Golf Central

On this day in 1967, a soft-spoken, soft-swinging, gentlemanly winner named David Toms was born in Monroe, Louisiana. Now, David Toms would be the first to admit he doesn't seem like much of a pro athlete - let alone a consistent champ and a major title winner. He's only about 5-foot-8, looks and dresses a bit like an accountant, hates controversy and talking about himself, and is one of the shorter hitters on the PGA Tour.

"I wear a medium shirt. And I'm a medium person," Toms once joked about himself.

So exactly how did Toms win 15 PGA Tour events, including the 2001 PGA Championship with the lowest score ever in a major, amass nearly $30 million in career earnings, and end up married to such a stunning trophy wife that she posed in a bikini in Sports Illustrated? ...

The answer, really is locked up in Toms' mellow personality, which doesn't allow him too many highs and lows, and a golf swing that is envied all over the Tour for its metronome-like smooth tempo.

It's all added up to a career that is bordering on the great: with a few more victories (and Toms has another 9 years on Tour), Toms will boast a career arc that looks very much like Hall of Fame-type players like Tom Kite, Hubert Green or Ben Crenshaw. And that ain't bad.

Toms has spent most of the last 10 years inside the Top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings, reached a high of No. 5 in 2002 and '03; he's currently No. 43. And he's been a member of the last three American Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams.

Having the major title on the resume doesn't hurt either: Toms absolutely scorched the Highlands Course at Atlanta Athletic Club in Georgia in the 2001 PGA, firing rounds of 66-65-65-69 for a minus-15 aggregate of 265, which is the record for lowest total score in history in a major. And he didn't mind having to lay up en route to victory, or having to hit a 5-wood on the 243-yard par-3 15th hole (he aced it).

Then there is the matter of the wife: For years Toms, who, let's face it, is borderline dorky, has been blessed with a wife, Sonya, who consistently rates in the unofficial lists of hottest Tour wives.

Sonya came to global attention when she posed in a white bikini with David (who was dressed in a typically dorky argyle jumper) in the 2003 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. And before you wags start saying that Toms only snagged Sonya because he's a rich, successful golfer, consider this: The couple met on a blind date before David was even on the PGA Tour, and he was practically broke after losing his Asian Tour card.

(In case you'd like to see what Sonya looks like (and you do), here you go.

So basically Sonya fell for David because, basically, he's a nice guy - as witnessed by the efforts Toms' own foundation, which raised more than $1 million for victims of Hurricane Katrina since 2003. ... it's nice to see a down-to-earth, humble Southern gentleman like Toms succeed ...

It was also on this day, in 1931, that Joe Turnesa won the Miami Open, cashing a check for $900 (that's $10,515 in today's money!). The purse was put together with $400 from players' entry fees and gate receipts, and a $500 local contribution. How far we've come ...

Now, some of the random On This Day facts we know you love so much ...

It was on this day in 871, that the Saxon army under Ethelred of Wessex took on a Danish invasion force in what was called the first Battle of Reading and got their butts kicked with heavy losses. Believe it or not, it had nothing to do with Reading's combative Irish midfielder Stephen Hunt or Chelsea ...

And on this day in 1847, the inventor Samuel Colt sold his first revolver pistol to the United States government, which needed self-loading sidearms for the Mexican-American War ...

And on this day in 1973, The Last of the Summer Wine was first shown on BBC's Comedy Playhouse. Still running, the comedy about old codgers in the Yorkshire countryside is the world's longest-running sitcom ...

That said, it's co` latha breith sona dhuibh!, as they say in the Scottish Highlands, to a host of musicians, led by Southern gentleman Michael Stipe (48), frontman of Athens, Georgia's R.E.M.; to Mark Hollis (53), lead singer of Talk Talk; to guitarist and vocalist Bernard Sumner (52) of New Order and Joy Division; and to former Pogues bass player and former Elvis Costello wife Cait O'Riordan (43).

It also would have been a birthday for Sir Isaac Newton (b. 1643), the English physicist who is known as "The Father of Modern Science", had he not gone to meet the Father of Everything in 1727 at the age of 84.