San Jose Mercury News
SAN FRANCISCO - Give golfer David Toms credit. In a sports world full of comebacks - from losses, slumps, injuries - he has done something much more dramatic.
At 38, Toms is returning from a literally heart-stopping health scare.
"It's really not that big a deal," Toms insisted before proceeding to nonchalantly recount the harrowing scene last month when he slumped to the ground at the 84 Lumber Classic in Farmington, Pa., his heartbeat racing out of control, fearful he was about to die.
Not a big deal?
"Well," he conceded, "it was just a really scary thing."
But Toms, who spent two days in the hospital and will have what he calls a minor surgical procedure next month, will be in the 71-player field on Thursday when the American Express Championship tees off at San Francisco's Harding Park municipal course.
And if dealing with his heart condition wasn't enough, Toms has been busy trying to help mend the broken hearts of hurricane victims in his native Louisiana. His charitable foundation has raised about $1 million to assist people ravaged by the Katrina and Rita storms.
"It's unbelievable how everybody has been affected down there," Toms said.
"Unbelievable" might also be a good description for how quickly Toms returned to the golf course. It was just three weeks ago that he was stricken.
Toms, an 11-time PGA Tour winner, has been enjoying another stellar season. He's No.4 on the money list with earnings of $3.66million. But on Sept.15, he made headlines of a different kind.
Married with two young children, Toms knew he had a rapid-heartbeat condition - he has had about a half-dozen episodes over the past four years. He also had a routine physical two weeks before the 84 Lumber tournament, and was pronounced in good health. But on the course that day, his heart began racing and wouldn't stop. He clutched his chest and dropped to one knee.
"I was scared because I didn't know what it was," Toms said. "I didn't know if I was going to be OK. I wondered if I might die. My family wasn't there. But I did have my trusty caddie by my side."
Toms said he was unsure if his caddie, Scott Gneiser, knew CPR. And he didn't want to find out, either.
"I don't think I would let him that close enough to do CPR," Toms joked.
The humor might come easy now as he downplays the incident, but at that moment the situation was deadly serious. In the ambulance, paramedics administered a drug that momentarily stopped and then restarted his heart. When he was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital, an administrator there reported erroneously that Toms' condition was critical - news that immediately was flashed around the country on ESPN. In truth, Toms was stable - but terrified.
"The doctors were at a loss about what was happening until the tests came back," Toms said. "Looking back on it, it honestly just wasn't that big a deal. It happens to people every day. I was lucky that I had good care right away."
He was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia, a non-life-threatening condition that is being regulated with medication. A week later, he was playing with the victorious U.S. squad at the Presidents Cup competition in Virginia. (He set off a security alarm during a team visit to the White House because of radioactive residue in his body from medical tests.)
On Nov.17, he'll undergo a procedure at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to repair the damaged nerves that cause the rapid heartbeat. Just don't ask him too many details.
"You'll have better luck looking it up on the Internet and telling me about it," Toms said. "I'm sure I'll be a little worried about it that week because anytime somebody messes with your heart, it makes you think. But right now, it really doesn't concern me."
Maybe that's because he has so much else on his mind. Monday, he hosted a charitable golf tournament in Birmingham, Ala., for his foundation, which benefits abused, abandoned and underprivileged children. Ever since Katrina struck Aug.29, Toms, who lives in Shreveport, La., has used the foundation to raise money for the displaced.
"Helping kids is something that's near and dear to us, so we're trying to directly help families with young kids who have been affected," said Toms, who attended Louisiana State.
On the course, Toms is able to block everything out and concentrate on golf. He likes his chances this week because he thrives on courses with traditional layouts - like Harding Park.
But he's also looking forward to the season's end, getting his heart problem resolved and preparing for what he would like to be a quiet 2006.
"Hopefully next year will have less newsworthy events, other than playing good golf."
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