A champion’s return
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Bryce Alderton
Australian Rodger Davis returned to Newport Beach Country Club, site
of his first Champions Tour win at last year’s Toshiba Senior
Classic, and didn’t take long to crack his first joke during media
day Monday.
“I would rather have a shotgun than [be around a handgun],” Davis
said with a sheepish grin as laughter erupted from a small gathering
of reporters gathered inside NBCC. The affable Davis, another golfer
and two caddies were held up at gunpoint by two men in a Mexico City
restaurant during last year’s PGA Champions Tour event there [the
MasterCard Classic]. The men got away with their watches, but the
incident left Davis shaken.
“When I was robbed in Mexico ... it woke me up a bit,” Davis said.
“I hadn’t won [on the Champions Tour], but I was playing well and
playing virtually every week. Then I got a top 10, won [in Newport
Beach] and made more top 10s.”
He finished the year with eight top 10s.
Davis, 52, set a 36-hole tournament record at last year’s Toshiba
when he opened with rounds of 65-64 -- 129, getting hot with his
putter and staying focused.
“My concentration was good like the old days,” Davis said. “I knew
this course was not over until you got off that 17th tee [a par-3
over water]. Even if you are playing great, you have to keep going.
You can’t relax or this course will come up and grab you.”
The win last March jump-started Davis’ year, which ended with him
leading the senior tour in putting average (1.726) and sand saves
(60%), while earning eight top 10 finishes and finishing 22nd on the
money list ($885,781) in 22 starts.
“I’ll play solidly until the first week of July,” Davis said of
his scheduling plans. “If I make $750,000 and crack the top 30 [in
earnings], you might not see much of me until the [season-ending
Charles Schwab Cup Championship in late October].”
Davis, a husband and father of two daughters, began 2004 with a
six-under-par 210 to finish 31st in the season-opening MasterCard
Championship completed Sunday at the Hualalai Resort Golf Club in
Kaupulehu-Kona, Hawaii. Fuzzy Zoeller, who talked Davis out of bowing
out of the Mexico City event last year, claimed the MasterCard
Championship with a final-round 64 to finish at 20-under 196, winning
by a stroke over Dana Quigley.
“I didn’t putt very well in Hawaii, but I am practicing well and
looking forward to a strong season,” Davis said.
Davis said he has been concentrating the most on his short game.
“You can never do enough practicing with the short game,” Davis
said.
Davis crossed off Mexico City from this year’s schedule, but is
priming his game for a return to Newport Beach for tournament week
(March 15-21).
“Guys like playing here. Everything is handy, close and everyone
is very friendly. They spoil you in the clubhouse with breakfast and
lunch every day, too,” said Davis, who joined the Champions Tour in
2001 after winning 20 times on the European Tour to go with seven
victories on the Australasian Tour. “[Tournament director] Jeff
Purser talked me into doing this day. He suggested I take the
midnight flight into [Los Angeles] instead of traveling on Monday.
This is an all-around good event. They always make me happy to come
back.”
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