Turned professional without any status prior to the second semester (would have been spring 2019) of his senior year at Alabama.

Teammates in his three and a half seasons at University of Alabama (2015-18) included PGA TOUR winner Lee Hodges (2016-18 -- two seasons), Robby Shelton (2015-16 season), Wilson Furr (2017-18 -- one and a half seasons), and Dru Love (2015-17 -- two seasons), son of 21-time PGA TOUR winner Davis Love III.

Introduced to golf by his parents at three years old and grew up on a Jerry Pate-designed course at Canebrake Country Club, where his family's home was along the ninth fairway, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Davis recalls, "I could walk 200 yards from my house and be on the driving range and putting green and clubhouse."

Shot a 58 at Canebrake in October 2013 when he was 16 years old. He was with five other friends after school one late afternoon, and on the last few holes, his friends - who played the first 12 holes, then stopped and watched him play the rest - shined lights on his ball for him to see; he had a 10-footer on the last to shoot 57 and left it on the front edge.

Previously shared an apartment in Dallas with fellow PGA TOUR winner Will Zalatoris as the two played the Korn Ferry Tour throughout the second half of 2019, 2020, and early 2021. The two became friends in the years following the 2014 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, where Zalatoris defeated Riley in the championship match. At one point during the COVID-19 pandemic, the two built a "pseudo range" in their apartment, setting up a mattress and a net, and propping up a Trackman on pillows.