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CARLSBAD, Calif. – Even now, 362 days later, Ian Poulter remembers what happened vividly.
First, there was that 3-wood that settled 4 feet from the pin for birdie
on the ninth hole. Next came a 9-iron that found the cup from 123 yards
out for an eagle 2. Then a 5-wood landed a foot for a gimme eagle at the
par-5 11th and all but sealed Poulter’s fate.
David Toms went on to take a dominating 3-and-2 semifinal
victory over the flamboyant Englishman on the way to victory in the
World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.
A day later, Toms orchestrated the most lopsided victory in the
tournament’s history when he beat Chris
DiMarco 6 and 5 in the 36-hole championship match. At one point
on that soggy Sunday, Toms led a phenomenal 9 up.
So thorough was Toms’ domination that he only lost 19 of the 116 holes
he played at La Costa last year. He was all square or leading in his
match all but 10 of those holes. He never trailed more than 1 down.
At least Poulter wasn’t the only one left shaking his head in disbelief.
“I was playing so good,” Poulter recalled. “If I played like I played,
and did play, in the semifinal round, I couldn’t see myself getting
beat. It was just against David Toms
that week, and he steamrolled everybody.
“His form was unbelievable. It was awesome golf. There’s nothing you can
do when he is 5 under through three holes. (You just say,) yeah, let’s
go to the next.”
As luck would have it, the two men are paired against each other
Wednesday during the first round of the World Golf
Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. Toms knows Poulter has
a score to settle.
“I guess if I was on the receiving end of what I was doing, it would
have been tough because I know that he was playing pretty well and
probably felt like he was,” Toms said. “Every time it looked like he was
going to have the upper hand on a particular hole, I did something to
either stuff it in there really close (or make it).
“I just didn’t give him a whole lot of daylight. It’s happened to me
before in matches where even when you feel like you’re playing well, the
other guy is doing it a little bit better. I’m sure he’ll be ready to
play tomorrow morning and make up for what happened in our match last
year, and it should make for some great golf.”
Toms, though, is eminently comfortable in the match play format. His
18-5 record at the Accenture Match Play Championship is second only to
that of Tiger Woods.
Toms has reached the final match twice in six appearances – he also took
Woods to the 35th hole in 2003 before losing 2 and 1. Toms’ place in
that finale is even more impressive when you consider that he spent
Friday night in the hospital hooked up to an IV and went on to win two
matches on Saturday.
You can credit Toms’ match play success to his singleminded approach to
the game. While others talk about the fickleness of the format – how you
can be playing well only to get beat by an opportunistic opponent – Toms
considers match play less stressful.
Say you show up for an afternoon starting time on Thursday in a
stroke-play event only to find the leader shot 8 under, Toms explains.
You bogey the first hole, and then “(you feel like) how can you possibly
win this tournament,” he said.
“You don’t have that factor here. You’ve just got to beat this guy that
you’re playing. Somehow, I get up for that because I don’t look ahead.
You can’t even look a hole ahead. I look shot to shot, and I tend to
play well that way.
“In this format you just go play. And you play each shot. You play your
opponent. I’d be better served to do that all the time, play that way.
But sometimes, it’s hard to do, and here it’s not. I don’t even look to
see who I’m going to play the next time.”
Toms may or may not know it, but three wins would put him into the
quarterfinals – and a potential meeting with Woods. But true to form,
the 39-year-old steadfastly maintains he has his blinders on as he
prepares for Poulter.
“Obviously, my expectations are pretty high because I’ve played well
here,” Toms said. “I like the format. It’s just so much unknown. A lot
of times, if you have 72 holes, you can make up for someone getting hot
one day. Here if somebody gets hot, there’s not a whole lot you can do
about it other than get hot yourself. You can be down the road with no
chance.
“You hear it all the time. You hear the guys that don’t play well, and
they get by. And you hear the other stories of a guy that’s 6- or
7-under par and loses. You don’t know. But I think that’s the beauty of
it, and it’s a nice change of pace from what we normally do.”
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