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August 13, 2008
GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
DOUG MILNE: David, thanks for joining us for a few minutes.
Played well last week. Tied 15th last week. You're just steadily improving. You haven't missed a cut since the Masters, 11 or so straight.
Just kind of talk about your game as you're heading into this week.
DAVID TOMS: Game feels pretty good. Obviously, I'm kind of far down on all the lists that people look at so I need to catch fire the next few weeks and play my way through the FedExCup and, you know, I guess the way it's formatted this year, you have -- you can move up pretty quickly, move up or down.
So for me this year -- I was in a totally different position last year where, you know, you didn't move that much but I still ended up moving out of the Top 30, even missed the Tour Championship for the first time in a long time.
It would be a place I would like to get back to and, you know, this year I'm going to have to catch fire here at the end to be able to do that.
DOUG MILNE: You had mentioned changes to the course. It's going to be interesting to see where they place some of the pins this week.
What are your thoughts on the course?
DAVID TOMS: Wonderful. Old-style golf course, club surroundings. We don't get to play these types of golf courses very often, so I like it.
Obviously the greens are the biggest defense on this golf course and, you know, we saw most of the pins in the middle or very accessible places today. It didn't play that difficult.
So, we'll see what they do with the hole locations and that's going to be the telling sign is as to how the scoring will go because, overall, I think, most guys will have fairly short clubs into these holes compared to some of the courses we've been playing lately, so you'll have scoring opportunities, it's just a matter of, you know, how they protect the course, where they put the pins.
DOUG MILNE: Few questions.
Q. How difficult is it to come and learn a golf course in three days?
DAVID TOMS: I actually was here last fall. I came and played this golf course with a couple friends. I don't know the exact date. But it was last fall. It was wet and it was kind of chilly that day so the golf course is now playing much shorter than it did then and there's a lot of slope to the fairways and the roughs are not chip-out rough but at the same time it's bermuda grass and hard to control the ball.
You do have to learn it's not a driver on every hole, especially for half the field, they'll be hitting some other clubs off the tees, which I like that, and the way the fairways are sloped and the way they kind of gather in certain areas, that you'll have a lot of guys, you know, hitting the same shots from the same spots in the fairway which I like a lot, too.
You know, you'll -- it will take you -- take us probably by the end of the week to really figure out greens as far as you look at and see where the pin is, but you don't really know the slopes until you hit the shot. It will take awhile. And, you know, obviously whoever figures that out best will play the best.
Q. With the playoffs coming up, is fatigue going to be a factor?
DAVID TOMS: Not for me. You know, I think if you pace yourself, you can always take a couple days off in between tournaments and not really do anything and then, you know, we have -- in Boston, the golf tournament doesn't even start until Friday.
So, I'm sure some guys will go home and relax a little bit and, you know, so you just have to, you know, pace yourself. I'm one of those guys hopefully be playing a pretty long stretch here if I can get it going. I'm sure there's other guys trying to do the same thing.
Everybody I would say that's playing this week is trying to jockey for position, you know, to either make it into next week or the week after that or the Tour Championship.
You take a guy like Vijay, he's probably in his mind trying to get there as high as he can on the list to have a little bit of a cushion going into the next few weeks.
We'll see how it goes. I think we'll have an exciting week here. I think this is an upgrade for this golf course, this golf tournament and hopefully they can get some people out here. The weather is going to be nice after today. It should be a fun week.
Q. David, can you talk about the greens being the last defense. This rain, what does it do for it?
DAVID TOMS: Softens up the golf course a little bit. The ball is not chasing quite as much. I know there on 18 yesterday afternoon I hit a 3-wood that pretty much reached the bunker, and today I hit it, I hit the same type of shot, I was a good 20 yards short of the fairway bunker. Not quite as much roll today. I wouldn't say it's playing long but it's playing longer than yesterday afternoon.
Then you have the wet rough. You want to stay out of there because you certainly can't control your ball out of the wet bermuda grass.
But by the week end the golf course will be back to where it was yesterday, I would think.
Q. What prompted you to come play, just because you thought --
DAVID TOMS: Couple of different things. I've always liked Greensboro, just coming to here to play. I played here earlier in my career.
Like I said, I came here in the fall and played this golf course. I know with Wyndham's involvement and the local people here, they really tried to step up the event. It's a good year for guys to come play and support the event.
Then, at the same time I'm in a position where I need to play well. I need to play, first of have all, and I need to play well to move up. All those factored into it.
I spoke to the Tournament Director months ago, even before where I was on the list and said I would be here because I thought it was a good year to support the event when they were changing venues and they needed that support.
DOUG MILNE: Alright. David Toms, best of luck this week.
DAVID TOMS: Thank you.
End of FastScripts
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