PLAYERS: Brian Davis exclusive

LAST year Brian Davis saw both sides of the Players Championship. After the first round he led the British charge with a gutsy one-under 71 in brutal conditions. A day later he was packing his bags after an 80.

As disappointing as that was, it marked the start of a new chapter in the Londoner's life.

A week before Sawgrass Davis had rung his close friend Gary Evans for a few pointers on the greens. Now the former European Tour star manages Davis’s affairs.

"I called him and said I was having a really tough time and could do with some help with my putting," said Davis.

“Gary flew out and from that day I have been improving all the time. Putting has always been my weak link. I can be good for two days but then bad for two days which is never going to cut it.

“Gary actually played a big part in my second win on the European Tour at the ANZ Championship in Australia four years ago.

“We were rooming together and I was on the putting green moaning about my putting after the third round. I said I had shot 68 but it should have been a 60. We spent another hour together and I shot 62 and won the next day.

“As the year went on he started to help with my game a little bit. We started up again this year and I asked him to take care of a few things. The last thing you need is any stress away from the game and Gary has only added positives. Even my wife has noticed difference in me. He can give me some grief and I won’t take it to heart.”

After the Players, the 33-year-old made 17 successive cuts, including a second in the St Jude Championship, despite struggling with a neck injury and being unhappy with his swing.

“I was having problems all year and getting more and more pain. Then I woke up the morning of the first round of the last event of the season and sneezed. It just went bam! and that was me done.”

Davis played but then couldn’t touch a club for two further months with two herniated disks.

This year has been a slow road to recovery. At the start of the season, he was 15-20 yards down on his drives and about 10 yards shorter on every iron but, week by week, his strength has steadily returned.

On the eve of last month’s Open de Portugal, Davis admitted he was operating at something like 85 per cent. By the time the Players rolls round he insists that there will be “no excuses”.

It will be his fourth crack at Sawgrass. To date only one Briton – or even European for that matter – has triumphed over the Stadium Course, Sandy Lyle pipping Jeff Sluman in near darkness in 1987.

Davis’s record currently reads two missed cuts, in 2004 and 2007, and a best effort of a share of 20th two years ago.

He insists position off the tee and then on the greens is the key to success.

“I have got friends who have played the course and they say to me it’s not that difficult and you’ve just gone and shot a 73.

“I try to explain that when we play there it’s slightly different – the greens like concrete and they stick the pins away. You can hit a good shot and end up 20-30 feet away.

“They are up there with the quickest we play on tour and, with the slopes on some of the greens, the stimp goes up another two.”

Davis is now firmly established as a member of the PGA Tour, having become the first Englishman to win their Qualifying School at the end of 2004.

He sees the Players as on another level to those of the regular events on the tour, and, while the debate over whether it will attain Major status will no doubt rumble on for many years, there is no doubt in his mind that it is worthy of such a title.

“I truly believe it is. Whether it has been hyped up by the television, the written media or the tour, you just get the same buzz as that of a Major.

“Most of the fans at PGA Tour events are from the state it is taking place in, at Sawgrass you speak to people and they have flown in to see the Players.

“Also it is not often you get Tiger, Phil, Vijay or Ernie in one place unless it is a Major or WGC event and that is not always the case with the latter.

“And the course speaks for itself. I just love the finish of 16, 17 and 18. I love a tournament where you can be three back coming down the stretch and have a chance. At 16 and 17 you can easily go 3-2 or 6-6 so there is always a dramatic finish.

“Then you’ve got the 18th, the hardest hole on the course and one of the trickiest on the PGA Tour. It is difficult enough with the amount of water but you also have either the cut or the tournament on the line. I have hit as much as a three wood and as little as a six iron in there, plus the green is quite severe.”

No conversation about Pete Dye’s Stadium Course would be complete without a quick mention of 17 and Davis, like thousands of others before him, has ended up wet. In typical fashion, the Londoner chooses to see the funny side.

“Last year in the second round I came to 17 having never hit a decent shot. I had never executed a shot perfectly but had still hit the green every time. On the Friday, with the pin cut at the back and the wind in our faces, I hit the most perfect shot with an eight iron, I was so happy. It took one bounce and went straight in the water. I looked at my caddie and he goes ‘that’s golf’.

“When you are standing on the tee watching the group ahead there is usually a big TV camera behind you with an American flag on top which gives some indication of what the wind is doing. The first player goes and it’s playing into, the second player hits and it moves left to right and the third goes right to left and you are stood there thinking ‘Holy Cow’.

The wind swirls in there and if you hit at the wrong time, even if it is a good shot, you are going to hit it in the water.”

The move Stateside appears to be sitting well with the Englishman. Having tried for his card there as an 18-year-old, when he won the first stage by eight before coming up one short of getting to Q School, he then topped the field in 2004.

The following year was divided between Europe and America but, following some temporary health problems with his youngest son, Davis decided to go full-time in the States.

“I generally started with three months in the States, then back to Europe for two to three months and then to the US for the last three months. But I didn’t want to take him away from his kidney doctor in Orlando and it put such a strain on me, I was always worrying about him and physically I couldn’t do it.”

With all health concerns now dealt with, and a third child (this time a girl) on her way in June, Davis is not putting too much pressure on himself for 2008.

“There have been a lot of changes in the last 12 months. I changed my coach in the middle of 2007 and my back-up team and things are very good off the golf course. I have always set goals but, after speaking with Gary, this is the first year I haven’t set any other than to go out, play and enjoy myself.

“If I won a couple of times I might re-assess, and obviously I would like to play more in Europe, but that comes with being in the world’s top 50 so I know what I need to do.” Other than some outstanding catering - Davis jokingly admits to having put on around 20 pounds - the two-time European Tour winner has noticed a few differences between the two tours.

“In the States you know what you’re going to get before you get there with the hotel and practice facilities and you can plan your week. A lot of the guys play week to week, they don’t go home. So on a Monday it’s really busy with players practising.

“I was chatting to Brett Rumford the other week and we were saying we find people practise a lot more in the States. They have the weather and facilities and I would liken it to playing in Dubai and Qatar. There are always loads of chipping greens and it makes you want to spend an extra two or three hours out there.

“In Europe it only really gets busy on the Tuesday and the facilities are a bit more mixed. Also, everyone is staying in the same hotel or eating in the same restaurants so you tend to hang out more in groups. That doesn’t happen so much in America.”