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ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANSApril 25, 2012David TomsAVONDALE, LOUISIANA COLIN MURRAY: All right. We liked to welcome 2001 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Champion, David Toms to the Interview Room here. David, we're talking your 19th start in this event. Obviously an event that means a lot to you. Just talk about being back here in your home estate and competing this week and we'll go to questions. DAVID TOMS: It's always fun to be here in New Orleans, always see a lot of familiar faces, get to catch up with some friends that I don't see on a normal basis being from the north part of the state. So I always like playing here. Look forward to the Pro-Am day every year because I always see some people I know, usually play with some people I'm friendly with and also get to eat the good food around the golf course. Always a fun day and certainly today didn't disappoint. COLIN MURRAY: Okay. We'll go ahead and open it up to questions. Q. I guess I can't sugar coat it, you're one of the older players now on the PGA TOUR. DAVID TOMS: Right. Q. You still comfortable coming into these tournaments thinking that you've got a chance to win? DAVID TOMS: Yes and no. I mean it just depends on the golf course, you know, how they set it up. Certainly today, if they played this golf course like we played it today it would be a tough tournament for me to win in the long run, to be quite honest. But they do a good job of moving the tees around here, putting some of them up on some of the holes. So, I've had some decent tournaments here. So, certainly if I get hot, I'll have a chance but I wouldn't say this is one of the golf courses where I feel like going into the week where I'm at an advantage. I wouldn't say that at all. But, you know, you never know when you get that feel of this is a this tournament I get up for just because I wanted to play good. There's a lot of people to watch, especially on the weekends, to be out here to watch maybe if I'm playing well. Just gives you that extra bit of a shot in the arm that sometimes you need. So I've played well here and I wouldn't say I've been real close to winning this tournament but I've been in contention before so I look forward to having a good week. Q. How is the standard of your game coming into this event? DAVID TOMS: It hasn't been great. I've had a couple of decent tournaments this year so far. Made a lot of cuts but I haven't really played that many events. I don't know if this is my 9th event maybe for the year so I haven't played too many. I've had some back issues. I had a WD in the World Golf Championship after two days where I was playing okay and just been one of those little nagging things that I need to get through. So, look forward -- there's no reason why. I'm not really struggling with my golf swing or putting or anything in particular. So, I need that one, you know, good round and good tournament to get a little bit of confidence moving forward. Q. What's your schedule like going into The Players and can you talk a little bit about your experience there, last year you saw that fine performance coming? DAVID TOMS: I'm going to play here and Charlotte and then The Players Championship. I've got a three week stretch where I've won two of those tournaments before so, you know, that's always nice to have your own parking spot when you show up at an event. It always has a nice feel to it. You know, tournaments -- last year coming off The Players, the way I played there, I played really solid all week. I thought it was my tournament to win until the very end and so, you know, I know I can play well there. It's a good time to, like I said, get a good round and get a little bit of confidence, and try to get into contention all three weeks would be the goal and then you never know from there. If you give yourself a chance, you never know when you're going to have that hot round that will get you to the winner's circle or somebody else might come back. Just don't know. You have to get there first. Q. What stands out in John Peterson's game? DAVID TOMS: Really no weaknesses. He's a young guy. Hits it plenty far compared to what you have to do out here on Tour, so that's not a problem for him. Can shoot low rounds. Lot of times you'll have a young player that is a good college player, never seems to go real low. Doesn't shoot a low round. I felt like he shot enough good hot rounds on good golf courses to know that he can do that. He's prepared his last few years at the University Club which, after the redo, is about a hard a golf course you can play. He's played Tour-caliber-type golf courses and played well. He's had a lot of experience. He's a good guy. He's a fun guy. I really like being around him. You know, like any young guy, you know, you make mistakes along the way but, you know, I think he'll have the game to really excel out here on Tour. Q. This being a Dye track, a couple weeks another Dye track at Sawgrass. Is there any comparability between the two? Do you see any kind of favorable connection with here and obviously success last year? DAVID TOMS: Yeah. I think they're similar golf courses other than the fact one is quite a bit longer than the other one. You have that excitement coming down the stretch with the holes that are -- you know, the final few holes at both golf courses. You know, you have those angles, some weird angles off the tee that make it sometimes with cross winds I can't hit this fairway, doesn't set-up right, so you have that. Then with the pins on the edges of the greens you get some awkward shots that you need to avoid a big number sometimes. So both courses are similar in that regard. But if you play really well and you control the golf ball, you can score on both courses. So, I think this is a nice preview to what goes on at The Players Championship. Q. Peterson, can you talk about your connection at LSU and all that? DAVID TOMS: It's obviously a program that did a lot for me, did a lot for me over the years with the fan basis and following and I try to give back as much as I can to them and follow them and keep up with them just like any of the other LSU sports and probably on a personal level, little bit more involved. I practiced quite a bit there at the University Club in the facility in the back part and support them as much as I can. I've been around the players a lot. You kind of get to know them. I've just enjoyed them. Chuck as done a great job. He was one of teammates at LSU. It's nice to have a guy behind the program like that that bleeds purple and gold like the rest of us. COLIN MURRAY: Anything else? Q. Do you have any guess at what your score will be this week or how the course will play? DAVID TOMS: Like I said, they had us one step off the back of every tee box today, it seemed like, so even though the pins were in the middle, the golf course is pretty tough with the wind. I thought it was playing -- it's very soft compared to what it's been the last few years. I don't know if that was the rain they had, you know, last week or what, but right now we're not getting a whole lot of roll so the greens are a little more receptive. That will help scoring. It's playing long. It depends on how they set it up. I don't even -- who knows what the wind is going to do. I guess it's going to blow the first couple of days. I think if you went out and felt like you were playing well and you could get to double digits under par, there sometime on the back-9 on Sunday and see how you do, that's -- I would take that personally. Might be ten shots off the lead but for me I think that would be pretty good golf. COLIN MURRAY: Okay. David, thanks for your time. Play well this week. DAVID TOMS: All right. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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