MEMPHIS, 1 July 2003 — David Toms shot a seven-under-par 64 to win his second PGA Tour title of the season with a three-shot victory in the FedEx St. Jude Classic on Sunday.
Toms, who won the Wachovia Championship last month, earned $810,000 for his ninth career victory after finishing the tournament on 20-under 264.
Zimbabwe’s Nick Price, playing 90 minutes ahead of Toms, set the early target when he shot a nine-under 62 to finish on 267.
Price’s score was not enough for the win, but he did hold on to finish alone in second place.
Bob Estes and Swedish pair Fredrik Jacobson and Richard Johnson tied for third another stroke behind Price.
Ben Crane and two-time US Open champion Lee Janzen finished in a tie for sixth on 269.
Toms, the world number seven, trailed playing partner Johnson by a single shot after 54 holes but stumbled at the very first hole with a bogey five.
The 36-year-old Louisiana native played the next 14 holes in seven-under, with eight birdies and another bogey to take the lead, but it was not until an eagle on the par-five 16th hole gave him a four-stroke cushion to settle the contest.
With several players jockeying for the lead, Toms said he was never really sure where he stood in the tournament until the final hole.
And he did not want to know.
Toms holed an unlikely, 51-foot birdie putt at the par-four 14th, the most difficult hole this week at the TPC at Southwind, then parred the 15th.
Instead, Price had bogeyed the 18th to drop back to 17-under.
Stanford Overcomes Nerves,
Rivals to Win First LPGA Title
In Galloway Township, New Jersey, American Angela Stanford won her first LPGA title on Sunday, matching the low round of her career with a final-round six-under par 65 to take the $1.3 million ShopRite Classic.
Stanford finished the 54-hole event at 16-under par 197, three strokes ahead of Britain’s Becky Morgan and four ahead of Canada’s Lorie Kane and American Juli Inkster.
The victory left Stanford so stunned she could not recall her final round.
Starting her final round with two birdies and an eagle at the par-5 third, third-year pro Stanford served notice she would not be intimidated by the pressure of her first final-group pairing on a Sunday.
The 25-year-old Texan followed with 12 consecutive pars and then birdied the par-5 16th and par-4 17th for good measure before finishing with a par-5 at the final hole.
Stanford was in tears before approaching the first tee.
Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam, the defending champion here, finished with a 72 to stand on 208.
Michelle Wie, the 13-year-old Hawaiian who won last week’s US Women’s Amateur Public Links crown, fired a 72 to finish on 215, sharing 52nd. A 20-foot birdie putt at the fourth hole was the high point of Wie’s round.
Wie now prepares for next week’s US Women’s Open.
