A par at the first playoff hole earned Jordan Spieth (66) victory over fellow American Patrick Cantlay (68) but both had to first better Davis’s 72-hole total of 12-under par to finish tied at the top.

Tied for 38th at the start of the final round, Davis was a long way from the top of the leaderboard yet three birdies in his opening five holes was the beginning of an extraordinary surge.

He made the turn in five-under with birdies at eight and nine and when he curled in his third birdie of the back nine at the par-5 15th was in sole possession of the lead.

There were birdie putts from 30 and 35 feet at the 16th and 18th holes respectively but the 27-year-old was unable to find the extra shot he would ultimately need for a place in the playoff, signing off for the day’s best eight-under 63.

A week after making the cut in his debut appearance at The Masters, Davis said it was the work he and coach Khan Pullen did in the lead-up to Augusta National that yielded such a strong finish at Harbour Town Golf Links.

“Being there at the Masters was a childhood dream come true,” said Davis, who moved from 94th to 79th in the Official World Golf Ranking by virtue of his tie for third.

“Especially playing Sunday with Adam in the first group off, just playing the course as pure as it could possibly be with all those Sunday pins. It was so nice going around and playing the course that I’d seen so often on TV.

“I started putting some good work into play. I’d had a couple of weeks off and did a really good job. My coach was able to make it over from Australia for the first time in a while so that work was started at Augusta.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t lead to awesome golf there, but it was definitely trending and kind of accumulated to today where it felt like everything was working quite well.”

One of countless products of the Jack Newton Junior Golf Foundation, Davis also paid tribute to Newton’s influence following his passing at the age of 72 on Friday.

“That guy provided so many juniors in Australia an opportunity to play competitive golf,” Davis added.

“He’s done such a great job, such an awesome amount of work for young Australians to get into the game. I wouldn’t be here without what he put in place.

“I didn’t really get to know him super well, but I did get some text messages when I did play well or I got an opportunity like a major, some words of encouragement, and that meant a lot to me.

“Very sad but glad I could play well this week. He was definitely in the thoughts all week after he passed.”

While Davis was the best of the Aussie performers on tour this week there were a host who finished inside the top 20 around the world.

Andrew Dodt (T8), Travis Smyth (T11) and Todd Sinnott (16th) were in the mix at the Asian Tour’s Trust Golf Asian Mixed Stableford Challenge in Thailand as Brett Drewitt and Ryan Ruffels were top 20 at the Korn Ferry Tour event in Texas, Ruffels firing a career-best 62 in the final round to be tied 18th, his best result August 2020.

Second through 36 holes at the LPGA Tour’s Lotte Championship in Hawaii, Sarah Kemp faded to finish tied for 26th, equal with fellow Aussie Stephanie Kyriacou who recorded her best finish to date in her rookie season.

We had two Aussies finish inside the top 20 also at the Japan Golf Tour’s Kansai Open Golf Championship, Andrew Evans (70) and Brad Kennedy (71) earning a share of 19th place.

Results

PGA TOUR
RBC Heritage
Harbour Town Golf Links, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Winner Jordan Spieth    69-68-68-66—271           $US1.44m
* Won in sudden death playoff
T3          Cam Davis          69-73-67-63—272           $330,857
MC        Cameron Smith 73-70—143
MC        Danny Lee          71-75—146

Asian Tour
Trust Golf Asian Mixed Stableford Challenge
Siam Country Club (Waterside Cse), Pattaya, Thailand
Winner Sihwan Kim        22-(-2)-22-7—49             $US135,000
T8          Andrew Dodt     9-7-9-13—38     $16,250
T11        Travis Smyth      3-18-11-5—37   $12,212
16          Todd Sinnott      6-9-8-12—35     $9,937
T49        Jake Higginbottom          6-5-(-2)-15—24 $3,675
T61        Whitney Hillier  9-4-3-4—20       $2,362
MC        Scott Hend         5-4—9
MC        Josh Younger     (-4)-(-1)—(-5)
MC        Daniel Fox          1-(-8)—(-7)

Japan Golf Tour
Kansai Open Golf Championship
Yomiuri Country Club, Hyogo
Winner Kazuki Higa        65-67-68-70—270           ¥16m
T19        Andrew Evans   67-72-73-70—282           ¥1,145,600
T19        Brad Kennedy    70-70-71-71—282           ¥1,145,600
T40        Anthony Quayle              66-71-74-75—286           ¥384,000
T54        Matthew Griffin              69-72-81-68—290           ¥217,600
MC        David Bransdon 70-72—142
MC        Brendan Jones  71-72—143
MC        Adam Bland       75-72—147

LPGA Tour
LOTTE Championship
Hoakalei Country Club, Ewa Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
Winner Hyo Joo Kim       67-67-72-71—277           $US300,000
T18        Lydia Ko              69-75-73-70—287           $21,874
T26        Stephanie Kyriacou         71-71-73-73—288           $15,793
T26        Sarah Kemp       68-69-78-73—288           $15,793
T48        Su Oh    74-73-77-67—291           $6,749
T48        Hannah Green   66-76-75-74—291           $6,749
MC        Karis Davidson  76-74—150
MC        Sarah Jane Smith             80-77—157

Korn Ferry Tour
Veritex Bank Championship
Texas Rangers Golf Club, Arlington, Texas
Winner Tyson Alexander             65-66-66-65—262           $US135,000
T12        Brett Drewitt     70-64-68-65—267           $14,063
T18        Ryan Ruffels      69-66-71-62—268           $8,888
T46        Curtis Luck         68-67-70-66—271           $3,319
T46        Aaron Baddeley 69-65-69-68—271           $3,319
MC        Nick Voke           70-68—138
MC        Harrison Endycott           76-66—142
MC        Steven Bowditch             74-76—150
MC        Rhein Gibson     80-76—156