words Hamish Stuart
pictures Steve Pope
RHYS RARING TO TAME CELTIC TIGER
It has taken Rhys Davies a few years to be an overnight sensation, but even before the current stream of success there were plenty of people in Welsh golf just waiting for it to happen.
Not least because those who understand golf understand the paramount importance of putting and short game at the highest level – and Rhys Davies can putt!
With victory in Morocco, along with some other high fi nishes, has come a new kind of pressure, particularly on home turf for the Wales Open where there has never been a home winner – but so far Rhys is taking it in his stride and keeping his goals simple.
Organisers have promised the Twenty Ten course at Celtic Manor will be the
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toughest it has ever been for this summer's Wales Open, as preparation for the Ryder Cup to follow. It will be a tough beast to tame.
Part of that pressure is to reach the Ryder Cup team for the event in Wales, but that would take a herculean effort given the number of qualifying events that had happened before Davies got onto the European Tour and the huge importance of world events and majors.
Davies has made rapid progress into the world's top 100 and towards the top 50 that provides the passport to the biggest events in world golf, but a bit of patience is required and future Ryder Cups are a much better bet.
“Perhaps there is a greater expectation from other people now, but the expectation
from me is exactly the same – I just try to win every event,” he admitted.
“I have not changed my preparation or demeanour for any tournament. There might be more attention now, which is nice, but I am just the same as I was a couple of years ago with the same goals. That is what I will take forward to the Wales Open as well.”
Headlines suggesting Rhys can be the next Woosie show how high the expectations are, but in amateur days Davies was competing equally with the likes of Rory McIlroy and Anthony Kim who have stormed the world's top 10.
In one year at East Tennessee University he had a better stroke average over the season than Tiger Woods at the equivalent stage. All with a putter that
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