Rhys Davies’ giant leap from struggling young player without a category to European Tour champion was one of the most uplifting stories of the 2010 season.
The manner in which he dispatched the rest of the field at the Trophée Hassan II in March, where he posted an impressive 25 under par total to win by two shots from Louis Oosthuizen, belied his inexperience. However, perhaps it should have been no surprise given the way he surged on to The European Tour the previous season.
In the summer of 2009 Davies was invited to play in the SWALEC Wales Challenge in his native south Wales, and capitalised on his opportunity, winning the title via a play-off with Englishman James Morrison.
He was the first Welshman to win on the Challenge Tour since Jamie Donaldson in 2007, and he later added the Fred Olsen Challenge de España en route to finishing fourth in the Rankings to earn a European Tour card, despite having played fewer events than anyone else in the top 20.
Early in the 2010 season he gave several warning signs that he was one to watch, finishing sixth at the lucrative Abu Dhabi Golf Championship and third at the Maybank Malaysian Open, before a superb display at the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in Morocco gave Davies his maiden victory.
A fortnight later he was second at the Volvo China Open, losing out to YE Yang, and at the end of May he added two consecutive runner-up finishes in the Madrid Masters and the Celtic Manor Wales Open. Suddenly there were suggestions that Europe’s Ryder Cup Team, which would take on the United States in Wales in October, might just contain a Welshman.
That feat was not to be, but Davies was called into action by Captain Colin Montgomerie to assist the team at The Celtic Manor Resort, a task the 25 year old said “helped overcome the disappointment of not making the team”, although he admitted that “at the start of the season it was so far off my radar”.
His final Race to Dubai position also exceeded expectations. He was in the money in 23 of the 31 events he played to come 18th in the Race, narrowly missing out on the end of season Bonus Pool.
His performances in 2010 should not have been a surprise, however, given the stellar amateur career he enjoyed before joining the paid ranks in 2007.
Having been forced to choose between golf and cricket – he represented Glamorgan and Wales in the latter - he won the British Boys Championship in 2003 and played in two Walker Cups, in 2005 and 2007, before taking up a scholarship at East Tennessee State University.
Davies, who is known for his masterful putting stroke, won ten times in his collegiate career and in the 2005/06 season his stroke average was the best in the United States. An attempt to gain a European Tour card at the 2008 Qualifying School failed, however, but in 2009 he banished those memories – and the worries of not even having a Challenge Tour category – with victory in Wales.
It has been a fairytale start for the Welshman and if he can build on last season’s superb form in the next couple of seasons he may just find himself more than a team assistant at a Ryder Cup.
