A tough day for Toms now sets up a Sunday shootout
By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM Managing Editor
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Plenty of strange things happened in the third round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, specifically in regards to the top of the leaderboard. But perhaps nothing was more unusual than hearing David Toms saying he expected to get a good night's sleep going into Sunday's final round.
Here's a guy who just blew a seven-shot lead over 18 holes Saturday, who just frittered away the opportunity to grab this tournament by the throat and ease his way to his first PGA TOUR victory in five years. And he's going to sleep well?
OK, he didn't say he'd sleep well. Just better. And it's because . . .
". . . I don't have the lead anymore," said Toms, fresh off his 4-over 74 that was as perplexing as it was tortuous. "I've been playing with the lead for about two weeks now. It's not always the easiest thing to do.
"Maybe I will go out there with a little pressure off of me and see if we can do better tomorrow."
If you needed a reminder just how unpredictable -- and how pressure-packed -- competitive golf is, then Saturday is your latest example. The 44-year-old Toms entered the day with a seven-shot lead, having opened with a pair of near-record 62s. No player in the last 11 years at a TOUR event had held that big of an advantage after 36 holes.
But when the last putt dropped Saturday, Toms was not the leader. That honor goes to playing partner Charlie Wi, who produced a 4-under 66 to take a one-shot lead, the first 54-hole lead he's ever held in seven years on TOUR.
Of course, if Wi needed a reminder in just how fleeting a lead can be, he got the up-close version Saturday. Never in his wildest imagination did he expect a different name atop the third-round leaderboard. Especially his.
That's why he was careful not to tempt the golf gods, not to give them any bulletin-board material to pull the rug out from under him just like they had done with Toms.
"It's such a crazy game," said Wi, whose best results on TOUR are three second-place finishes. "I don't know what to say. ... I don't want to say too much because golf is such a fickle game. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow."
Indeed. Wi and Toms have a bit of separation from the rest of the pack -- three shots ahead of everybody else -- but after Saturday's developments, can we really count anybody out? John Senden shot an even-par 70 and gained three strokes on the lead. Mark Wilson shot a 1-over 71 and gained two strokes.
Who would have guessed that, especially after the first two days produced such low-number results and a guy with seemingly bucketloads of momentum?
"You just don't know with this game," Wilson said. "You see a guy shoot two 62s and you think he's got it all figured out, and then he shoots over par. Never would have guessed it. Never would've bet on that."
Toms certainly wouldn't have bet on it happening, especially after he opened Saturday with a birdie at the par-5 first hole. But after a perfect drive on the par-4 second, he took a lob wedge and floated it to the pin 90 yards away. He felt good about the shot. He was even posing on it.
But a gust of wind kicked up and the ball landed just over the bunker ... and then backed up into it. He failed to get up and down to save par. It was his first bogey all week. And just like that, the momentum -- all that momentum that had been building from last week's near-win at THE PLAYERS Championship, followed by those twin 62s here at Colonial -- disappeared.
"That's kind of the story of the day, to be quite honest," Toms said. "When something like that happens, you lose momentum."
He followed with another bogey at the third hole. Then another one at the sixth. His putter had gone cold. He was between yardage with his irons. He never felt comfortable. The wind was tricky. A double bogey at 14 -- his first in his last 343 holes at Colonial -- was unnerving. He thought he was hitting good shots but they were falling in all the wrong places.
Even an 80-minute weather delay couldn't recharge him, as he bogeyed the 16th. His day had completely unraveled.
"I just didn't feel like I was in control," he said. "That's a bad feeling when you go from being where I felt like I was in total control of what I was doing to all of a sudden -- not that it's slipping away, but I just didn't feel as good."
Seventy players had made the cut, but because of that seven-shot lead, Toms was the only one who shouldered any pressure. Everybody else could play loose while Toms found himself playing defensively.
"I felt like I was hanging on all day, trying not to make a mistake rather than going out and playing great," he said. "That's probably what the big lead does to you."
Toms mentioned that he thought the pins were in much tougher positions on Saturday than in the first two days. He said he felt tournament officials were "protecting the course" -- and he's fine with that.
"It should be tough on the weekend," he said, "especially after a guy had already ripped up the golf course."
Perhaps it's all perspective, though. When Wi was asked whether he thought the pin placements were significantly tougher Saturday than in the first two days, he replied: "I thought they were tougher (Friday)."
Doesn't matter. For Wi, an unexpected opportunity has arrived. For Toms, the damage is done. The seven-shot lead is gone, and if he wants to win his first tournament in five years, he'll have to do so rallying from behind.
It's only a one-shot lead, though, and there are now plenty of guys in the mix. Even though it was a weird way to get there, we've now got a shootout on our hands.
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