Young Australian Open champion Cameron Davis believes he'll have to break a personal scoring record if he's to clinch a trans-Tasman double by securing the New Zealand Open title.
The 23-year-old Davis announced himself among the new breed of rising Australian tour stars when he beat the likes of Jason Day and Jordan Spieth to win his country's most prestigious title last November.
A pro for only 16 months, Davis will contest the $1.2 million New Zealand Open for the first time when he tees up at the The Hills and Millbrook courses in Arrowtown from Thursday.
A first look at the two courses, set beside the Southern Alps, made a big impression and also had Davis predicting some very low scoring.
This scenery is probably the most spectacular setting I've played in, it's amazing," said Davis.
"I've got a feeling the scores are going to be quite low, if you're going to win out here you probably going to need to shoot in the 20s under par.
"I can't say I've done that before so I need to really pull it all out and play some really good golf."
Victory on Sunday would give Davis a card on the co-sanctioning Asian Tour, though he admitted he's still been coming to terms with that breakthrough Australian Open victory in hometown Sydney four months ago.
"It feels like it was almost still a bit of a dream, it's kind of hard to tell myself that I've done it," said Davis.
"It was so long ago now it feels like another person played that week because I was in the zone for at least two of those rounds and I don't really have too much recollection of them.
"But it is cool having a tournament like that to be able to look back on and tell yourself you can do it."
Davis will start the NZ Open alongside fellow Australian young gun Lucas Herbert, who also contended strongly at the Australian Open.
The strong field includes defending champion Michael Hendry and fellow Kiwi star Ryan Fox while veterans Scott Hend and Marcus Fraser head a big Australian contingent and the Asian entry includes former US tour star KJ Choi and major champion YE Yang.
