A winner on the American circuit last year, Davis’ year could have started even better when he was tied for 13^th at The Sentry in Hawaii having incurred a two-shot penalty for hitting the wrong ball, before he missed the cut the following week at the Sony Open and sharing 18^th at The American Express.

Labelling the incident where he and Will Zalatoris were planning similarly marked and model golf balls “a perfect storm of unfortunate things happening all at the same time”, Davis hasn’t dwelled on what occurred in Maui. Showcasing the former ISPS HANDA Australian Open winner’s mindset that has helped him become a two-time PGA TOUR champion.

“I’ve had experiences early in my career where I’ve set a goal out of wanting to play well in an event or feeling like I need to place a certain position or keep my card,” Davis told Australian media on Thursday afternoon.

“Generally those ones lead to the closer you get to it, the more pressure you feel because you don’t want to let yourself down. There are people that those goals fire them up and the closer they get to it, the more pumped up they get, which is a great way to be.

“But for me, I feel like there’s definitely been a history of not wanting to let myself down rather than wanting to get after it in the way that fires you up. I feel like for me it’s just being able put myself in a place where I can play my best golf and do play my best golf.”

Playing his best golf has often put Davis right alongside the best players in the world, like at The Masters last year when the now 29-year-old had moments in contention and ultimately finished T-12.

Speaking to Augusta being part of current focus, Davis is one of the Australians who will set his schedule around Signature Events, including this week where he will tee off alongside Thomas Detry on Thursday local time.

“Well, these signature events, I feel like it’s not really a goal. They kind of just create a schedule for yourself so you know what tournaments you’re going to be playing in if you’ve got them, which is great,” he said.

“I played well enough last year, the bonuses that you know what your schedule looks like the next year. I know all of them are set up tough and they’re going to be really good challenges, so you need to play really well, but they don’t really turn into my goals.

“I feel like for myself, I’ve figured out over time that the goals that I work best with are not goals that are comparing myself to other people with.

“I find it difficult if you play really good golf and your goal is to win a tournament and you might come second because someone played better. I feel like that would feel like a failure. But for me, if I feel like I’ve done a good job of the things that I can control, I feel like my goals are more process related, mental process related, working on my golf swing, just systematic processes.

Those processes have continued to improve under coach Ralph Bauer, whose role has evolved from Davis’ putting coach to looking after his whole game.

The work the pair doing being offset by time away from the game, with Davis returning to the West Coast swing having put the clubs away for a number of days at home in Seattle before heading for the iconic Pebble Beach.

“It was a lot of golf before Maui, so it was actually a little nice to take a week off and take four or five days of just golf clubs away again, restart, get some good food in me and then start back up again.

“It’s great to be back and especially playing here at this week, Pebble beach. Nice. I’m looking forward to getting back at it again tomorrow.

“I mean it’s so much fun hitting so many shots out this place. I mean, obviously growing up, watching it on TV, watching all the best players pretty much to play the game have been out here hitting shots that I’m going to have a chance to be playing in a tournament again tomorrow.”