the front half of the green. When you know the distance control is going to be there, it's just a matter of direction. It's a little bit easier but you've still got to hit a good shot. Hit a couple of good ones there.

Q. Last one from me. Did you wake up this morning thinking a 65 was out there?

CAM DAVIS: I was hoping more for like a 60 or 59 to be honest. It's a little different story going out there and making it happen on a really hard golf course. You're hoping for a perfect day where everything goes magically well so you can have a chance to win, but yeah, 65, I'm definitely going to take it because that's probably my best round in a major at this point. It was nice to do it right at the end of the tournament when there's the most pressure on.

Q. What did you feel you did best this week? And secondly, it's the part of the schedule where the majors come at you quick. How much can you build off this as you look toward the two in the summer?

CAM DAVIS: Things I did well this week, my iron play was really good. I was shaping it well into a lot of the tight pins. Felt like I made the greens a lot bigger. Playing a few bigger shapes into greens, I was playing a lot more draws and fades rather than straight-line golf.

Hit a lot of fairways. I had not been driving it super great lately, especially today, I hit a lot of fairways, and just in the first cut, which is what you have to do out here. So today that was really good.

And putting. I made a lot of nice mid-range putts. I missed a couple of really short ones which always sting but at the same time made a lot of nice medium-length putts and a lot of really good lagging two-putts. That's the sort of stuff that keeps momentum in a big tournament like this. So those things were going really well.

And to build off this one going into the other majors, every time you have a really good round under tough conditions, it's just another little positive voice in the back of your head that, yeah, I can do this even when it's difficult, even when the rough is really deep and the pins are tight and firming up quick and you can still play really good golf and make a score especially toward the end of a major. That's where I want to be. I'd love to win one or more of these for sure. You know, this is just one more step towards that goal for me.

Yeah, a lot of positive stuff.