When David Toms and the rest of the PGA Tour Champions players returned to the Coachella Valley last year after a three-decade absence to play in the inaugural Galleri Classic, Toms, for one, was pleasantly surprised by the course they played.
To me it was more of an old-style Palm Springs golf course, meaning like a Tamarisk or a La Quinta Country Club, when you compare it to the Stadium golf course or any of the PGA West golf courses, Classic Club, stuff like that, kind of the new desert golf courses, Toms said of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. It was just kind of an old tree-lined, here it is, right in front of you, keep the ball in play and try to make putts.
That Toms was surprised by the Shore Course shows that while the course was the home of an LPGA major championship for 51 years, the course wasn’t terribly well known outside of the LPGA. That Toms was able to master the course for three days to win the inaugural Galleri Classic at 16-under 200 for a four-shot victory showed how well Toms was playing at the time.
Toms will defend that title at Mission Hills on March 29-31 as 78 senior golfers play for a $2.2 million purse. The tournament has also announced Spotlight 29 Casino as its presenting sponsor and its exclusive casino partner, effective immediately and through the 2026 tournament.
We had a couple of days where the wind got up at times, but I think it is an exciting golf course, Toms said in returning to the course this week for the media day for the PGA Tour Champions event. Some of us had seen some of the holes on television and the women were playing.
Obviously, we knew about the 18th hole (the par-5 closing hole with an island green), which is an interesting golf hole compared to the rest of the golf holes, Tom added. Because you’ve got so much water on every shot. Basically a lot of the other holes you don’t have any water at all. So it was a little bit different than the rest of the golf course. But for the most part, everything was straight forward and the guys really enjoyed that.
Toms’ victory at Mission Hills, his second on the PGA Tour Champions on the young 2023 season, showed that the now 57-year-old Toms still has fight in him after 13 PGA Tour wins and four PGA Tour Champions victories. That was something Toms talked about when he won the Galleri Classic and still talks about now.
When you are able to win and the fields are good, you know that your best golf stacks up well, he said. The problem is getting to your best golf on a more consistent basis. A lot of that has to do with preparations, it has to do with priorities, it has to do with family situations, your schedule. And then when you are playing well and doing everything well, are you actually playing in a golf tournament?
For Toms,’ the start of a new PGA Tour Champions season – the Cologuard Classic in Tucson this week will be his third start of the year – comes as golf itself is in chaotic times because of the fracture between the PGA Tour and the LIV Tour. That might not have much to do with the senior players, but Toms says he’s interested for a good reason.
The main thing that we want to know out here on our tour is what is the health of the PGA Tour, Toms added. How healthy is this organization that watches over our retirement plans and our sport in general, and then our product. (The PGA Tour) supports our tour. The things we are doing now. How healthy is the host organization.
While Toms and other senior players aren’t part of the poaching of players from one tour to the other, Toms notes that when Phil Mickelson turned 50 he gave a jolt to the senior tour and even helped the seniors garner their biggest television ratings in a few weeks when Mickelson won on the 50-and-over circuit. Toms hopes a bigger jolt might come from Tiger Woods in a few years, but for now, Toms isn’t a fan of what he’s seeing on the regular tour.
We are in a weird and bad spot, because I think you start taking away from the competition, Toms said. Everyone wants to talk about money. It gets to be like some of these other sports where this guy, everybody loves this baseball player and he’s the main guy on your franchise and all of a sudden he’s a free agent and he goes and signs for all this money for another team and he abandons you.
