World Matchplay Focus on David Toms: The clear blue skies masked what the locals described as a chilly 13 degrees at La Costa, home to this week's WGC Accenture World Matchplay Championship. The weather for the week is expected to be good, with the promise of a little rain over the weekend.
Given the level of precipitation in Los Angeles last week, there won't be too many grumbles. This southern California resort has seen very little rain since the start of the new year and the sprinkling they got last Saturday night was welcomed by the tournament organisers. The course is hard and firm, a backdrop that will appeal to the defending champion David Toms.
The native of Shreveport, Louisiana, created a little history when beating fellow USA Ryder Cup player Chris DiMarco 6 and 5 in last year's final. It represented the largest championship margin of victory in the tournament history. Toms's six-up lead after the morning session of the 36-hole final was the largest by any player.
Alongside Tiger Woods (2000, 2003, 2004) Toms (2003, 2005) is the only player with multiple appearances in the final. He has started the current season in superb fashion. In winning the Sony Open in Hawaii he notched a victory for the fourth year in succession on the US Tour, which tied with Stuart Appleby (2003-2006), (Vijay Singh (2002-2005) for the third longest active streak on tour behind Tiger Woods (11, 1996-2006) and Retief Goosen (5, 2001-05).
Another salutary playing statistic is that Toms ranks fifth among active players under the age of 40 with 12 victories on the US Tour. Ahead of him are Woods (47), Phil Mickelson (27), Ernie Els (15) and David Duval (13).
Apart from his prowess on the golf course he has demonstrated a social responsibility setting up the David Toms Foundation in 2003 to help underprivileged, abused and abandoned children.
As a southerner he watched the devastation of Hurricane Katrina with particular horror, managing to raise over $1 million to help the victims.
While things have been going extremely well on the fairways he received a reminder of his own mortality when he collapsed onto a bench following his drive on the opening hole of the Lumbar Classic last year.
He was taken to hospital, airlifted to Pittsburgh the following day and underwent corrective heart surgery last November. Of the whole experience Toms admitted: "I had developed a rapid heart beat because of a condition I have had for some time. This situation turned out to be scarier than any of the others I had encountered, but in the end, I don't feel any different today than I did prior to this incident."
He rallied to play in the Presidents Cup, and his victory in the Sony Open last month underlines his rude good health.
The reshuffle of the draw following Thomas Bjorn's withdrawal means that it falls to England's Ian Poulter to try to end Tom's reign. For the European Ryder Cup player, his original assignment against DiMarco would probably have been more appealing.
