PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- David Toms was a teenager, standing on the putting green at Balboa Park in San Diego, waiting to tee off at the Optimistic Junior World Championship.

Billy Mayfair was several groups ahead, playing the first hole, and Toms watched as he rolled in a 10-footer for bogey -- for bogey -- and punctuated it with a fist pump.

“My dad said, ‘Did you see right there? That’s why he’s one of the best, the most competitive guys out here,’” Toms recalled. “He just saved bogey and he was into it, which you know, at 14 years old, I was very impressed with that.

“I’ve always been impressed with him. He works hard, and he’s been a good player for a long time.”

The two men will renew the rivalry that began in the late 1970s on Saturday when they play together in the final pairing at The Honda Classic.

Toms enters the third round as the frontrunner at 10 under, one stroke ahead of Mayfair who is three shots up on the rest of the field. Both shot 67s on Friday, but Mayfair’s came without a bogey on the breezy Sunrise Course at the Country Club of Mirasol.

“What that tells me is that his misses are in the right spot, and he must be putting pretty well,” said Toms, who held as much as a five-stroke advantage in the second round. “That’s what I can take from no bogeys.”

Toms called Mayfair “one of the best junior players of all time.” Mayfair returned the compliment by saying Toms, who finished second last week at the Ford Championship at Doral, is “one of the best putters on TOUR – hands down.

“I haven’t played enough with him (lately) to see how he’s striking the ball, but obviously, he’s playing good every week,” Mayfair said, who’ll get to see just how well the recent Sony Open in Hawaii champ is performing on Saturday.

The 39-year-old Mayfair didn’t want to do the math as he thought back to the junior tournaments in which the two used to compete. He has a photo of the two of them taken at the 1984 Optimist Junior World which Toms won and Mayfair posted a top-five finish.

What Mayfair didn’t recall, but is worth noting, was that while Toms won the 15-17 age bracket that year, Ernie Els was the 13-14 champ and Tiger Woods won the 10 and under.

Mayfair did some of his best work as an amateur in USGA events -- including the 1987 U.S. Amateur that he won at nearby Jupiter Hills Country Club. Mayfair defeated Eric Rebmann 4 and 3 to take the title, which came a year after he won the U.S. Amateur Public Links.

He also won the 1982 Junior PGA Championship at PGA National, across the street from Mirasol. The Honda Classic is moving to PGA National next year.

“I have some good vibes here,” Mayfair admitted.

Mayfair also likes the Sunrise Course, which he compares favorably to Pinehurst No. 2 with its crowned greens that place a premium on shot placement rather than dart throwing. He tied for 41st and 22nd the last two years and shared fifth when the tournament was played at Sunset Course in 2003.

“I’m driving the ball well, and I’m hitting a lot of good iron shot to the right spots on the green, and the ball is not rolling off the greens too much for me,” Mayfair said. “It’s staying there, and I’m having some good looks at it.

“Kind of like Pinehurst, sometimes being 10 feet right off the green might be better than being five feet left of the hole. It’s just dependent where the flag is. You’ve just got to know where to try to put the ball on the green.”

Mayfair’s affinity for the area was one of the reasons he decided to play in The Honda Classic the last three years. He had skipped the tournament for the previous eight years when it was played in the Fort Lauderdale area.

“When they moved it up here to West Palm Beach, (I thought) I have great memories here,” Mayfair said. “I said, well, let’s go back there and see.”

Apparently, people here have good memories of Mayfair, too. As he was walking to the range on Friday a gentleman stopped Mayfair to show him a ball the golfer had given him after one of his matches when he won the U.S. Amateur.

“It was old and it was yellow and it was hard to believe we even played with that golf ball,” said Mayfair, who was quick to point out that it was still a Titleist, though. “It just brings back good memories.”

Maybe he’ll make some more on Sunday.