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'I hated to do it' Layup gamble on No. 18 pays off for Toms
Updated: Sunday August 19, 2001 9:01 PM
DULUTH, Ga. (AP) -- It was a gamble either way. All David Toms was trying to do was get some better odds. Faced with a questionable lie and 210 yards over water, Toms had an agonizing decision to make as he stood just off the 18th fairway Sunday with a one-shot lead in the PGA Championship. He could go for it and risk hitting into the water, or the rough behind the green. His other option was to lay up short of the water and take his chances of making par with a putter in his hand. Watching from across the fairway, Phil Mickelson knew his chances of winning his first major rested on Toms' choice. "I actually was hoping he would go for it," Mickelson said. "Off of that lie, I didn't see any way of the ball staying on the green." Toms stood, 5-wood in hand, staring at the green. Ignoring the crowd yelling at him to go for it, he went over his options with caddie Scott Gneiser. "He said the best I could do was hit it over the green into the rough," Toms said. The decision was made. It turned out to be championship caliber. Toms pulled out a pitching wedge and laid up in front of the water, 88 yards from the pin. It was a perfect yardage for his lob wedge, which he spun to within 12 feet of the pin. After Mickelson missed his birdie try, Toms settled confidently over the putt and stroked it directly into the hole. "I just felt it was the best way I could make par," Toms said. "That's what I had to do and it worked out fine." It was the second time in two years that Mickelson lost a major championship to a layup on the 72nd hole. It happened at the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst when Payne Stewart laid up out of the rough, hit it to 15 feet and sunk the putt to win. The Open loss stung. This one hurt even more. "It just seemed like it was destined to go in," Mickelson said. "I don't know what to say other than it's certainly disappointing." The high drama on the 490-yard finishing hole, the longest par-4 in PGA Championship history, ended a seesaw afternoon in which Mickelson came back from two shots down to pull even three different times but was never able to grab the outright lead. Toms' lead was one shot as he stood on the 18th tee and hit a drive down the right side of the fairway that nestled in the first cut of rough next to a series of fairway bunkers. The yardage was 210 to the front of the green, but that wasn't the main problem. The dicey part was the lie, with the ball sitting about a foot above Toms' feet and on a slight downhill lie. Mickelson, meanwhile, was in the middle of the fairway with 189 yards left to the pin and a lot of interest in what his playing partner was up to. The first instinct was to go for it, and Toms pulled out the same 5-wood he used to grab the lead the day before with a dramatic hole-in-one on the 15th hole. Another look at the lie and a check of the yardage followed. The decision became easier. The crowd didn't like it. They wanted a dramatic shot to either win or lose the championship. "I hated to do it," Toms said. "The crowd was whooping and hollering. You know, `you wimp,' It was the Chip Beck thing at the Masters all over again." Unlike Beck's much-criticized decision on the 15th hole at the 1993 Masters, Toms' choice paid off. All week long, Toms had said he would lay up on the final hole if he had to. He did, when it mattered most. "It was not a good yardage, and I had a downhill, sidehill, lie in the rough," Toms said. "I had to hit a soft shot and my caddie said the best I could do was put it over the green." That would have been trouble. Scraggly Bermuda rough lined the back of the green, and any shot there could easily have been chunked short or hit too hard and into the water in front of the green. Toms put the 5-wood back in the bag and his caddie handed him a pitching wedge. He hit that in front of the water, 88 yards from the pin, a perfect distance for his lob wedge. After Mickelson hit his second shot to about 25 feet from the hole, Toms hit the lob wedge long and left of the hole. It spun back to 12 feet, setting up the winning putt that Toms stroked right into the hole. "I could have gone from one shot up to losing the tournament there if Phil made birdie," Toms said. "But I said all week I wouldn't be afraid to lay up on that hole." Because he wasn't, he's the new PGA champion.
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