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CONSTELLATION SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 11, 2018

David Toms

Highland Park, Illinois

Q. You're coming off of an exciting win, and now you're No. 1 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings. Are you feeling good coming into this week, feeling confident?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah, I've played quite a bit of golf since the Broadmoor. I went on vacation, played some with my son, and just tried to prepare for this week. Got here yesterday afternoon and played the golf course and then pro-am today, so I feel good on the golf course, feel good about my game. It's a matter of just starting another week and trying to get hot at the right time. It seems like it's always about making the putts. But this golf course here you have to keep it in play, as well.

You know, I feel good about where my game is, and hopefully I can ride that confidence in to having a really good week and giving myself a chance here.

Q. Jerry Kelly just mentioned a moment ago that it takes about six months to really get a feel for the Champions Tour and understand what it's about and even maybe having a win under your belt. Are you starting to feel like you like it out here --
DAVID TOMS: Oh, I love this Tour. You know, I mean, what's there not to like about it? I think it was more about I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to try to win a tournament. I felt like I had chances but wasn't getting it done, and that's when you think about when you go home at night away from the golf course. To finally get that, have that behind me now, it's all about going out and trying to play great and giving myself another opportunity.

Q. What are your thoughts on the course, and is this a fun course?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah, it's a beautiful golf course. It's in great shape. You certainly want to be below the hole, which is kind of the norm for an old golf course. I think when they start putting the pins on the corners, it's going to change the way you have to play the golf course. The first two days I was here, the pin has been in the middle of the green, especially for the pro-am, trying to take it easy on the amateur. So I'm sure it'll toughen up and you'll have to pick and choose where you can be aggressive because you can get in a bad spot. It'll be a major championship for us, and so I look forward to trying to get the ball in the fairway. That's all the most important thing in a major, like I said, having a good game plan.

Good old golf course, beautiful clubhouse here coming up the 18th hole, and I love the old traditional stuff where you're not walking yourself to death. Usually you walk off the green, the next tee is right there, which is nice. Makes for an interesting day during the pro-am because you hear a lot of "fore" and other people in your fairway and everything else, but I like the way the tightness of the golf course, all right here together.

Q. There's that thought that the Senior Tour is a little more laid-back. I don't know if you agree --
DAVID TOMS: Yep.

Q. But if you agree, do things get taken to another level and everyone focusing a little more when it's a major championship?
DAVID TOMS: Well, I think the focus is there week to week when guys have a chance to win. It's so competitive. No one acts up. Everyone has to go get it, and everyone is a champion out here, so they've won tournaments before, so they don't have -- sometimes on the PGA TOUR you have a lot of guys on the leaderboard that have never won golf tournaments, and they talk about it every week, and it's difficult.

Out here, everyone knows how to do it, and it makes for an interesting Sunday afternoon. Everybody is moving forward rather than backing up.

Q. The fact that you got the win two weeks ago, and not just a win, a win at a major, how much more of a monkey off the back is that?
DAVID TOMS: Well, it's great. I mean, certainly to win my first tournament and be a USGA event, which I've always loved to play in throughout my career, starting with the U.S. Amateur, so it's nice to be -- a major golf tournament, it's not just a run-of-the-mill Champions Tour event. It was a big deal, and it means a lot to me. I get into Pebble Beach next summer. I get into, I guess, Hualalai for five years or whatever. That's a great place to start the year.

There's a lot of things that go along with it, as well as the purse was pretty big. It was almost like winning a regular tournament. All of that makes it pretty special.

But at the same time, it was just more about winning a tournament. All of the other stuff is just a bonus on top of that. For me, I think it'll be the shot to the arm that I needed to continue to play great.

Q. Where did you go on vacation?
DAVID TOMS: We went to Jackson Hole. Just one more week out of the Louisiana heat was nice. One more week at altitude trying to figure out how far your golf ball goes. We had fun up there. I'm trying to do everything I can to stay away from my hometown this summer. I think I've been there for one day in the last five weeks, and I'll be home a couple days after this and then head over to Europe a little bit early. Trying to stay out of the heat as much as possible.

Q. Do you think that momentum carries over, winning a major to --
DAVID TOMS: Well, I don't see why not. I've played well the last couple of days. But you never know when you get into it and the pressure is on. I feel good about what I'm doing, and my putting has been better the last few weeks, and that was really the key to winning the U.S. Senior Open.

You know, you never know. It's golf. We all start from scratch tomorrow morning, and you have to go prove yourself all over again, which is part of the fun of doing it. So I don't see why not. I feel confident about what I'm doing, it's just a matter of going out there and executing and playing smart around this golf course that you can get into some trouble. But like I said, you've got to go and do it all over again, and I like my chances to play well. Now, whatever that does for me at the end, we'll see, but I feel like I'm going to have a good, solid tournament.

Q. There's so many championships out here, I think Bernhard said yesterday that really there are 50 guys that can win out here every week. Do you feel the depth and how strong it is right now?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah, you just don't know. You know he's going to play well because he always does, but as far as who's going to win, I mean, you don't know. Like you said, we're all champions out here. We've won tournaments, some more than others. But everybody feels comfortable, I would think. It's just a matter of what we can it is and who gets hot, who putts well, who keeps the ball in play on a golf course like this. So it's really hard to handicap the field. That's golf in general, really. Certainly the PGA TOUR but even out here. You have guys that seem to play well every week, but that doesn't mean they win every week. It's really hard to predict who that guy is going to be.

Q. What's one or two things that stand out about this track?
DAVID TOMS: Well, the main thing is if you are in the fairway, you have to pick and choose where to be aggressive. You've got to stay below the hole because it's very -- it's difficult to two-putt some of the putts behind the hole. But it's narrow in spots, so you'll see a lot of guys in the trees this week. Some of this deep rough you can't play out of. So first and foremost, keep it in play and see what happens.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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