Cameron Davis says he “lost his love” for golf in the months leading up to his win that ended his long PGA Tour drought.
The Australian claimed a one-shot victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit on Monday morning (AEST), three years after his first win at the event.
After three straight rounds in the 60s, Davis shot a 2-under 70 in the final round and watched from the driving range as Akshay Bhatia three-putted on the final green to secure the win.
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The 29-year-old revealed in an on-course interview that he had started working with a hypnotherapist just three weeks ago in an attempt to turn around his declining form.
Davis holds the trophy after winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic. NurPhoto via Getty Images
“I am a completely different person to who I was a few weeks ago and today,” he said through tears.
Davis later told media outlets, including Wide World of Sports, that his wife, Jonica, had encouraged him to give it a go after her own success.
“I resisted for quite some time but my game was going in the wrong direction. Golf was becoming more and more stressful on a daily basis and my love for the game was slowly fading,” he said.
“My career trajectory wasn’t what I wanted, it had been a long time since I’d won and I just didn’t feel good enough to keep up with the best in golf.”
After his win, Davis revealed that his “love for the game had waned” before he began working with a hypnotherapist. NurPhoto via Getty Images
After finishing tied for 12th at the Masters, his best result in seven tournaments since was a tie for 38th at the Wells Fargo. He missed the cut in both the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship.
Davis has been working with well-known sports psychologist Brett McCabe for some time, and the two agreed that hypnotherapy was at least worth a try.
He said it was “going very well,” probably stating the obvious.
“We’ve only been working together for a few weeks now, but I’ve gone from almost hating the game to feeling like I’ve got a little bit of the magic back,” he said.
“I can fully credit my team for supporting me through the dark days I went through… but the biggest turning point came through hypnotherapy.”
Davis explained that hypnosis is not about “manipulating you and making you act without your knowledge,” but rather about putting you through a mental experience of a situation you need to deal with better.
“You can go through all the steps in your mind before you actually experience it in real life,” he said.
“I think that made a big difference because a lot of things didn’t go my way this week.
“It felt like I had a plan in place for when things were going well and when things weren’t going well. It felt like I’d already done it and I was going to do it again.”
“It’s a totally different situation than hoping to play good golf and not having a plan for how to deal with things going wrong.”
“For me it worked very well and very quickly.
“That’s how my golf has come from pretty tough situations.”
