David Toms left Waialae Country Club in shreds and everyone but Chad Campbell in his rear-view mirror Saturday at the Sony Open in Hawai'i. Yesterday, he vanquished Campbell on the first hole.

From there, it was a battle. For second.

Toms, who sizzled to a tournament-record 61 Saturday, hardly cooled in closing with a 5-under-par 65 yesterday. He and Campbell went into the final round seven shots ahead of everybody. Toms birdied two of the first three holes and finished five-up on Campbell and Rory Sabbatini, the first-round leader.

Sabbatini found a second wind, rallying for a 62 yesterday to become the only semblance of a threat to Toms. The way Toms was golfing, it wasn't that threatening.

"After getting through on No. 5, I looked back and David was 2-under through four," said Sabbatini, the 2001 Mercedes Championships runner-up. "I figured at that point he was on today and he wasn't going to let anybody catch him."

Campbell, after firing his way into the shootout with a 62 Saturday, had no bullets left. He parred the first seven, took his first bogey in 33 holes on No. 8 and trailed Toms by four when they made the turn yesterday. It was over.

After all the bluster created by big winds and even bigger Michelle Wie galleries the first two days, Toms put a chokehold on this tournament by playing the final two rounds in 14-under, with 15 birdies and a meaningless bogey.

"Birdieing the first hole, it was already like, 'OK, I'm going to play good again,'" Toms said. "The drive felt good, the second shot, I was kind of in-between clubs and I went with the risky club, got it up there close and made birdie — poured it (the putt) right in the middle. Hey, just a continuation of yesterday and that's the way I felt about it."

His 261 tournament total was one off Brad Faxon's 20-under record set in the much calmer conditions of 2001. No one could match Toms' cool yesterday.

He never looked flustered and said he never was. His 12th victory (including the 2001 PGA Championship) came as easily as any ever will on this tour.

"I just think it's more will power than anything else," Toms said. "Wanting to win more than anything else. Early in my career it was like, make some cuts, try to get into contention, see how you do. When I started winning tournaments, that felt good, too. But I wouldn't say it was everything to me and now it is."

Toms even felt a "sense of urgency" after turning 39 this month and "desperately" wanting to be part of this year's Ryder Cup team. He said it had nothing to do with the heart condition that forced him to be carried off the course in September. It turned out to be a rapid heart rate and November surgery has eliminated the issue, according to Toms.

Still, the win and worries, combined with the Louisiana native's work for Hurricane Katrina relief, came together on the final hole yesterday to choke Toms up.

"It's just more the total satisfaction of winning a golf tournament and being able to reach one of your goals," Toms insisted. "It just kind of touches me. There are obviously superstars that win all the time and it looks like it comes easy to them. I guess sometimes like today — maybe it looked like it came easy to me because I played great — but on the inside it's always a battle.

"To overcome all of that and win a golf tournament, it's the ultimate reward for all of those emotions that you go through."

Sabbatini caught Campbell with his seventh birdie of the day, at No. 13. His eighth gave him second alone, but Campbell salvaged a share when he finally found his only birdie at the 17th.

Campbell couldn't follow up his Saturday 62 with Toms' same swagger. He hit just two fairways and had only two birdie attempts within 20 feet. He missed both.

"I played terrible today. David played good," said Campbell, who closed with a 70. "I never put any pressure on him to make him do anything, but he played solid — 65 in the final round, that's pretty good golf."

There was nothing spectacular about Toms' dominance with the exception of his relentless excellence. He ranked second in greens in regulation, third in putting, fifth in approach accuracy and ninth in fairways hit.

Four years ago, Toms played in the final group with eventual winner Jerry Kelly. Toms hooked his ball into the hazard on the sixth hole and was never heard from again, ultimately finishing fourth. In his only other Sony appearance, he shared 13th last year.

Yesterday's $918,000 first prize gives him almost $1.2 million here in three quick trips — and an invitation to next year's Mercedes Championships at Kapalua. It also makes up for last weekend's Maui meltdown, when he played the final two rounds in 8-over to fall from one shot out of first into a tie for 13th.

Yesterday, he eased into the final hole with a huge lead, infant daughter Anna calmly chewing on a plastic credential and no one at Waialae with a hope of catching him.

"When this course is playing fast like this and we have the tradewinds blowing, I think this course fits my game," Toms said. "The fairways are tough to hit and so you don't have to just bomb it out there. I know some of the guys that play it well are bombers, but for me, I have sufficient length to play here. It is a good course for me."

After what we saw this past week, that might be an understatement.

FINAL SCORES

At Waialae Country Club

Purse: $5.1 million

Yardage: 7,060; Par 70

David Toms, $918,000 66-69-61-65—261

Rory Sabbatini, $448,800 65-72-67-62—266

Chad Campbell, $448,800 67-67-62-70—266

Bubba Watson, $244,800 67-70-66-65—268

Nathan Green, $204,000 70-70-65-64—269

Vijay Singh, $183,600 71-69-65-66—271

Stuart Appleby, $158,950 70-66-69-67—272

Jim Furyk, $158,950 67-67-70-68—272

Charles Warren, $158,950 66-74-64-68—272

Carl Pettersson, $127,500 71-68-68-66—273

Stewart Cink, $127,500 71-69-66-67—273

J.B. Holmes, $127,500 70-66-69-68—273

Jerry Kelly, $98,600 68-69-69-68—274

K.J. Choi, $98,600 66-71-68-69—274

Shane Bertsch, $98,600 70-70-63-71—274

Tom Byrum, $84,150 68-71-68-68—275

Jerry Smith, $84,150 69-67-69-70—275

Adam Scott, $64,260 71-69-70-66—276

Loren Roberts, $64,260 69-68-71-68—276

Mark Calcavecchia, $64,260 70-69-68-69—276

Dudley Hart, $64,260 69-68-69-70—276

Brent Geiberger, $64,260 68-73-65-70—276

Steve Jones, $64,260 69-68-68-71—276

John Riegger, $40,362.86 72-71-68-66—277

Richard S. Johnson, $40,362.86 69-71-70-67—277

Billy Mayfair, $40,362.86 70-70-70-67—277

Arron Oberholser, $40,362.86 70-71-68-68—277

Jeff Overton, $40,362.86 72-71-66-68—277

Jason Bohn, $40,362.85 70-72-65-70—277

Robert Gamez, $40,362.85 70-69-66-72—277

David Duval, $30,243 75-68-72-63—278

Troy Matteson, $30,243 72-69-71-66—278

Chris Riley, $30,243 76-66-68-68—278

Ron Whittaker, $30,243 73-68-66-71—278

Tommy Armour III, $30,243 68-74-64-72—278

Ryuji Imada, $23,502.50 72-71-69-67—279

Rich Beem, $23,502.50 71-69-71-68—279

David Branshaw, $23,502.50 71-68-71-69—279

Jeff Gove, $23,502.50 66-71-70-72—279

Vaughn Taylor, $23,502.50 67-72-68-72—279

Peter Lonard, $23,502.50 67-70-68-74—279

Jonathan Kaye, $15,355.64 73-68-71-68—280

Fred Funk, $15,355.64 68-71-72-69—280

Bo Van Pelt, $15,355.64 70-73-69-68—280

Daniel Chopra, $15,355.64 76-65-70-69—280

Jesper Parnevik, $15,355.64 72-70-68-70—280

Camilo Villegas, $15,355.64 72-64-73-71—280

Joe Ogilvie, $15,355.64 71-72-66-71—280

Arjun Atwal, $15,355.63 70-69-69-72—280

Tom Lehman, $15,355.63 71-71-66-72—280

Carlos Franco, $15,355.63 70-71-67-72—280

Will MacKenzie, $15,355.63 69-70-68-73—280

Paul Goydos, $11,696 69-70-74-68—281

Aaron Baddeley, $11,696 71-70-71-69—281

Joe Durant, $11,696 71-72-68-70—281

Craig Barlow, $11,696 73-70-68-70—281

Charles Howell III, $11,696 71-72-68-70—281

Jeff Maggert, $11,696 69-72-68-72—281

Hunter Mahan, $10,914 71-68-75-68—282

Jon Mills, $10,914 69-72-73-68—282

Thomas Levet, $10,914 71-72-70-69—282

Jay Haas, $10,914 75-66-70-71—282

Paul Azinger, $10,914 69-72-70-71—282

Henrik Bjornstad, $10,914 70-73-67-72—282

Todd Fischer, $10,914 73-67-69-73—282

Roger Tambellini, $10,914 69-73-67-73—282

Parker McLachlin, $10,914 72-71-65-74—282

Michael Allen, $10,353 72-69-71-71—283

Alex Cejka, $10,353 76-67-68-72—283

Shigeki Maruyama, $10,149 72-71-69-72—284

Brad Faxon, $10,149 71-70-71-72—284

Bill Haas, $9,639 71-71-72-71—285

Patrick Sheehan, $9,639 71-71-72-71—285

Woody Austin, $9,639 74-68-71-72—285

Bubba Dickerson, $9,639 72-71-70-72—285

Hidemichi Tanaka, $9,639 73-70-69-73—285

Vance Veazey, $9,639 70-69-72-74—285

Mathew Goggin, $9,639 69-72-69-75—285

Olin Browne, $9,639 71-70-67-77—285

Kaname Yokoo, $9,180 72-71-71-73—287

Jeff Sluman, $9,078 67-73-73-75—288

James Driscoll, $8,976 67-74-73-79—293

Correction

Yesterday’s picture of Chad Campbell shaking hands with David Toms after finishing the third round of the Sony Open was taken by Associated Press photographer Jeff Chiu.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.