At Last, Toms Terrific Enough

They printed a new label and kept an old one Sunday at the 83rd PGA Championship, where David Toms became the Most Recent Player to Win a Major. Meanwhile, all Phil Mickelson could do was maintain his reputation and remain the Best Player Never to Win a Major.

Toms closed with a one-under 69 and won his first important title in his usual understated style, choosing to safely lay up in front of the lake at the 18th at Atlanta Athletic Club, then calmly stroking a 12-foot par putt straight into the bottom of the hole for a one-shot victory over Mickelson.

“I ran it in,” said Toms. “And here I am.”

And there was Mickelson, with a final-round 68, watching someone else take a trophy again. At least he knew where to place the blame. That would be right underneath his white visor.

The 72-hole score of 265 by Toms is the lowest total in a major championship.

Almost as soon as Mickelson caught Toms at the 15th hole, he gave it right back when he missed the 16th fairway and three-putted from 45 feet for bogey. Once Toms made his par, the lead was his and he never gave it back.

“It was a poor three-putt,” he said simply.

Toms’ victory continued the tradition of the PGA Championship as a coming-out party for major champions. Toms is the 14th winner since 1981 and 43rd overall to mark the PGA Championship as his first major triumph.

Mickelson remains on the outside.

“I know that the off-season is going to be long because I felt like this was a year where my game was going to break through,” he said. “I felt like this was certainly the year I was going to win a major.”

It turned out to be a two-player race, although Steve Lowery made some noise with a 68 and was third, three shots behind Toms at 12-under 268. Mark Calcavecchia made even more of a racket with a 65 and tied for fourth with Shingo Katayama at 10-under 270.

Not as fortunate were David Duval--who double-bogeyed the par-five 12th, wound up with a 74 and tied for 10th--and Davis Love III, who triple-bogeyed the same hole, shot 77 and tied for 37th.

Billy Andrade’s 66 enabled him to finish alone at sixth.

Toms bagged his sixth PGA Tour victory with rounds of 66-65-65-69 and 265, 15 under par.

He held a two-shot lead when the day began and three times saw Mickelson catch up . . . but never get ahead.

“I caught him and got even with him, but I was not able to get the lead and all those times I felt like if I could get a one-up lead, that would change the momentum. I was just never able to get ahead.”

Mickelson trailed by two shots with four to go, but caught up in a hurry when he chipped in from 35 feet for a birdie and Toms made a bogey at the 15th, the same hole on which Toms made a hole in one Saturday.

But Mickelson dropped a shot behind at the next hole. His drive bounced off a tree and back onto the fairway, and he needed a two-putt from 45 feet to save par. He didn’t get it. Mickelson’s first putt slid eight feet past the hole, and he sent the comebacker rolling just left.

Both players made par at the 17th, which meant only one hole separated each one from his destiny, the last hole in the last round of the last major of the year. It looked bad for Toms right away. His tee shot was caught up in the first cut of rough on a downhill lie, the ball just above his feet.

He pulled a five-wood from his bag to go for the green, then decided against it. He chose an L-wedge and knocked the ball to 88 yards, perfect pitching wedge distance.

“I couldn’t have set the ball any better,” said Toms, who was confident he was making the correct call by laying up.

Hit it short and the ball’s in the water. Hit it long and it’s in the rough.

Instead, Toms hit it perfectly, spinning the ball and keeping it safely on the green. And Mickelson knew it too.

“He made a great play,” Mickelson said. “That was a very intelligent play . . . played right to his strength.”

Mickelson was on the green at the 18th in two, but he was 25 feet from the hole when he sized up his last chance for a birdie. He read the line, but the speed wasn’t quite right and his putt stopped six inches short of the hole. Mickelson tapped in for his par and stepped back, fully expecting Toms to sink his putt and end it.

Toms expected to do the same thing.

One thing he did not do was second-guess himself about the wisdom of laying up with the tournament on the line.

“Even if I lost because I laid up, I mean how bad would I have felt if I would have hit in the water or made double [bogey] or hit it over the green and made double? At least I gave myself a chance. And it was a positive thing. Laying up was not a negative thing. I knew that was my best chance to make par.”

It was not this par, but Toms’ hole in one Saturday on the 15th hole that won this major. Terrific luck for the winner, painfully bad luck for the loser. Mickelson says he’ll get over losing again, in time.

“I’m certainly not going to beat myself up over it,” he said.

He said the same thing at the Masters.

When Duval won the British Open, he said Mickelson would win a major sometime. Woods said the same thing earlier this week. Now it is Toms who is giving pep talks to Mickelson.

“I think it’s a matter of time before he wins his,” Toms said. “He’s [always] in contention. I wish it could have worked out better for him, but, you know, for me, it’s the highlight of my career. I’m just glad to be up here.”

A few moments before, Amy Mickelson listened to her husband talk to the media, then excused herself.

“I’m going to hug his guts,” she said.

She can get her arms around those. And if everyone is right, someday her husband will get his arms around a big, silver trophy. There may be another day, but this one wasn’t his.

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FINAL ROUND

at Atlanta Athletic Club, Par 70: 265 (-15)--$936,000

David Toms 66-65-65-69

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266 (-14)--$562,000

Phil Mickelson 66-66-66-68

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268 (-12)--$354,000

Steve Lowery 67-67-66-68

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270 (-10)--$222,5001

Mark Calcavecchia 71-68-66-65

Shingo Katayama 67-64-69-70

272 (-8)--$175,000

Billy Andrade 68-70-68-66

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274 (-6)--$152,333

Scott Hoch 68-70-69-67

Scott Verplank 69-68-70-67

Jim Furyk 70-64-71-69

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RYDER CUP TEAM

Tiger Woods: 2,447.500 points

Phil Mickelson: 1,710.625

David Duval: 1,016.666

Mark Calcavecchia: 765.375

David Toms: 755.000

Davis Love III: 749.500

Scott Hoch: 657.000

Jim Furyk: 647.875

Hal Sutton: 613.000

Stewart Cink: 586.625

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Note: Captain Curtis Strange will pick the two remaining members.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Major Players

How the winners of the 2001 Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship fared in the majors:

Masters: Tiger Woods (-16)

U.S. Open: T12th (+3)

British Open: T25th (-1)

PGA Championship: T29th (-1)

U.S. Open: Retief Goosen (-4)

Masters: Did not make cut

British Open: T13th (-4)

PGA Championship: T37th (E)

British Open: David Duval (-10)

Masters: 2nd (-14)

U.S. Open: T16th (+4)

PGA Championship: T10th (-5)

PGA Championship: David Toms (-15)

Masters: T31st (E)

U.S. Open: T66th (+14)

British Open: Did not make cut

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