KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2021

David Toms

Press Conference

Southern Hills Country Club

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 2021 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship here at Southern Hills Country Club. We are pleased to be joined by 2001 PGA Champion, David Toms, who has also won a major out here on the PGA TOUR Champions. So let's talk about majors. It's kind of attached to your name a little bit. On this tour, most of the events are three days, three rounds, this one's four, this major's four. Does that adjustment come early in the week do you start thinking about it the week ahead or does it not affect a person like yourself.

DAVID TOMS: Oh, I think, first of all, it kind of goes back to the way we have played golf most of our career. Four-round tournaments or you hope four-round tournaments, with weather permitting, and where you kind of pace yourself in the beginning, especially in majors. Throughout our careers we always, you don't want to knock yourself out of the event early on, so you play, try to hit fairway, obviously, but then you play to the fat side of the green, you want to get off to a good start, a bunch of good solid pars is a good thing in a major championship, and then see how the golf course is playing, see how the other guys are scoring, see how you can score and go from there.

Which is different than our normal events out here on the PGA TOUR Champions is that it feels like a sprint from the very beginning and if you don't play well the first day, you're not going to necessarily have a chance come Sunday afternoon. So it's a little bit different mindset, but most of the guys are used to that, at least the ones that have played tournament golf for the last 30 or 40 years, you kind of understand what you have to do.

JOHN DEVER: Questions?

Q. What's your experience here? I'm sure you played in 2001 and 2007 and what did you think of the redo when you saw it?

DAVID TOMS: Well, I mean, it's a little bit cooler experience so far. I remember everybody changing shirts and everything before they teed off the last time, bringing a couple shirts to the golf course and trying to get through the heat.

But the golf course seemed to be back then a lot bouncier, I guess, it's pretty soft right now. I remember it being very difficult to hit the fairways because the balls would chase out in the fairway and they're all tilted. And so we would, a lot of guys hitting irons off the tee and then if you played aggressive and hit driver you really had to hit it very straight or curve it the right way. So it's not playing like that right now. Hopefully, if the rain holds off we can get more of that before Sunday. But it's a different golf course, obviously it's been redone, a lot of green complexes are similar but the bunkering is different and there's a lot of shots out there where you have to be just try to hit the middle of the green and then you're going to have trouble doing that, even with short shots. So this should be pretty challenging.

Q. Do you come in in pretty good form? You had the nice run in Houston, looked like you had a lot of really steady results there. Game's in a really good shape?

DAVID TOMS: Pretty solid. I'm doing a lot of things fairly well, I wouldn't say I'm doing anything great. So I need to try to put it all together, but a lot of times you're just one swing away from something that clicks in your swing or one putt away from something in your setup that feels good and they starting to in. You learn that throughout a career that you have all these ups and downs and you just try to stay positive best you can and ride the good times and try to finish well when things are clicking. It's no different now that we're older, we might be a little bit wiser, but we're still trying to search for the same thing, the perfect week, and I haven't quite done that yet this year.

JOHN DEVER: Last year was a strange year for everybody with what's going on all around us. Only one major played on this tour. So how nice is it to get back in a little bit of a steady cadence, three weeks ago was the Regions Tradition and here we are at Southern Hills, to get the major championship mindset back on a regular basis.

DAVID TOMS: It's very nice. Even here this week, seeing grandstands, seeing some people out in the practice rounds. Yesterday for the pro-am out watching golf, asking for autographs, people clapping when you hit a good shot, even though you're just out there practicing. So anything like that that starts to feel normal, I mean, I'm so happy for it. Like you said, to be able to start playing stretches of golf where we can play two, three, four weeks in a row, and try to get your game peaking at the right time, we have just been so inconsistent with our tournaments and what we were trying to do and I talked to one of our staff members today and just said, thank you for a job well done during this time that has been very difficult for everybody. At least we're still playing golf.

But now we're starting to get back to where golf that feels normal to us. It's all about creating a buzz with the fans, the tournament sites, the local communities benefiting off us being here and then us being able to showcase great golf even at an older age.

Q. Is there, did you watch Phil's finish on Sunday and is there inspiration to be drawn there for all golfers?

DAVID TOMS: Well I think, especially for guys that are playing out here -- I'm not saying that there's inspiration that I need to go back to the PGA TOUR and try to compete out there or anything -- but I was very happy for him, obviously I competed against him for a long time. And I watched all weekend, I was just hoping that he kept everything together and I think in the end, I mean, I think he would tell you that his driver really won the golf tournament for him. He was able to -- a guy that doesn't necessarily always hit it in play, he seemed to like use it to his advantage and really attack the golf course. Where other guys were having a time where they were just being very conservative, Phil was trying to make birdies, it looked like to me. And he was very focused, determined, and so I was very happy for him. Not only because he's a friend, he's a competitor that I played against for a long time, he's been a partner of mine in international competitions, and I think it does a lot for the game of golf for a guy like that to win on that stage and to make history and it just brings a lot of focus to our game.

I mean, you turn on network television, sports television, it's all about Phil Mickelson and history that he made at the PGA. So it's great for all of us.

JOHN DEVER: In about three weeks PGA of America's going back to a place that you're well aware of and connected with, Atlanta Athletic Club, we're hosting our KPMG Women's Championship at AAC there. So how do you think that golf course might fit the best female players in the world in a major championship? How will that setting be?

DAVID TOMS: Well, it will obviously be different than when I won there. They have redone the greens, new grasses, the ball should be bouncing more than when I, especially into the greens, from when I won there. But it's a tough golf course, it will be interesting to see how they set it up for the women and, but they're great players too. I mean, any time that I'm ever around any of them practicing or you meet them and, I mean, they're great athletes as well. Obviously the distance is different, but if they can set up the golf course in such way that that's not a problem for them, I mean, I look for them to compete as well as the men do on it. Their short games are tremendous, so it will be a good test. Any major on that golf course will be tough, but it's a great venue for it, it's a great facility, a great club, I think fans in that area, they love golf and they can get some people out and support them. I think they will have a nice event.

JOHN DEVER: We're looking forward to it.

Q. You talk about the golfer's constant pursuit of the perfect week, that perfect week. Was that pretty close to it for you in 2001?

DAVID TOMS: It was. And even practice came together good. I mean, any time that you're out playing a major championship on a golf course and you're making birdies in practice rounds you're like, I can play it. It was all about getting it in the fairway, obviously, to get it out of that Bermuda rough, but I just, my confidence just continued to build the entire week and obviously it was my week in the end. Making a hole-in-one and things like that. So, yeah, it was a perfect week, did a lot for me and my career and it was just something I'll remember forever.

To lay up the way I did on the last hole, I mean people still ask me about that, talk about that. So I guess in a way all the things that happened with the hole-in-one and then that happened on 18, it's something that in major championships people really remember. It was the only one that I won, but it was something that stood out to a lot of people, so that was nice.

JOHN DEVER: Well, thank you for finding us and making some time. We appreciate it. Best of luck all week long.

DAVID TOMS: Thank you.