The 2011 Players Championship was a great championship with a very exciting finish. I am a huge fan of David Toms and was pulling for him all the way. So, yeah, it was kind of disappointing when Toms didn't win.
A lot of people would think that David Toms lost the 2011 Players Championship to K.J. Choi, because of the missed 5 foot par putt on the first playoff hole. I personally think that David Toms did anything but lose the championship. Toms didn't lose the championship; Choi won it.
David Toms played as solidly as anyone did all week. He missed a few birdie opportunities early in the third round, but that was it. He made a lot of clutch par saves which kept him in the tournament and contended up to the very end.
In the final round, he made a clutch 9 foot birdie on the 2nd hole, then hit laser-like wedge shots on 4 and 6 that resulted in birdies. He did bogey 8 though, but that hole was the 3rd toughest hole on the golf course. On the back nine, although he didn't make any birdies on holes 9 through 14, he didn't make any mistakes either, plodding along with two-putt pars, and avoided making big numbers, which were possible on 13 and 14.
Then, he made a huge 14 foot par save on the 15th, which really showed how clutch he was. However, he hit his second shot in the water on the par 5 16th, which probably cost him the tournament, but it was not a big mistake.
I thought his decision to go for the green in 2 was totally justified. Toms had a great lie in the intermediate rough, and he had a hybrid for his second shot. Toms has hit his hybrid club very well all week, so it was easy to justify the reasoning behind him choosing to go for the green. He probably just over-faded the shot a little bit, and the wind might have caught it a bit, resulting in it going in the water.
Just as we thought his chances are gone, he was able to dig deep and come up big again. With water on the left, he hit a bold, courageous drive down the 18th fairway. It caught a bad break and landed in a divot, but he was able to hit a pure iron shot to 18 feet. He sank that putt for an ultra-clutch birdie to force the playoff with Choi.
That putt by Toms at the last hole was Tiger-esque. Reminded me of Tiger Woods's birdie putts on the 72nd hole of Bay Hill at 2008 and 2009. Reminded me of his 12-foot birdie on the last hole at the 2008 US Open to force a playoff. EXPECT ANYTHING DIFFERENT?!? Also reminded me of the 20-foot birdie putt Graeme McDowell sank at the 2010 Chevron World Challenge to beat Tiger.
Another reason why Toms didn't lose the championship was that one of the reasons why Toms came so close was K.J. Choi's missed opportunities. Choi missed a 4 foot birdie putt on 9 and missed the same length putt for par on 11. Choi also misssed a 10 foot birdie putt on 15 and a 6 foot birdie putt on 16. Had those putts gone in Choi would have walkd away with the title.
Well done K.J. Choi. But congratulations to David Toms for making such a big charge in the end. Toms also handled the loss with tremendous class and optimism.
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