Toms shares first-round lead with Reavie
FORT WORTH, Texas – They say the mark of a true champion is not how many times you fall, but how many times you pick yourself up. Based on that statement alone, David Toms is a true champion. Toms, who lost a playoff to K.J. Choi last Sunday at The Players, opened with an 8 under 62 and shares the first-round lead with Chez Reavie at Colonial Country Club.Rickie Fowler was 8 under on his back-nine after starting on the 10th, but a double-bogey at the 9th dropped him to a shot off the lead. He still had a 29 on his last nine. Brendon De Jonge, Stewart Cink, Brian Gay, Charlie Wi and Nathan Green share fourth at minus-6 and Rod Pampling, Mark Wilson and John Senden round out the top-10 at 5 under par.
On Thursday, Toms played a round that was the kind players dream about. The hole looked big and he putted extremely well. Good putting has been lacking in his game, although that is all that has been lacking. He had a T3 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a T5 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun and has a total of six top-25s in 10 starts. He has won more than $1.7 million in this, a resurgent year for the 12-time tour winner.
Despite the disappointment of last week, Toms came in confident. He enjoys playing at Colonial, and he felt it is only a matter of time before he wins again. His last victory came in Hawaii at the start of the 2006 season.
“Just to get off to a good start and get there in contention right off the bat is a good feeling,” Toms said after a bogey-free, eight birdie round.
He understands the game is one that can’t be figured out, so he doesn’t try anymore. He is veteran enough to know there is not a lot of difference between playing a great round of golf and shooting even-par and shooting 8 under.
“It’s all about scoring and making that putt to keep your round going,” he added. “That’s what the great players do, they always seem to find a way. On the driving range, the putting green, if you’re out there early in the week, and you are a casual fan, and you are like, ‘What’s going to separate these guys? What’s going to happen for these guys not to be all tied when it comes down to the last hole, the last day?’”
Everyone looks like they can knock down the flagsticks early in the week. Everyone looks so good to the fans on a Monday and Tuesday. Then, things seem to intensify on Wednesday and when they start counting the strokes for real, well, it becomes an entirely different story.
“So, it’s all about scoring,” Toms said. “I think times when I’m not playing like I’m capable of playing, it can be attitude. It can be just things not going right. It can be a lot of different things. And confidence, obviously. But it is nice to be playing good again. Certainly, I’m not going to try to figure out why. I think if you look at the stats, they say I’m playing well across the board. But other than that, I don’t try to figure it out. I just go out and play.”
That’s the veteran in Toms coming to the forefront. That’s the experience of 20 years on tour talking. That’s a man who has fallen on a number of occasions, but picked himself up every time.
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