A champion’s return

Bryce Alderton

Australian Rodger Davis returned to Newport Beach Country Club, site

of his first Champions Tour win at last year’s Toshiba Senior

Classic, and didn’t take long to crack his first joke during media

day Monday.

“I would rather have a shotgun than [be around a handgun],” Davis

said with a sheepish grin as laughter erupted from a small gathering

of reporters gathered inside NBCC. The affable Davis, another golfer

and two caddies were held up at gunpoint by two men in a Mexico City

restaurant during last year’s PGA Champions Tour event there [the

MasterCard Classic]. The men got away with their watches, but the

incident left Davis shaken.

“When I was robbed in Mexico ... it woke me up a bit,” Davis said.

“I hadn’t won [on the Champions Tour], but I was playing well and

playing virtually every week. Then I got a top 10, won [in Newport

Beach] and made more top 10s.”

He finished the year with eight top 10s.

Davis, 52, set a 36-hole tournament record at last year’s Toshiba

when he opened with rounds of 65-64 -- 129, getting hot with his

putter and staying focused.

“My concentration was good like the old days,” Davis said. “I knew

this course was not over until you got off that 17th tee [a par-3

over water]. Even if you are playing great, you have to keep going.

You can’t relax or this course will come up and grab you.”

The win last March jump-started Davis’ year, which ended with him

leading the senior tour in putting average (1.726) and sand saves

(60%), while earning eight top 10 finishes and finishing 22nd on the

money list ($885,781) in 22 starts.

“I’ll play solidly until the first week of July,” Davis said of

his scheduling plans. “If I make $750,000 and crack the top 30 [in

earnings], you might not see much of me until the [season-ending

Charles Schwab Cup Championship in late October].”

Davis, a husband and father of two daughters, began 2004 with a

six-under-par 210 to finish 31st in the season-opening MasterCard

Championship completed Sunday at the Hualalai Resort Golf Club in

Kaupulehu-Kona, Hawaii. Fuzzy Zoeller, who talked Davis out of bowing

out of the Mexico City event last year, claimed the MasterCard

Championship with a final-round 64 to finish at 20-under 196, winning

by a stroke over Dana Quigley.

“I didn’t putt very well in Hawaii, but I am practicing well and

looking forward to a strong season,” Davis said.

Davis said he has been concentrating the most on his short game.

“You can never do enough practicing with the short game,” Davis

said.

Davis crossed off Mexico City from this year’s schedule, but is

priming his game for a return to Newport Beach for tournament week

(March 15-21).

“Guys like playing here. Everything is handy, close and everyone

is very friendly. They spoil you in the clubhouse with breakfast and

lunch every day, too,” said Davis, who joined the Champions Tour in

2001 after winning 20 times on the European Tour to go with seven

victories on the Australasian Tour. “[Tournament director] Jeff

Purser talked me into doing this day. He suggested I take the

midnight flight into [Los Angeles] instead of traveling on Monday.

This is an all-around good event. They always make me happy to come

back.”