History: Wachovia Championship  PGATOUR.COM Contributor What good is a six-shot lead walking up the final fairway? Sure, you can tip your cap to the crowd and blow kisses taking a leisurely stroll, but in all likelihood it's been a yawner of an afternoon because the tournament's outcome has been all but decided. No, it's more artistic to entertain the gallery by throwing a few shots away, a momentary pratfall (or four) causing a collective gasp at the horror (or hope) of impending disaster.  The last hole wasn't pretty for David Toms at the '03 Wachovia Championship, but he still got the win. (Marco Garcia/WireImage)
At least that's the way David Toms might embellish the tale of how he won the inaugural Wachovia Championship four years ago. It was a lesson in why people shouldn't head for the exits after Act 4, Scene 3 of "Romeo and Juliet" believing they've seen everything. Toms toiled to build up that six-stroke cushion over the first 71 holes and was all but guaranteed his first victory in 20 months, since a 2001 Michelob Championship at Kingsmill came on the heels of his PGA Championship title. But Toms then made every mistake imaginable, and a few that were beyond comprehension, in taking a big, fat, quadruple-bogey 8 at the home hole. Worry? Heck, he still had one more shot to give before falling tail-first into a playoff. "[Other players] are going to give me a lot of grief for the way I finished the tournament, I'm sure," Toms said after his 10-under-par 278 total gave him a two-shot edge over Vijay Singh, Robert Gamez and Brent Geiberger. "At least the guys that played here, they are going to understand how tough the course was, how the conditions that we played under today were. "They are going to realize that I played a great round of golf until that last hole, and they are going to have to stick it to me a little bit for the way I finished. But that's fine, I can take it." The tournament nearly became the second significant collapse for Toms in the span of a few months. In the previous year's World Golf Championships-World Cup in Mexico, teammate Phil Mickelson missed the fairway at the last hole and Toms dumped their next shot in the water to hand the title to Shigeki Maruayama and Toshi Izawa of Japan. "I had to deal with that for a few months before the season started," Toms recalled of tying for second to end a winless year despite a dozen top-10 finishes in official PGA TOUR events. Toms absorbed a few more lumps to start 2003. He rallied but lost 2-and-1 to Tiger Woods in the final of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, then slipped with a closing 74 and tied for eighth in the Masters. Worse yet, the week before the Wachovia Championship he missed the cut at New Orleans, his stomping grounds, for a fifth weekend without play that year. The Wachovia Championship was a different matter. The TOUR's return to Charlotte after leaving Quail Hollow Club in 1979 in favor of Washington, D.C., brought back into the fold a course plenty long enough (7,396 yards) and plenty demanding. That combination is right in Toms' wheelhouse. Toms displayed phenomenal talent to shoot 70-69-66, the latter day in testing winds, and led by five going into the final round. "For guys who don't quite have the ability of a Tiger Woods or an Ernie Els or a Phil Mickelson, it doesn't quite come as easy," he said. "I can't be off and win tournaments. I have to be playing my best." Toms continued that play in reaching 14 under with an 8-iron to 10 feet at the par-5 10th hole; the previous day he'd eagled there. In boxing parlance, no one laid a glove on him the first 71 holes. That's when his game went a little nuts. Admittedly trying to polish off the romp with a birdie at a 478-yard finishing hole, Toms' drive strayed a few too many steps to the right -- say, 40 yards or so -- and into deep tree trouble. He chopped out, across the fairway and within the hazard formed by a man-made creek on the fairway's left side. The third shot escaped the hazard and left a wedge approach, which came up 47 feet short of the flagstick. Four putts later -- he three-putted the last six feet -- Toms had the trophy. And a helluva story for the grandkids. "I felt very much, for some reason, I just felt at peace this week with my game and just the whole surroundings were good," Toms said. "I felt like I was in total control over what was going on -- at least for 71 holes." |
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