Champions Tour setting to Toms’ liking
50-year-old rookie records 5 top-25 finishes in 7 events
THE WOODLANDS — The Champions Tour, which assembles the age 50 and over set, is unlike any other professional sports setting. There’s chatter among the golfers and more interaction among players and the gallery than on the PGA Tour. It’s more laid back and not as cutthroat.
But don’t think for a minute these guys don’t want to win. It’s not all about catching up with each other’s family and yukking it up every week.
David Toms is living the life of a rookie on the Champions Tour and experiencing it first-hand. This weekend’s Insperity Invitational is the former LSU golfer’s eighth event on the tour.
“They’re still trying to win and play great golf, but at the same time they’ve done it before,” said Toms, winner of the 2001 PGA Championship and whose PGA Tour earnings exceed $39 million. “Every day seems to be pretty low key. The mood is always pretty good out here.
“It’s a laid-back-type atmosphere but still competitive once you get to late Sunday and everybody is still trying to win.”
Toms’ best finish on the Champions Tour was fourth in his first event, the Mitsubishi Electric in Hawaii. It’s his only top-10 finish, but he has placed in the top 25 on five occasions. His $174,642 in earnings ranks 25th.
“A lot of the guys have already had great careers on the PGA Tour,” Toms said. “This is a bonus, still being competitive and still being able to play a sport that you love and make money doing it and having competition.” A tour of winners
Toms noted that in a PGA Tournament many golfers in the field have never won a professional event. In the Insperity Invitational, presented by UnitedHealthcare, 61 of the players have won 369 PGA Tour titles and 19 players have totaled 27 wins in one of the four majors.
“My first thought was that the guys still play really good golf, and I knew that by the scores they were shooting when I would follow it,” Toms said. “Being out here, around it every week, guys are still playing great golf. So to have a chance to win a golf tournament here, you have to play extremely well.
“We’re very lucky. This doesn’t happen in other sports. In golf, you have this second chance to have another career. A lot of the guys really enjoy that.”
Still playing occasionally on the PGA Tour, Toms acknowledged he first started the countdown to playing the Champions Tour about 10 years ago.
“Probably from age 40 on, you’re thinking about you’re one year closer,” said Toms, who last won on the PGA Tour in 2011, the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. “It was about getting in a more relaxed atmosphere, seeing guys I’ve played against my whole career and just enjoying it a bit more, going to new places.
“When you go to the same cities for 25 years and do the same thing, eat in the same place, stay in the same hotel lots of times, you just want something different. For me, this is part of that, being able to play the Champions Tour.”
Toms is no stranger to The Woodlands Country Club Tournament Course. He played on the Bruce Devlin/Robert von Hagge-designed course when it was the former site of the Shell Houston Open. The Louisiana native also played here during a final round of qualifying school and as a collegian in the Golf Digest Invitational. Like old times
Opened in 1978, the Tournament Course is risk-reward and the wind can be tricky blowing through the pine trees. Club selection is vital, but birdies can be made. Except for a few subtle changes, the routing of the golf course is pretty similar to when Toms played the course on the PGA Tour.
“The holes are what I remembered from years ago when I played here,” said Toms, who played the Tournament Course during Wednesday’s pro-am. “It’s a fun course. I have fond memories of The Woodlands. A lot of history for me.”
Since 2006, the Shell Houston Open has been played in Humble on the Golf Club of Houston’s Tournament Course, designed by Rees Jones and Toms.