Davis, family healthy while he climbs higher each week
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
IRVING, Texas -- We'll start with the good news first.
Everyone's fine. Dad's golf game is on cruise control, and the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital is no longer a daily destination from Brian Davis' home in Orlando. Dad did have a biopsy on a spot on the tip of his nose the other day, but that seems minor compared to what has transpired the last few years.
Flash back to the week before son Henry, now 3, was born. That was when Davis had a benign mass removed from his right side and a basal cell carcinoma excised from the back of his neck. Then Henry -- his second son -- was diagnosed with kidney reflux disease, and the Davis family decided to stay in Orlando -- for the care at the Palmer hospital. That meant Brian would no longer be a full time twin-tour wizard. He'd stick with the PGA TOUR.
Davis cancelled a practice round at the 2007 St. Jude Classic, after he got a call that wife Julie, Henry and oldest son Oliver had been rushed to the hospital after a gas leak set off the carbon monoxide detector in their Orlando home. The levels were high enough that fire department officials had to wear gas masks to enter the home, but the family was fine. Davis finished second.
Then, 10 months ago, daughter Madeleine -- the third and last child -- started her life in the NICU when both of her tiny lungs collapsed just after birth.
"I've had my stresses,'' Davis said, smiling and shaking his head.
We forgot to mention, too, that the Englishman, who spent a week in a Dubai hospital in 1998 after contracting chicken pox, came back a bit too soon from the surgery on his side, overcompensated and wound up with two herniated disks.
"I didn't really know until I actually got fit, what a mistake it was,'' Davis said. "It's one of those things. I wasn't exempt, and it was a case of I could still play. Us golfers, we don't like to lay down, and it's one of those things where I could still play even though it limited me to what I could actually do.
"I tried to sort of play through it, and one thing led to another, and it sort of had a negative effect on me mentally in the end because I had to play in a negative manner for a couple of years really because I couldn't hit the shots I wanted to hit.
You know, it just sort of saps your confidence, so you're not playing with your full aggressiveness, if you like.''
But today? He's glad to report things are looking up. Way up.
What started at the Shell Houston Open (a tie for 14th) and continued at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (a tie for 19th) has evolved into back-to-back ties for fifth at THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP and Valero Texas Open and a spot on the upper echelon of the leaderboard going into the weekend at the HP Byron Nelson Championship.
Davis' rounds of 68-65 left him one back of Rory Sabbatini midway through Friday's second round at TPC Four Seasons. And that 65? It included a double bogey on his third hole of the day -- the 12th, since he started on the back nine -- that sent him reeling back to 1 under for the tournament.
"... A bumpy start. My caddie made a mistake. It couldn't possibly have been me,'' he said grinning. Then he proceeded to describe it.
"Hit it left in the rough, behind the trees, hacked it out, short right bunker, played it out to about five feet and three putted,'' he said. "It wasn't the caddie's fault, I was just messing with you.''
Yes, he can laugh after what he's been through. He talks about it matter-of-factly, but you know it was anything but when he was in the middle of the chaos and pain.
"It's weird because this is the first time I've been fit for a few years, and I've been able to do a lot of stuff on my game and practice a lot more and focus mentally on what I want to do rather than how I'm going to feel in the morning,'' he said. "It's been really good in that respect.''
Davis made the turn Friday at 3 under for the tournament, then birdied the first hole from just under 20 feet. He made his move an hour later, reeling off three consecutive birdies at the fourth, fifth and sixth holes -- all from inside 12 feet -- to get to 7 under going into the final 36 holes.
"We battled back,'' he said. "I couldn't be happier.''
Davis was ranked as high as 45th in the world (2004) when he was playing both tours but plummeted. He was 215th in the world on March 1 and now, after several top-20s and those two top-fives, he's 145th and on the move.
This is his sixth tournament in a row, and he's playing the next two weeks -- at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial and the Memorial Tournament. And, assuming he qualifies for the U.S. Open, he'll skip the St. Jude Classic and be at Bethpage Black.
"My agent and my coach and everybody are telling me to take a week off, and I'm like, well, I'll take a week off when I'm playing bad,'' he said.
One thing he is skipping is the qualifier for the British Open at Turnberry. He promised the Colonial folks he would play in their Monday pro-am, and he's sticking with it.
"The way I look at it, if I make it in through qualifying or top 50 in the world, then I'll take it,'' Davis said. "I've been out here long enough now that you can't keep chasing qualifiers and tournaments when you're playing every week.''
All you can do is throw your best at the course each week and hope it's good enough.
And this week? He's glad the chaos is behind him and that he's finally able to do just that.
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