Toms could be Goliath on the Champions stage

It's all in jest, of course.

Standing at his ball in the fairway, David Toms looks straight ahead at his playing partners. Sometimes they’re 20 yards away. Sometimes 30. Maybe even 50. No matter the distance, one thing is clear -- they’re almost always closer to the green.

That’s when he hears the comments.

C’mon, grandpa, let’s go.

Toms just replies with a smile. He may be giving up yards off the tee, but he’s not giving up strokes. Of the 38 rounds Toms has played on the PGA TOUR this year, he has ended up shooting the low score in his group 16 times and matching it seven more.

"You earn more respect that way," Toms says, that smile turning into a look of satisfaction.

The closer the soft-spoken man from Louisiana gets to his 50th birthday on Jan. 4, though, the more often he hears the remarks -- particularly when you're playing a game dominated by players nearly half his age.

Toms, who has won 13 times on TOUR, including the 2001 PGA Championship, and was once ranked as high as fifth in the world, has nothing to prove to them, or anyone else for that matter.

He's still competitive -- the veteran nearly picked up his 14th win last fall, shooting four rounds in the 60s, playing two 26-hole days and finishing one stroke off Peter Malnati's pace at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

But it has become increasing apparent to Toms that it has to be the right course and the right conditions for him to contend.

"Lot of times it's the golf course, it could be multiple factors but there's not a whole lot of venues left out here on the TOUR where I feel like plays into my game," Toms said. "The guys that I play with all the time that are 50 and 60 yards past me off tee, hitting short clubs into holes where I can't get close to the pin. ...

"It makes it tough to compete on a weekly basis."

That's one reason he’s looking forward to joining older friends on the PGA TOUR Champions, where many believe he will be a real force. Jay Haas, a two-time winner of the Charles Schwab Cup, thinks Toms could be one of the dominant players for the next 10 years.

"He's got the kind of game that translates well to the Champions Tour," says Haas, a 17-time winner after turning 50. "It's a ball-striker's league to a certain extent but then you have to putt well and the guys who still putt well are the winners. David qualifies on both counts there.

“So he'll be tough to deal with -- he'll be one of the new sheriffs in town."

For now, the future sheriff must pick his battles on the PGA TOUR. One of those spots is Colonial Country Club, a course that allows him to remain competitive. That's why Toms is in Fort Worth this week making his 19th appearance in the tournament now called the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. He picked up win No. 13 at Hogan's Alley five years ago, and he has three other finishes of fifth or better, one of which came just two years ago.

Although Colonial (7,204 yards) is actually longer than its Metroplex counterpart, the AT&T Byron Nelson's TPC Four Seasons Resort (7,166 yards), the Fort Worth layout is tight and suited for shotmakers. There’s a reason why players such as Toms and Jim Furyk put it on their schedules.

"I've always said (it was) my favorite tournament on TOUR because of the golf course and the history," Toms said. "(It's) a place I've always enjoyed playing and to be able to finally win there, that was a lot of fun, as well."

The DEAN & DELUCA Invitational is one of a handful of tournaments that Toms would think about playing on the PGA TOUR once he turns 50 and graduates to the PGA TOUR Champions. That is, if he is eligible or gets an exemption.

It also depends on where the LSU golf team is playing that week.

Tom's 18-year-old son, Carter, who has his mother's dark hair but his father's winning smile, will be a freshman at LSU in the fall, an honor student in high school who hopes to study petroleum engineering. He's also going to Baton Rouge to play golf for the Tigers, just like his dad, a three-time All-American, did in the late 1980s.

"I'm sure he puts a lot of pressure on himself to perform because having me as a dad, you always try to downplay it as much as we can and try to make it fun for him," said Toms, who hopes to attend his son's tournaments whenever the schedules permit.

"As long as he continues to enjoy to play and work at it, he'll do good. ... I know it's a lot of stiff competition down there, lot of good players. I'm just hoping he's able to make the travel squad and see what college golf is all about because it's a lot of fun."

Toms and his wife Sonya also have a 10-year-old daughter named Anna. Toms describes her as "very much a girly girl," who is into music, art and cheerleading. She hasn't gotten the golf bug yet, though.

"She's a great girl," Toms says with a smile. "She loves her dad and hates to see me go every week when I have to take off."

So in some respects, the PGA TOUR Champions won't be that different for Toms. More often than not, he'll travel by himself while Sonya and Anna stay back home in Shreveport. Since the tournaments are three rounds and not four, though, Toms hopes to get home more often between events.

"I just came off three weeks in a row of tournaments on the West Coast," Toms said during an interview earlier this year. "It was tough on everybody."

At least Toms will have some new people to eat dinner with each night. He expects to have fun getting reacquainted with players he hasn't seen in awhile, and friends like Jerry Kelly, who turns 50 in November, and Steve Stricker, whose 50th birthday is in February. They’ll also be "rookies" next year.

"I get to play against the guys I've played against out here forever and ever, probably guys I know better than the young guys out there on TOUR now," he said.

"Plus, I think you start getting some kind discounts when you're 50 and things like that, carts in the pro-am and, you know, all those things that my body probably needs that at this point in time."

And the best thing? Toms will have left the world of golf courses that max out every spare inch of real estate behind.

"I don't know what they do to the tee placements and pin placements and other things," he said. "I would hope that's not quite as severe as what we play out here.

"You know, I've had my fill of 230-yard par 3s and 500-yard par 4s and 600-yard par 5s. I'm hoping they'll be a break from that."

Toms currently ranks 200th in driving distance on the PGA TOUR, ahead of just one player. His average of 268.1 yards is 20 shorter than the TOUR average. The TOUR leader, Tony Finau? Well, he clocks in at a prodigious 311.5 yards.

On PGA TOUR Champions, though, Toms would rank 48th. Sure, he's still giving up some yardage -- the leader averages 297.9 -- but at least he's in the ballpark again.

Toms will be hitting out of the fairway more often than not, too, and his short game has always been one of the best.

Scott Gneiser caddied for Toms for 15 years straight before amicably parting to try his luck with a couple of younger players. He's back with his old boss now, though, and like Toms, he is looking forward to seeing friends on the PGA TOUR Champions.

"I could see his game's gotten almost even better than what it's been," Gneiser said. "It's just the distance thing kind of hurts him out here. I think he's playing as good a golf as he's ever played. It's just a different game now."

While many will tell you Toms' strength is his putting, Gneiser thinks his biggest asset is his all-around game, which should translate well anywhere he plays. He also thinks Toms continues to improve, especially on his short game. Three years ago, Toms opened up his own golf academy in Shreveport, giving him a world-class practice facility essentially in his backyard.

“In the last year or so … ” Gneisner says, “his game from 100 yards in has become unbelievable."

Toms hopes to start his PGA TOUR Champions career in Hawaii at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. Who knows? He could always throw in the Sony Open in Hawaii, where he shot a career-low 61 on the way to victory in 2006.

And if he had his druthers and both were entered in the tournament, Toms would like to be paired with Paul Azinger and Nick Price in his debut.

"I played a lot of golf with them over the years, I respect them, like their games and I like their temperament on the course," Toms said. "They've always been supportive and encouraged me. That would be fun if that were to happen."

No matter who he's paired with, though, Toms is looking forward to it. And by all accounts, the fact that he played -- and remained competitive -- on the PGA TOUR until turning 50 should help him hit the ground running.

"We'll see," Toms said. "I know golf is played at a high level out there. I don't have any expectations other than doing something different and looking forward to it. And when I look forward to the challenge or doing new things or working at my game I usually do OK."

Committing to playing on the PGA TOUR Champions will also make a difference. Haas, who is now 62, would be the first to say he didn't immediately embrace the 50-and-over circuit -- playing just three events the first year he was eligible and 10 the second -- so he could spend more time on the PGA TOUR as his son, Bill, started making a name for himself there.

"I was 51 and didn't seem like I jumped in with both feet for either Tour," Haas recalled. "And I think if you do with the Champions Tour it's a great time in a player's golfing life at 50-51, you're the young guy. I think if he's got that attitude, if he's ready to come out, he'll be tough."

And make no mistake, Toms wants to win. He knows it won't be like playing against Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and Jason Day but it will still get his juices flowing -- which isn't happening very much right now.

To win on the PGA TOUR Champions, where Toms says he'll "be competing against the best players that are my age in the world," might feel a little different.

Then again, maybe not.

"Winning is a thrill," Toms says. "It always happens differently. One week you play great and it's easy. Other weeks you win but you kind of struggle and you had to get up and down and did all these things.

"I'm hoping that I'll be able to go out there and have a chance to do that, you know, get your heart pumping and see. I'm sure I would be nervous my first chance to win a tournament out there. No matter what level of golf it is, it's always difficult."

Toms has never shied away from a challenge. It’s why he’s been able to find success despite being the grandpa who’s farthest from the pin. Soon he will have a new challenge, facing familiar competitors on different courses – courses that give him a better chance to succeed.

All he has to do now is turn 50.

"It will be a new phase in my life and I actually look forward to it," Toms says. "Can't get here fast enough at this point."