Rhys Davies Is Wales' Big Hope for This Week

This week’s Wales Open has a home-grown hopeful in Rhys Davies, who has burst onto the European Tour.

After coming through the Challenge Tour, winning an event in Morocco, and earning his card, he has set his sights on winning more on the main tour.

Davies, who chose a career in golf over cricket, went toe-to-toe with Luke Donald at the Madrid Masters last week, finishing only one shot behind the Englishman on 20-under par.

Despite the momentum clearly behind the 24-year-old and with this week being played at the 2010 Ryder Cup course, it would be conceivable to think that the Ryder Cup would be a thought while playing. 

However, when asked about planning the season around the Ryder Cup, he spoke about living in the present and doing well this week.

Davies wasn’t thinking about the tournament and said, “No idea at all.  Haven’t thought about it. Haven’t looked at it in that light. I set my schedule to try and win tournaments, and I believe if I go and win a lot of tournaments this summer, then I will probably come back here in October.”

However, he told the press that he believes that he should not be thinking that far ahead.

“I’ve really improved at staying in the present, and I’m getting better and better at that all the time. That includes this week. My thoughts are primarily focused on this week.” Davies, considered to be a great putter by many in the game, got a vote of support by fellow Welshman Phillip Price yesterday.

Price told the press that people were just waking up to the fact that he is the best putter in the world today.

Davies said that the praise was, “Very flattering, especially someone like Phil who I put in very high regard.”

His putting practice is somewhat different from a normal professional, yet it has proved to be very successful.

“I did quite a lot of work from a young age but without realising. I putted a lot in the house. I still do that now. And I don’t necessarily do it in a strict drill.

“I make a lot of putts, and therefore gain quite a lot of feel from it.  I enjoy it.”

Davies’ plans for now are to do well at the Wales Open and to go on and try to win some more tournaments.

Davies said his goals were to, “Win a tournament. And having done that, I would like to win another one. That is as far as it goes.”