RANCHO MIRAGE, Cali. — Defending champion David Toms finished another successful round at the Galleri Classic on Saturday with a birdie on the 18th hole. He signed his scorecard and then put on a vest and a heavy coat over the light coat he was already wearing.
It was one of the coldest March 30ths in recent memory in Rancho Mirage, but the blustery conditions didn’t slow down Toms who parlayed seven birdies and two bogeys into a 5-under 67 to put him at 8-under for the tournament. He is tied for fourth, three strokes behind leader Ricardo Gonzalez. Toms’ 67 was the second-best round of the day in tricky conditions.
“It wasn’t terrible out there except for the fact that it’s just cold and our bodies don’t feel great when it’s cold, because all your little ailments feel a little bit worse,” Toms said, adding that he’s not usually a good bad-weather player. “I tend to struggle in cold and wet. I’ve got some arthritis issues and other stuff that flares up, but I hung in there good today. Hopefully, it will warm up a little bit tomorrow.”
The temperature on Saturday was in the mid to high 50s during play. Sunday’s projected high temperature is around 64 degrees with more rain possible.
But it seems like you could throw any weather at Toms on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club and he’d succeed. He’s now played five rounds at this event and is a total of 24-under — 65-70-65-68-67.
He said he’s not sure why he’s had so much success on this course, but he does feel comfortable here.
“I’m fairly patient out here and I feel comfortable with the greens as far as the reads. You don’t always hit a good putt, but I feel like I know where I need to go with the ball,” Toms said. “I know what holes I can attack and what holes I need to play conservative. I’ve had a pretty good game plan. You’ve still got to execute the shots and today was a tough day, but I got off to a good start which was the key.”
Toms birdied three of the first five holes, had two bogeys in the middle and then birdied four of his last six holes to skyrocket up the leaderboard and put himself in position to repeat.
He won the inaugural event last year with a wire-to-wire effort. It was his fourth victory on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, but he hasn’t won again since winning here.
Toms is looking up at three talented players — Gonzalez at 11-under and Steven Alker and Retief Goosen both at 10-under — ahead of him on the leaderboard, but he put himself in position to contend and that’s all he was hoping for with Saturday’s round.
“Obviously, there’s some guys up there that are playing some good golf, not just this week but here lately so their games are in good shape so I’ll have to go out and shoot a low round,” Toms said. “You never know, though. You get yourself in there on Sunday and you never know.”