Cam Davis Uses Hypnotherapy For Win In Detroit, Akshay Bhatia Gracious In Defeat, And Cam Young May Hate Golf

One man's loss is another man's gain. Akshay Bhatia has been on the bad end of that saying two weeks in a row now after three-putting the 72nd hole to miss out on a playoff at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The man on the good side of that draw was Cam Davis, who is now a two-time winner of the event in Detroit. The key difference in his first Rocket Mortgage win and his second is hypnotherapy. Yes, hypnotherapy.

While it was Davis and Bhatia who turned into the main characters of the story on Sunday, Cam Young also played himself into the mix despite looking like he wanted to be anywhere else in the universe other than Detroit Golf Club. 

Let's get into it in this week's edition of Par Talk.

Cam Davis Is A Hypnotherapy Guy

Since he turned professional in 2016, Cam Davis is one of those players that has always looked the part. He's 6-foot-4, swings it as well as anyone in golf, and had a typical career trajectory winning the Australian Open in 2017 and earning his PGA Tour card in 2018. 

He finally broke through on Tour with a win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in 2021, and it felt like maybe he could be the next Australian to make a serious name for himself in the game. Instead, he'd have to wait three full years before finding the winner's circle again, at the same place he earned his maiden victory on Tour.

Davis did just enough - and had the golf gods on his side with Bhatia three-putting the 72nd hole - to secure his victory in Detroit after a two-under round on Sunday. Following his win, the 29-year-old opened up about the serious mental struggles he's been dealing with for the better part of the year.

Entering the week, Davis had just one Top-10 in 16 starts to go along with missed cuts at The Players, PGA Championship, and U.S. Open. In an attempt to try and fall back in love with the game, he turned to hypnotherapy, and in less than a month's time since beginning that journey, he reached the mountaintop again.

"I'm sticking with the work I'm doing with Grace (the hypnotherapist) and it's making a very big impact very quickly. I felt a lot better last week, the score didn't show up, and to have it turn into this week, it's hard to believe because I was not even close two or three weeks ago," Davis said after securing his win.

"It's just me working myself into a headspace where I do feel like I can start to be creative again," Davis said. "I think I haven't been in a place where I felt the creativity coming out of me because I've been trying so hard not to make mistakes. It's kind of a nice combination of timing and golf course for me because I'm just starting to feel like I was working myself into a place where I could start getting some sparks and magic back into the golf."

While hearing someone talk about hypnotherapy being a difference maker is a bit of a shock to the system, it makes plenty of sense in the grand scheme of things.

Every player on the PGA Tour has the skills to get the job done any given week, but it's the game between the ears that is the biggest difference maker.

Akshay Bhatia Keeps It Classy Even After Heartbreak

The last seven days haven't exactly been kind to Akshay Bhatia. Last Sunday, the young American finished T-5 at the Travelers Championship after playing his final eight holes on Sunday one-over, unable to keep pace with Scottie Scheffler, who ultimately beat Tom Kim in a playoff. 

While last Sunday probably stung, this Sunday in Detroit straight-up hurt.

Bhatia, again, turned cold down the stretch to shoot one-over par across his final nine holes, but it was the 72nd hole that he and everyone else will be thinking about for quite some time. 

Tied with Davis atop the leaderboard at 18-under, Bhatia hit his approach shot into the final hole to 32-feet. Left with a downhill putt, he decided to play things safe, but far too safe, leaving his birdie attempt four feet short. What was left was another downhill putt with plenty of break for one inside the five-foot mark.

You could feel the miss coming before he even pulled the putter back on his par attempt, and the 22-year-old barely hit the hole on the putt that would have sent things to a playoff.

Three-putting from anywhere, let alone from just outside 30 feet, to lose a PGA Tour event would cause most to turn into a human ball of rage. The ‘worst’ thing Bhatia appeared to do after his loss was break and then throw a pencil in the scoring area after his loss.

To his credit - and unlike Rory McIlroy at the PGA Championship - Bhatia hung around and spoke with the media after his defeat and chalked up the three-putt to nerves.

"It sucks, no other way to put it, I mean, just sucks," Bhatia said to begin his post-round presser before breaking down the three-putt. "Yeah, just a little bit of nerves, honestly. I'm human, and yeah, the greens get slower throughout the day here, poa annua's pretty rough."

While he didn't say much, at least he said something. Facing the music is part of it, and for Bhatia to recognize that at 22 years old will do him wonders both on and off the course for years to come.

The Curious And Miserable Case Of Cam Young

CBS' Kyle Porter posed the question during Cam Young's Sunday to forget, and he is very much onto something.

Young is talented, like, really talented, and while it's understandable for his frustrations to mount while he's still looking for his first win on the PGA Tour, it's reached the point where it's tough to watch him play golf. It almost looks like it's painful for him to swing a golf club, but not from a physical standpoint, but a purely mental one.

His decision to lean on his driver and snap the head off of it on the 14th hole - while only trailing by a single shot (!!!) - was certainly a choice.

Young still had every single chance to go on and win the golf tournament at this point, and at worst get into a playoff, but instead had to play his final four holes without a driver in the bag. The bogeys he made on 16 and 18 to push him all the way into a tie for sixth for the week were sights to behold and not the good kind.

As he's still only 27 years old, Young has a huge future ahead of him and certainly possesses the skill set to get the job done. He feels like a player who, when/if he finally finds the winner's circle, he could go on a big-time run. On that same note, if we look up in a couple more years, and he's still searching for Tour win No. 1, nobody would be shocked at that reality.