Three years after holing a bunker shot on the 71st hole and emerging victorious from a three-man playoff for his breakthrough win, Davis could not hide the enormity of his second victory at Detroit Golf Club, the first player with multiple wins at the event.

With putts repeatedly burning the edge of the hole and a lasered second shot into the par-5 14th that somehow dribbled into the water, it looked as though the golf gods would conspire against Davis.

Fellow Australian Min Woo Lee (69) made a back-nine charge to earn a share of the lead at 18-under but made bogey on the final hole when his approach shot finished in the rough behind the green and he was unable to get up-and-down for par.

Davis, too, needed to scramble from the rough on 18 for a 2-under 70 to claim the clubhouse lead at 18-under.

He did that with a superb chip from right of the green and then looked on in shock from the range as American Akshay Bhatia (72) three-putted for the first time all week on the 72nd hole to hand the Aussie a one-shot win.

Ranked 77th in the FedEx Cup standings entering the week and without a top-10 finish all season, Davis was at a loss to explain a form reversal that resulted in victory.

“From where I was a couple of weeks ago to today, just completely different person,” said the 29-year-old from Sydney.

“This is a little emotional actually. I wouldn’t wish what happened to Akshay on anyone, but I’ve done a lot of grinding to kind of get myself out of a hole and just all of a sudden to do that, it’s pretty good.”

Dub (again) in Detroit 🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/RW37jg41tG

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 30, 2024

While he described his playoff win over countryman Adam Scott at US Open qualifying as a “little shining moment”, Davis revealed that it has been his recent visits to a hypnotherapist that has unlocked his love for the game again.

At the urging of his wife, Jonika, Davis began seeing a hypnotherapist two weeks ago and is adamant in the role that it has played in earning a long-awaited second win.

“My career trajectory was not where I wanted it,” added Davis, who has been working with Canadian-based coach Ralph Bauer for the past year.

“It’d been a long time since I’d won and I felt like I wasn’t playing anywhere near good enough golf to keep up with the best players in the game.

“We’ve only been working together for a couple of weeks and I’ve gone from almost disliking the game to feeling like I’ve got a bit of that magic back, so it’s made a huge difference.

“I can entirely put it down to fact that my team’s had my back through every dark day I’ve had over the last couple of couple of months to Grace, who’s helped me through it all and got me back on a really good path.

“I’ve got a lot of people to thank, but definitely the biggest turnaround has happened with the hypnotherapy.”

In addition to the 1-2 finish in Detroit, there were Aussies in contention across the globe this past week.

Richard Green remains in the hunt as the US Senior Open was forced into a Monday finish due to dangerous weather while Grace Kim paired with American Auston Kim for a tie for fifth at the LPGA Tour Dow Championship.

David Micheluzzi rebounded from some indifferent form of late for a top-10 finish at the Italian Open, Rhein Gibson shot 63 in rounds two and four to be tied for eighth on the Korn Ferry Tour and Cassie Porter is projected to move to second on the Epson Tour Race For The Card after a tie for seventh at the Dream First Bank Charity Classic.

Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Results

PGA TOUR
Rocket Mortgage Classic
Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan
1          Cam Davis       68-66-66-70—270       $US1.656m
T2        Min Woo Lee    68-68-66-69—271       $616,400
T67      Ryan Fox (NZ)               71-67-76-71—285       $19,412
T72      Aaron Baddeley           68-70-72-76—286       $18,768
MC       Tim Wilkinson (NZ)       74-70—144
MC       Harrison Endycott        74-71—145

PGA TOUR Champions
US Senior Open
Newport Country Club, Newport, Rhode Island
Round 4 to be completed Monday due to dangerous weather
1          Hiroyuki Fujita              63-66-67—196
3          Richard Green              63-67-69—199
T8        Steven Alker (NZ)         71-67-67—205
T14      Cameron Percy             70-65-70—205
T25      Mark Hensby               75-63-74—212
T25      Michael Long (NZ)        72-69-70-68—279
T40      Greg Chalmers             72-70-70—212
T45      Stuart Appleby             67-74-71—212
T57      Michael Wright            68-72-73—213
T60      Mathew Goggin           66-73-77—216
MC       Rod Pampling              67-78—145
MC       Richard Lee (NZ)           73-73—146

LPGA Tour
Dow Championship
Midland Country Club, Midland, Michigan
1          Atthaya Thitikul/Ruoning Yin    64-66-66-62—258       $US364,572 ea
T5        Grace Kim/Auston Kim             67-61-69-65—262       $60,177
T17      Hira Naveed/Sofia Garcia         69-64-70-62—265       $19,206
T27      Lydia Ko (NZ)/Danielle Kang     71-62-72-63—268       $9,322
MC       Gabriela Ruffels/Esther Henseleit         69-65—134
MC       Stephanie Kyriacou/Olivia Cowan         68-66—134
MC       Robyn Choi/Minji Kang            71-64—135
MC       Sarah Kemp/Alena Sharp         74-65—139

DP World Tour
Italian Open
Adriatic Golf Club Cervia, Milano Marittima, Italy
1          Marcel Siem                 69-68-66-71—274       €516,774.24
Won in sudden-death playoff
T10      David Micheluzzi          70-68-69-70—277       €45,141.75
T10      Sam Jones (NZ)            72-68-68-69—277       €45,141.75
MC       Haydn Barron               70-73—143
MC       Jason Scrivener            74-71—145
MC       Daniel Hillier (NZ)         70-77—147

Ladies European Tour
VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open
Golfpark Holzhausern, Switzerland
1          Alice Hewson               68-69-65—202 €45,000
Won in sudden-death playoff
T19      Kelsey Bennett             71-68-69—208 €4,230
T34      Kirsten Rudgeley          66-72-72—210 €2,385
T43      Momoka Kobori (NZ)   72-72-68—212 €1,656
T56      Whitney Hillier             69-73-75—217 €1,110
MC       Amy Walsh                   77-80—157

Korn Ferry Tour
Memorial Health Championship
Panther Creek Country Club, Springfield, Illinois
1          Max McGreevy             63-66-62-69—260
T8        Rhein Gibson               69-63-69-63—264
MC       Brett Drewitt                69-72—141

Challenge Tour
Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge
Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil, Le Vaudreuil, France
1          Joel Moscatel               71-67-66-70—274       €43,200
Won in sudden-death playoff
T10      Jeff Guan                      69-65-72-73—279       €5,670
T29      Andrew Martin             74-68-73-68—283       €2,160
T50      Hayden Hopewell        71-71-76-68—286       €1,096.20
MC       Tom Power Horan        74-76—150
MC       Connor McKinney        78-73—151

Epson Tour
Dream First Bank Charity Classic
Buffalo Dunes Golf Course, Garden City, Kansas
T7        Cassie Porter                            69-73-68—210
T14      Amelia Garvey (NZ)                  69-71-71—211
T22      Maddison Hinson-Tolchard      70-72-71—213
MC       Amy Chu                                  69-78—147
MC       Soo Jin Lee                               71-78—149

Korean PGA Tour
Biz Play-Wonder Club Open
Club 72 Country Club (Sky Cse), Korea
1          Heo In-hoe                  66-68-68-65—267
T7        Junseok Lee                  67-67-67-71—272
T52      Sungjin Yeo (NZ)          64-71-72-74—281
T69      Kevin Chun (NZ)           70-70-76-69—285

PGA TOUR Americas
ATB Classic
Northern Bear Golf Club, Strathcona County, Alberta
1          Frederik Kjettrup          68-68-67-69—272       $US40,500
T8        Grant Booth                 70-68-72-68—278
T33      Karl Vilips                     65-73-74-72—284
MC       Harry Hillier (NZ)          72-74—146

LET Access Series
MoreGolf Mastercard Open
Varbergs Golf Klubb, Sweden
1         Kajsa Arwefjall       70-69-67—206         €6,400
T10     Belinda Ji (a)          70-69-77—216         ——-
T32     Hanee Song (NZ)  73-75-74—222         €484
MC     Wenyung Keh (NZ) 76-75—151
MC     Munchin Keh (NZ) 76-76—152