Davis shot a stunning seven-under 65 opening round at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am to sit one stroke behind tournament leader, Russell Henley of the United States.
The American banked an eight-under 64 at Spyglass Hill in a tournament contested at two California courses for the initial two rounds before Pebble Beach hosts the last two rounds.
And Davis, despite his first-round feat, is wary ahead of his second round at Spyglass.
"Spyglass is more of a difficult ball-striking test to just continue to hit good drives off the tee, get yourself in the fairway and the greens," he said.
"I'm aware of what's in front of me tomorrow."
Davis fired an eagle and six birdies with a bogey on his 17th hole, the par-4 8th, his sole blemish.
He prospered at Pebble Beach while at Spyglass his countrymen Min Woo Lee (three under) and Jason Day (two under) were solid but Adam Scott struggled to a two-over 74.
Two Irishmen, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, made hole-in-ones in the opening round.
Luck of the Irish! ☘� — AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (@attproam) pic.twitter.com/YGKmf48CMHJanuary 30, 2025
McIlroy (six under) aced the 15th hole at Spyglass while Lowry (six under) achieved the rare feat at Pebble Beach's seventh hole - it was the first time since 2009 there were multiple aces in the same round at the tournament.
The Sydney-born Davis at one stage held the outright lead after an eagle on the 475-metre par 5 sixth hole.
He shares second place on a leaderboard with a distinct international flavour - he's tied with Norwegian Viktor Hovland, Englishman Justin Rose, Austrian Sepp Straka, Denmark's Rasmus Hojgaard and American Jake Knapp.
Solo leader � — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) Cam Davis cards an eagle to take the lead @ATTProAm.📺 Golf Channel pic.twitter.com/kY9eRPw0jIJanuary 30, 2025
But Davis, asked if he would be looking at the leaderboard in the second round, replied: "No.
"I played great today - I know what I was thinking about, it wasn't going to be score related or leaderboard related.
"Just work your way into the week, the goal is to give yourself an opportunity on Sunday and I don't think that happens by chasing a lead on Friday.
"It's just going to be all my little process goals that I want to do to keep me moving forward and the better I do that, the better my score will be."
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler opened his year with a five-under 67 at Spyglass Hill after being sidelined for about four weeks because of injuring a hand while cooking over the Christmas holidays.
Last year's champion, Wyndham Clark, shot a two-over 74 at Pebble Beach while Sweden's Ludvig Aberg, last year's runner-up, is in outright last after a horror five-over 77 at Spyglass.
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