Davis, who made his debut in the International team earlier this month, started with a bogey at the first after his tee shot found a waste area, but from that point he rolled in six birdies and did not make another serious error.

At 5-under he is just a shot from the lead.

“A bit of a rough one on the first hole, just needed to get that first one out of the way, and then after that I played some really solid golf,” said the Sydney professional, who is heading home soon to play the summer of golf in Australia.

“I hit a lot of really good quality iron shots and mid to long irons into these greens, which is important to hit these greens with the run-off, run-up areas can take it a long way away.

So I kept myself in good positions and made a couple of nice putts to keep some momentum going. Yeah, turned it into a pretty good score. So I’m very happy with the way I did today. If I can do that every day, I think I have a good chance at it.”

Davis said his experience at the Presidents Cup was helping him already.

“You don’t get a huge amount of scenarios as big as Presidents Cup with that amount of people watching and that sort of pressure on you almost every single match. So I felt like I really made the most of that and I got a lot out of it. I’ve made some changes due to experiencing that, so it’s all for the better.”

Jason Day is tied-26^th after opening with a 69.