Toms has 'prime opportunity' this weekend at Barbasol Championship

LEXINGTON, Ky. – David Toms didn’t know exactly what to expect this week.

The 52-year-old had entered the Barbasol Championship because he wanted to stay sharp. Toms doesn’t plan to play the Senior Open Championship next week, and he didn’t want to take a four-week break before PGA TOUR Champions returns for its final 11 events of the season.

His son Carter was playing in a tournament, too, so there wasn’t really time for a family vacation. So, Tom’s wife Sonya and their daughter Anna said they’d make the four-and-a-half-hour drive to Kentucky from their home in Shreveport with him.

So far, it’s been well worth the trip.

Toms fired a 64 on Friday that left him tied for third at 12 under, just two strokes off Jim Herman’s lead entering the weekend – with a chance to become the second-oldest winner on the PGA TOUR.

Sam Snead, who won the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open at the age of 52 years, 10 months and 8 days, is the first. He has Toms by a matter of four months and nine days.

“That would be kind of cool, but I've got a long way to go,” said Toms, who remembers spending time with Snead at the Masters. “See if we can play well enough tomorrow not to be too far back on Sunday and have a chance.”

Toms, a 12-time winner on the PGA TOUR, has been his usual patient and steady self during the first two rounds at the Champion Course at Keene Trace Golf Club, a course he’s played several times before in U.S. Open qualifying.

The 2001 PGA champion has hit 21 of 28 fairways and 29 of 36 greens in regulation. He’s made one eagle, 14 birdies – pitching in three times Friday from just off the green -- and dropped just three shots to par, including on the last hole Saturday that kept him from a share of second.

“My first goal was just to play Saturday and Sunday really, and then I started feeling good about it yesterday, the way I was playing, and obviously it carried over to today,” Toms said. “So, I'm in good shape. But I'll have to go really low on the weekend like everybody else is going to have to do.

“It's a longer golf course for me, so it helps that it's drying up a little bit. So, I don't have as many scoring opportunities as some of the other players, but if I can take advantage of the ones I do have, I'll be okay.”

This is just the third TOUR event he’s played this season, tying for 31st at the Charles Schwab Challenge and missing the cut at the U.S. Open. Toms has three runner-up finishes on the PGA TOUR Champions, though, including in his title defense at the U.S. Senior Open and at another major, the Regions Tradition.

“Had opportunities, haven't been able to get it done,” Toms said. “But like I said, everybody out there are champions, all the guys that are playing, so they know how to win.

“You have to go out there and do it and I haven't been able to this year. We still have a lot of tournaments left. Our fall is pretty important as a player out there, a lot of tournaments. So, I have some opportunities, I just have to get close and see if I can have something go my way.”

He’s got a prime opportunity this weekend, too.