DAVID TOMS WENT OUT FIRST and will finish close to last at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, but he’ll be ready to watch his LSU Tigers take on the Alabama Crimson Tide for the college football national championship on Monday night. Playing alone, Toms raced around the Plantation Course at Kapalua in a mere two-and-a-half hours.
The LSU alum wore school colors (purple shirt, yellow slacks) during his final 18 in Maui, a respectable 2-under 71, his best round en route to a 4-over total of 296. (He shot 76, 74 and 75 on the first three days.) It should be good enough to keep him ahead of Jhonattan Vegas and tie him with Brendan Steele.
Not that Toms is thinking about that. While relatives, including his parents and sister, and close friends will be attending the BCS title game at the Louisiana Superdome, Toms and his wife and kids will be glued to a television screen in Maui.
The PGA Tour veteran said he wouldn’t make a prediction about the outcome of the big game, but was “hoping we’ll have a little bit of the home advantage. Of course, their 40 percent can sound awfully loud.”
And if his No. 1 Tigers lose to the Crimson Tide?
“We’ll sit around and sulk the rest of the day.”
Third-round leader Steve Stricker is currently hanging on to a slim one-shot lead over Webb Simpson and Jonathan Byrd with the final round in progress.
−The Armchair Golfer
(Visor tip: The Tour Report)