Tour Report: Toms seeks momentum in New Orleans

David Toms meets with the media and talks about the layout at TPC Louisiana.
AVONDALE, La. ?David Toms loves playing golf in New Orleans, even if the TPC Louisiana may be a little long for the 45-year-old抯 game.
After all, the Shreveport resident抯 victory in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans came back in 2001 when the tournament was played at English Turn. But Toms does have two top-20 finishes at TPC Louisiana, including a tie for fifth in 2009.
"If they played this golf course like we played it today it would be a tough tournament for me to win in the long run, to be quite honest," Toms said after shooting 68 in the pro-am on Wednesday. "But they do a good job of moving the tees around here, putting some of them up on some of the holes. So, I抳e had some decent tournaments here. "So, certainly if I get hot, I抣l have a chance but I wouldn抰 say this is one of the golf courses where I feel like going into the week where I抦 at an advantage. I wouldn抰 say that at all."
At the same time, the LSU product loves coming to New Orleans each year, 19 to be exact, and seeing old friends. He feeds off the partisan crowd, too ??it) just gives you that extra bit of a shot in the arm that sometimes you need," Toms said.
And make no mistake, he would like to gather some momentum this week.
Toms is starting an important three-week stretch with the Zurich Classic, Wells Fargo Championship and PLAYERS Championship. He抯 won the first two during his career and lost to K.J. Choi in a playoff at the third last year. He抣l take a week off and then defend his title at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
Toms?2012 campaign hasn抰 been anything to write home about, though. He抯 played in eight events and has one top-10 finish at the Humana Challenge. He had to withdraw with a nagging back problem through two rounds at the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship, too.
"It hasn抰 been great," Toms acknowledged when asked about the state of his game. "?There抯 no reason why. I抦 not really struggling with my golf swing or putting or anything in particular. So, I need that one, you know, good round and good tournament to get a little bit of confidence moving forward." And as Toms found out, all it takes is one good tournament. After losing that playoff to Choi last year at THE PLAYERS ?which he thought "was my tournament to win until the very end," Toms said ?he won at Colonial in his next start.
"If you give yourself a chance, you never know when you抮e going to have that hot round that will get you to the winner抯 circle or somebody else might come back,?Toms said. 揓ust don抰 know. You have to get there first."

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