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FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

May 27, 2004

David Toms

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, David, for joining us for a few minutes, great round of 67 today. You've had a lot of success here, especially in the last two years, ninth straight round in the 60s, and you've had a win and I think it was a 4th place finish. Why don't you just maybe talk about the course conditions today. I think they've been a little different than what they've normally been.

DAVID TOMS: The course is a totally different golf course out there than what we normally play here. It's playing short, but usually we're firing darts to the flags, and today you just really had to pick your spots, where you could be aggressive at all, and then when you were aggressive you had to make sure you knew what the wind was doing to try to get the right club. Very difficult scoring conditions out there for this golf course for sure. I think today is probably as hard as I've ever seen this golf course play. I know we've had some windy conditions before, but it's usually soft to where you land the ball. It's usually going to stop, but it's very, very difficult.

Q. Were you surprised at all when you saw your name on the leaderboards even at 3- or 4-under? Obviously you got to 5.

DAVID TOMS: You know, to be honest, I saw a couple of leaderboards early when guys were 1 or 2 under and I didn't see anything the rest of the day. I felt like I was playing well and I wanted to keep going, and I felt like I had a chance to shoot a really low score today.

What did I bogey, 5, the par 5. I was in the middle of the fairway there, easily could have reached the green. I hit a 3-iron, too much club and it flew right next to the hole, went over the green, made bogey. I had a chance to go 6-under there, and then I birdied the next hole to get back to 5 and then hit a wedge in the water on the last. It was one of those days where I had a chance to -- even though it was a tough day I had a chance to put a low one on the board and I didn't quite close it like I should have.

Q. You were encouraged at the Colonial last week the way you were hitting the ball. Is that helping you going into this week?

DAVID TOMS: Yeah, I think so. I hit a lot of good shots under tough conditions today, drove the ball in play for the most part. I missed a few fairways but never was really in any trouble. I holed some putts early today, a couple of nice putts, which I haven't been doing, so that was -- it was just a good, solid day, a good start for me. I've been getting off to slow starts the next -- actually all year, so this was nice to get a good round under my belt early.

Q. How is your left wrist now?

DAVID TOMS: You know, it's fine. When it's hot like this I don't have hardly the problems at all. It feels good. You know, I've been playing a bunch. This is my fifth in a row, I guess, so I haven't really had any problems.

Q. How much time have you spent with Rob this week?

DAVID TOMS: Well, I didn't get here until Tuesday afternoon, but he's been around since I got to town, and then he came to Colonial last week, so we've been doing some work. It feels good. It's just a matter of me executing right. I think my golf swing is there right now. It's just whether or not I've got the right thoughts going on and I'm pulling the right clubs. A little more goes into it than just swinging a golf club, managing your game and so forth, so I've got to get better at all that.

Q. How difficult was it for you on the last hole there in terms of club selection?

DAVID TOMS: Well, what did I have, 137 to the pin? To show you how much wind, I was considering hitting a sand wedge from 137, and I hit a pitching wedge and just took too much off of it and it didn't get up into the wind, it stayed too low and I hit a foot short of the green and it came back into the water. If I hit another foot it was a good shot, but if you land it longer it goes back to where Fred Funk hit. That was a shot that we face a lot at Augusta where you have to pinpoint everything or you can make bogey or double. I had a good up-and-down for bogey, so it was a tough pin position, especially with the way -- with the wind we had today.

Q. Rob mentioned last week at Colonial was kind of the first time he had said you need to get in this position and you haven't had any problems. Even though you missed some cuts, have you been seeing things really starting to come together?

DAVID TOMS: Yeah. I mean, I'm playing the Pro-Am every Wednesday, and my Pro-Am scoring average might be the best on Tour right now the last month or so, but that doesn't do much for you. I felt like I've been playing well when the pins are in the middle of the greens. I have to look at it -- am I being too aggressive and making too many doubles when they stick them on the edges. I did it again today when I had a chance to shoot a good low round. I got too aggressive and I paid the price. Like I said, I think it's more of a managing my game and the mental side of it than it is the physical side right now. That feels pretty good.

Q. Do you think playing five weeks in a row has helped with that? I mean, that's a long stretch for you.

DAVID TOMS: Yeah, it is. I like all the tournaments. It's a shame that Memorial is next week, a great tournament, but six in a row, I don't think I could do that. It helps me to play golf because I went for three months and didn't touch a club, so it just helps to be playing golf again.

If you play well, the five weeks in a row is nothing, but when you're not playing so well like I have been lately, it feels like a lifetime, that month or so, but hopefully this week will be good to me and I can build on that going into the U.S. Open.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Let's go over your holes. 12, the birdie on 12.

DAVID TOMS: Yeah, I hit a lob wedge to about 18 feet, made a nice putt there.

16, I had pin high in two and chipped up about 10 or 12 feet, made it.

Then 18, made a nice putt from the fringe, about a 25 footer there to the right of the pin. I just hit 7-iron in.

Eagled 3, hit a 4-iron on the green about 20 feet, made a nice putt there.

6, birdie, hit a lob wedge to about eight feet.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, David.

End of FastScripts.

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