	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 7, 2009

David Toms

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

Q. Did you walk out of there feeling good about the day in general or bad about kind of the ending or a combination?
DAVID TOMS: I'm not sure exactly what I feel right now. I'm just glad to get off the golf course. It was going downhill the last few holes.
I can attribute that to not being committed on a golf course that you have to be committed to. You know, I was obviously making it look pretty easy there for a while, hitting fairways, hitting it on the green, making putts. To be 8-under at any point in a round of golf around here is pretty good playing.
I got over to 6 and I was in the light rough there, I had 133. I thought it was going to be into the wind a little bit, but I knew all I had to do was land it over the front edge there, and I went with an easy 9 instead of hitting a full wedge, and that was mistake number one of the day, and I hit it over the green. Just kind of didn't even really hit a hard shot, kind of a three-quarter shot and just hit it over the green. Any time you're chipping downhill, downgrain it's very difficult to control it and stop it around the hole, and that's what happened there.
On 8 I watched Mike hit a hybrid type of club and then Davis got up and hit 3-iron and he didn't hit it very good and he came up short. I knew I wanted to hit 3-iron there because all I had to do was land it on the front of the green. I went ahead and pulled the hybrid out and just kind of teased into it and pulled it left and was in no-man's land over there. All I was trying to do on my second shot there was just to get a ball on the green so I could putt my next.
9, right down the middle of the fairway. I was trying to get my second shot towards the left side so I had an angle to that pin over there, and I pulled it about five yards into the bunker. A 74-yard bunker shot over another bunker to a back pin is just not a good spot, and I made another bogey.
I felt like I was still halfway in control of what I was doing, and I was making bogeys. It shows you the type of golf course it is.
I have to go out there and regroup for tomorrow and draw on the good stuff I did today and shoot another good round.

Q. You got into this tournament, locked it up in New Orleans?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah, I believe that's right.

Q. FedEx points or whatever it was?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah, that's exactly how I got in, which was nice. I mean, I had some incentive to try to get in this tournament, although it's not a tournament where I've played very well, but still one that you don't want to miss. I played my way into it, which is a good thing, and maybe that's why I went out there with extra determination today and played a better round of golf than I normally play here.

Q. How unexpected is it to get these conditions here? There's been so much wind.
DAVID TOMS: I think once they moved the tournament to this time of year, there's a chance we can get this. Not quite as much wind and firmer conditions than normal. You know, I like it a lot. I always prefer heat over cold and I prefer Bermudagrass over overseed. So as far as the golf course goes, I like it a lot better.

Q. Are you in the U.S. Open yet?
DAVID TOMS: I'm not.

Q. And then British, as well? What's the plan there?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah, entered into the British, and I have to qualify there, and then the U.S. Open same way. You know, obviously you can take care of that --

Q. Been a while since you've had to do that?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah, it is. This year the only major championship I'm guaranteed a spot in is the PGA Championship. I've got to play my way into the other ones. Obviously I missed the Masters for the first time in ten years, which is tough. They had a great tournament this year and I wanted to be there. I don't want to miss the U.S. Open or the British, so I'll have to go out there and do the best I can and try to play my way in.

Q. Did you watch it on TV?
DAVID TOMS: Absolutely, all of it.

Q. Did you tweak anything in your bag in the last few weeks coming in here, equipment-wise, do anything different?
DAVID TOMS: No, I put another putter in the week of New Orleans, only because just from pure mechanics I felt like I needed something that would have a little more, how do you say, a little more flow to the toe. I was kind of shutting my putter coming back so I needed a little more face rotation. That's why I changed putters. It's been pretty good.

Q. Did you change models completely?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah, I mean, I did, but like I said, it wasn't because I disliked the other one. I was going for a little bit of different feel with my mechanics. It's not a big deal. I'm not really trying to do anything differently.

Q. What are you using this week then?
DAVID TOMS: It's one of the Scotty Cameron milled putters. I don't even know what the model is. I think it's the DT model, how about that? I think that's what it says.

Q. Are you going to do the Columbus qualifier?
DAVID TOMS: No, I'm going to qualify in Memphis. Memphis has always been good to me there. I've qualified for the U.S. Open in Memphis before, so I'm going to go and try there.

Q. When was the last time you had to go through qualifying, do you recall? Has it been years and years?
DAVID TOMS: You know, I guess it was probably -- the last time that I went through U.S. Open qualifying would have been the year that Payne Stewart won the U.S. Open at Pinehurst.

Q. '99?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah.

Q. How many spots do they give there?
DAVID TOMS: Anywhere between a dozen to 20, depends on the strength of the field and what's going on.

Q. It's kind of the secondary one?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah, kind of the secondary one behind Columbus.

Q. Stats would indicate you've never driven it better than what you're driving it right now, in play, and the fairways are like second or third in driving accuracy.
DAVID TOMS: Well, I think that's been the key to why I've played pretty well so far this year. I still throw in a bad drive here or there, but I feel good about my equipment, I feel good about my swing off the tee, and as long as I can commit to the shape of the shot, I've been driving it pretty well.

Q. People are saying this is a good golf course for you, but it sounds like you've come to grow to like it?
DAVID TOMS: Yeah, it's awkward. I mean, I think everybody would say that. I think you have -- it's almost like you shouldn't even think about where the pin is on the green when you go to hit your tee shot because as soon as you try to put it in a spot with your tee ball or your second shot, then you get into a bad spot there trying to set up your next shot and you start to make bogeys. It's almost like, hey, every one is a battle to try to get it in the fairway and then pick your spots from there. If you ever get ahead of yourself, it's a very difficult golf course.

Q. When did the switch kind of change for you last year in terms of this comeback? Was it physical as much as mental with the back?
DAVID TOMS: You know, I think a lot of things. I got my old caddie back, which is nice, just having success together. I think you kind of expect that when you go to the golf course.
You know, equipment-wise, I didn't change equipment until the beginning of this year. I did start to get healthy toward the fall last year, and I haven't really had any back problems since then, so I've been able to work on my game, practice short game, long game, everything else, and there for a while at the end of the year last year I wasn't really able to work on anything and spend any time at all. Just all those things put together made the difference as far as -- I wouldn't say that I'm back to the level of play that I was early 2000 is when I felt like every week I was just going to have a great week. But I am getting closer for sure.

Q. What was your first week back with Scott?
DAVID TOMS: It would have been Firestone last year.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297