David Toms: Don't Hold Back — Defending PGA champion David Toms doesn't have to dwell on his golf swing—not as long as Rob Akins is around

Golf Digest, August, 2002 by Ron Kaspriske

THEY GREW UP ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF the tracks (no, really) in Shreveport, La., and barely conversed, apart from their frequent matches as two of the best junior golfers in northwest Louisiana. David Toms was shy and kept mostly to himself, but Rob Akins couldn't help taking an interest in the kid who kept beating him.

"David could do things I couldn't physically do," says Akins, 37, who is two years older than Toms. "Because of that, his swing was burned into my mind."

Call it on-the-job training. They didn't know it at the time, but Akins' knowledge of Toms' golf game would one day be the foundation for a successful player-teacher relationship. As Toms prepares to defend his title at the PGA Championship Aug. 15-18 at Hazeltine National, he knows Akins' long-term knowledge of his golf game and personality are big reasons he has graduated from the ranks of the unknown to one of the top players in the world. In short, Akins can prepare his friend for a tournament the way only a Swedish mechanic can truly tune up a Volvo.

Since teaming up with Akins in 1996, Toms has won seven times on the PGA Tour, including his first major at last year's PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club. He also has finished second five times and moved into the top six in golf's World Ranking.

"He's like a specialist," Toms says of Akins. "Rob knows my swing better than anyone else. He's studied it for years. Even better, he knows me personally. He knows what gets my juices flowing, and he knows when to back off. I mean, I can go to a lot of teachers and get good advice, but no one knows me and my swing like Rob does."

If not for a chance meeting nearly a decade after their junior golf careers had ended, the two might have never become partners. While Toms was busy getting his professional golf career off the ground in the early 1990s, Akins was trying to make a living as a teaching pro. The two ran into each other in Shreveport shortly after Toms failed to earn his PGA Tour card for the 1995 season. Although unsolicited, Akins gave Toms something to think about.

"I told him, 'Man, you were a lot better when you were a kid than you are now,'" Akins recalls. "'When you were 15, you could have beaten these guys. Right now, you're struggling. You need to get back to the way you were when you were 15.'" A year later, Toms called Akins and asked for help. "I had instant results," Toms says. "That's how it got started."

At the heart of Toms' success is one of the simplest, easy-to-repeat swings in the game, Akins says. Toms makes a big shoulder turn during his backswing, then squares the clubface to the target at the top by making a simple adjustment to his left-wrist position. Then all he has to do during the downswing is turn his body through the ball. It's a swing Akins knows so well, he can analyze and correct flaws simply by having Toms describe the problem over the telephone. And considering its effectiveness, it's no mystery that Toms' swing has remained virtually the same since he began working with Akins. In the last three years, Toms has ranked no worse than 12th on tour in greens in regulation and birdies per round.

Making birdies is Toms' specialty. In his first Masters, in 1998, Toms shot a 29 on the back nine that included six straight birdies from holes 12 through 17. And at last year's PGA Championship, he started the week by making 15 birdies in two practice rounds. Then the tournament began, and he played the first 54 holes in 14 under par. But it was a par on the 72nd hole that netted Toms his first major championship. Rather than attempt a 214-yard approach shot over water to a slick green, Toms protected his one-shot lead over Phil Mickelson by laying up short of the water hazard and then getting up and down from 88 yards to save par. It was the smart play, the safe play, but Toms could have been painted as gutless if the plan had backfired. "Even if I didn't win, it still would have been the right play," Toms says.

Interestingly, at Toms' request, Akins wasn't in Atlanta to see the victory. When Toms took the third-round lead, Akins was all set to pack an overnight bag and catch a flight to Atlanta from his home in Memphis. But the last thing Toms wanted to think about heading into the final round was his golf swing. So Akins stayed put.

"I know he wanted to be there, but not to be in the limelight," Toms says. "If something great happened, he wanted to be there for me. He's not the 'Hey, look at me. I'm on the range with David Toms' type. I respect him for that."

Akins works with a handful of other tour players and spends the bulk of his time teaching members at Ridgeway Country Club in Memphis. It would be easy for Akins to take advantage of his status as Toms' instructor, whether by writing instruction books, making TV appearances or hawking a new swing aid. Instead, his top priority remains improving the swing of his star pupil. Akins constantly reminds Toms that they still have work to do.

"Whether it's hitting the golf ball, my mental approach, course management--whatever it might be," Toms says, "Rob is always on me to get better."