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Toms keeps piling up Sprint points

Associated Press
August 21 5:08pm ET

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- David Toms withstood the best golf's heavyweights could throw at him and never flinched.
That's because he was oblivious to it all. Insisting he never looked at a scoreboard, Toms held onto his lead Saturday after three rounds of the Sprint International.
The imperturbable Toms -- who began the day with a 3-point lead over Paul Goydos but with David Duval, Ernie Els and Steve Elkington in close pursuit -- finished with 39 points and that same 3-point lead.

David Duval carded five birdies on the back nine to climb into second place, three points behind leader David Toms.
Duval, the world's No. 2-ranked player, managed 36 points. So did Stephen Ames, a two-time winner on the PGA European Tour.
Els, who has won two U.S Opens, had 32 points, along with 19-year-old Spanish sensation Sergio Garcia, who nearly wrested the title from Tiger Woods in last week's PGA Championship.
"I wasn't watching the boards," said Toms, who tied the tournament's 54-hole scoring record set by Phil Mickelson in 1997.
"I was just playing my game and trying to take care of business. Saturday is the day to set yourself up. You can't win the tournament on Saturday, but you could lose it."
Toms, leading for the third straight day, birdied four of his first eight holes to push his total to 37 points under the modified Stableford scoring system used in this event. At the turn, he had an 8-point lead over Ames and was 9 ahead of Els and 10 ahead of Garcia.
After a bogey by Toms at No. 10 and two back-nine birdies by Ames, the lead had shrunk to 3 points. Duval also birdied two holes on the back nine to get within 6 points.
But Garcia made the biggest move of the day.
Garcia, seeking his first victory in the United States, birdied his first three holes to raise his total to 27 points and had birdies in succession at Nos. 15, 16 and 17 to jump solidly into contention with 32 points.
Toms' lead was again reduced to 3 points after he bogeyed the 15th hole and Ames birdied 17. Ames added another birdie at 18 to get within a point.
But Toms, who won the 1997 Quad Cities Classic and ranks among the top 50 on the PGA Tour's money list for the third straight season, countered with a birdie at the par-5 17th.
Toms, 32, led wire-to-wire to win the Quad Cities.
"So it's not the first time I've been in this position," he said. "Obviously, it feels good to be leading such a great field. When you lie in bed at night, this is what you think of -- being in contention and seeing how you hold up and perform under these conditions."
Unlike the early years of this tournament -- when golfers started from zero each day and there were daily cuts -- all scores are cumulative for four rounds. The format, which rewards aggressive play, awards 8 points for a double eagle, 5 points for eagle, 2 points for birdie, zero for par, minus-1 for bogey and minus-3 for double bogey or worse.
After Saturday's round, the field was cut to the low 36 players for Sunday's final round at 7,559-yard Castle Pines Golf Club.
Duval birdied six of his last 11 holes.
"Through seven holes I was minus-1 for the day," Duval said, "so obviously I'm pleased by the way I finished. I was just hoping to keep Toms within shouting distance."
Ames said he had an advantage in handling Castle Pines' 6,200-foot elevation because he lives part of the year in Calgary, Alberta, "which is about the same altitude. It's about a club difference from sea level."
Billy Mayfair had 30 points. Olin Browne, Steve Flesch and Chris Perry were at 28, and Elkington, Skip Kendall and Mike Reid stood at 27.
Among those missing the cut were Woods and Davis Love III, the world's first- and third-ranked players.
Woods was victimized by a double bogey on the final hole. He scored only 2 points Saturday, giving him a total of 18.
Woods uncharacteristically had trouble on the par-5 eighth hole, hitting his second shot into the trees, taking a drop and making bogey. After birdies at 14 and 17 that would have put him safely into Sunday with 21 points, he double-bogeyed the par-4 18th after a wayward drive that again required a drop. His third shot found a bunker, he blasted long and failed to make the comebacker, losing 3 points.
Love had a round of minus-1 with two birdies and five bogeys, and also finished at 18.
Toms set a tournament record with 29 points after 36 holes.

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