Toms on Harrington's Heels After Transitions Transformation

PALM HARBOR, Fla. -- Among the most confounding things about golf is never knowing on which side of sanity it's going to show up next. What was basic math one day can feel like rocket science the next. And vice-versa.

"That's what keeps players, whether it's our level or your amateur level, coming back," David Toms said. "I think that's the beauty of the game."

Easy for Toms to say -- at least on Friday.

All Toms did in second-round play in the Transitions Championship was shoot an eight-under 63, one day after, in very similar conditions, he posted an opening-day 74. Besides being just one shot off the course record, Toms' 11-shot improvement moved him from 3-over and ready to pack his bags to 5-under and three strokes back of leader Padraig Harrington.

"Because every day is a new day, you don't know what's going to happen; are you going to get good breaks or bad breaks, a bounce here or there?" Toms said. "My goal was just to shoot a couple under and make the cut. I really hate not playing on Saturday. And I birdied the first two holes. I just started hitting good shots."

When the day was over, Toms had eight birdies and no bogeys. The 63 is his best round since 2006 when he shot a career-low 61 on the way to winning the Sony Open.

"I was pretty down after yesterday. Just hanging on, trying to get finished, get to the clubhouse."
- David Toms "It's just the nature of our game," said Jim Furyk, who knows a little bit about mood swings on the Innisbrook Resort Copperhead course. In last year's Transitions, he opened play with a 65 to hold the first-round lead only to follow it with a 78 and barely make the cut.

"That's golf. It's really easy to lose your confidence, and it's tough to kind of get it back," Furyk added. "But go out there early on, make a nice putt, start hitting a couple of good shots, and you get on a roll and catch that momentum. It's a hard thing to do, but once you get it rolling, it seems like a lot of things can go right."

Not much has been going Toms' way lately.

Bothered by a bone spur in his right shoulder, the 2001 PGA champion has been trying to play through the Masters before facing surgery that will need eight weeks of downtime. And the results are pretty much what you'd expect.

Only five of Toms' 16 previous rounds this season had been in the 60s, and the two best -- a par of 67s -- came at the Bob Hope Classic where the ghost of Julius Boros would be even-money to break par. Add some lingering back ailments and Toms can't help but wonder about his future.

"At 43 when you start having those little nagging things like that, it's like, what's next?" he said. "I've certainly lost distance. I think by the stats, I've lost almost 10 yards from where I was last year at this time."

If you think that makes competing tough, imagine how hard it makes believing you can compete. A recent piece in a national golf publication talked about the distance playing partners where hitting it past Toms. That would not have been such a big deal, except Toms happened to read it.

"Then it starts to affect me mentally as well as physically," he said. "But that's part of getting old. At the same time, being injured and old is not a good thing."

That's why Friday's round was one to relish.
Toms birdied three of four holes to start. He navigated the troublesome finish -- the Nos. 16, 17 and 18 tagged "the Snake Pit" -- one under.

"Yeah, I was pretty down after yesterday," he said. "Just hanging on, trying to get finished, get to the clubhouse.

"I was pretty down on myself and my game at the time."

Then came another day.

The beauty of golf.