Holmes Post Round Talk

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J.B. Holmes after his round: 

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, 13 was in the fairway. I was in between clubs, picked the wrong one, hit a great shot and just landed in the middle of the green and went over. Then went over in about the worst spot it could be. I played an okay shot, really wasn't that great of a shot to 25, 30 feet.

Then hit a great putt and it went in. So that was all the way around.

Q. What was the club on that?

J.B. HOLMES: I hit a 6 iron.

Q. What was your number in, do you remember?

J.B. HOLMES: I think it was it might have been 216 to the pin or something.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: 15, you had eagle?

J.B. HOLMES: I hit a good 3 wood. That was probably one of the bigger swings of the day, just getting it in that fairway. It's so firm and the ball can take off to the left there. Then just hit a great 4 iron right where I aimed it and just smoked it. It went up there, rolled right up there and then made a great putt.

Q. You had 257 to the flag and you hit 4 iron over water?

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. It was only 230 to the front. It flew like 235 or something.

Q. Was that the second best shot of the day?

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. The putt was probably the second best shot. The 4 iron was definitely huge. Ryan being in the water and then hitting it up there like that, that was a big change for me.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: 17, you had a birdie.

J.B. HOLMES: 17, just aimed middle of the green, hit it out there pretty good, and it started turning a little bit towards the hole and bounced up. I thought I made my first one, just didn't hit it hard enough, and tapped in for birdie.

Q. 3 wood?

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah.

Uh, that's a par-4 he's talking about, in case you were unsure. 

Oh and nice 77-yard approach into 18! Wow. 

It's All About the Fitness

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Damon Hack writes about Bubba Watson:

A confluence of fitness, equipment and old-fashioned swing speed have rendered the PGA Tour a slamfest in recent years, and Watson is at the forefront of that push — at least in swing speed.

"My dad gave me a 9-iron at age 6 and said, 'Hit it as hard as you can,' " said Watson, who weighs 180 pounds. "It's about hitting the ball in the center of the club face and hitting it hard.

"If it ever comes down to where I need a lesson, I'm retiring," Watson added. "People say, 'Quiet your hips, do your elbow.' I don't have a clue what that means. I just hit it."

As for hitting the gym?

"I just like to sleep," he said. "I think Tiger and his caddie went out running yesterday, and I was like, 'You won't see me doing that, and my caddie won't be running, either.'

"My wife has tried a few times to get me to work out, and she yells at me about that, but I don't see myself doing that," Watson added. "There will be no yoga, you won't see me lift up any weights over 100 pounds."

Okay then, it's the "agronomy." In Bubba's case.

Lanny On Young Players

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Bill Nichols in the Dallas Morning News talks to Lanny Wadkins about the next generation of 20-somethings. He echoes what many have noticed about Tuesdays at a PGA Tour event: European and Australians out playing money games, Americans beating balls.

"They all look like worldbeaters, but when they go on the golf course, they have that same practice-tee mentality," said CBS golf analyst Lanny Wadkins of Dallas, winner of 21 PGA Tour events.

And...

Wadkins theorizes that many current prospects are suffering paralysis by analysis. Armed with space-age technology, some young players spend too much time breaking down videos and too little time playing. He doesn't discount the competitive edge he developed playing for lunch money at Wake Forest.

"If I beat my buddies in school out of six bucks, that meant I got an extra meal at McDonald's or Itty Bitty Chicken," Wadkins said. "We learned on the golf course how to hit shots, make things happen, play with imagination, curve the ball. These kids today go stand on the practice range and hit 7-iron after 7-iron. I don't think it's enabling them to learn the game that it takes to win." 

The Bashers vs. The Artists

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SI's Chris Lewis takes on the Bubba Watson and his eye-opening drives, but instead of focusing on Bubba and what car he drives or what he thinks of yoga, Lewis actually explores the concept of how the game is played (really!). Even more scary? He considers the ramifications.

Lewis says the main 2006 PGA Tour plotline will be "the Bashers vs. the Artists."

Subtitle: In which the ever-growing ranks of PGA Tour dogleg-cutting, tree-flying, dimpled-ball bombardiers finally and forever vanquish the ever-shrinking number of short-hitting, fairway-dwelling, shot-shaping sissies.

Besides Bubba, he looks at other bashers and artists. And he explores why John Holmes changes his Tour name to J.B. 

Reporter: Why go from John B. [Holmes] at Q-school to J.B. [Holmes] here?

Holmes: You know the answer to that.

Player Reactions To TGC Deal

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Thanks to reader C for the heads up on Doug Ferguson's notes column from earlier in the week. A few eye opening comments:

"If we're trying to reach out to non-golf fans, how you leave out ESPN is beyond me." - David Duval, on the PGA Tour giving exclusive cable rights to The Golf Channel in a 15-year deal. 

And... 

"It would be nice to know what's going on," Brent Geiberger said. "It seems like we find out just like everybody else. And it's our tour."

The tour has a 16-man Players Advisory Council and four players on the nine-member policy board.

"But when those players get in the room, they're already outnumbered 5-4," Paul Azinger said. "I wish the players had a little more say."

 

Bubba Drives Interest In The Game

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Tim Rosaforte writes:

If you stayed up late Sunday night to watch David Toms blow out the field at the Sony Open, you were looking for something to keep you from going asleep. Nothing against Toms, who won by five strokes; it just wasn�t much of a final round for drama.

Thankfully, there was Bubba Watson. The purists may think distance is ruining the game. In truth, distance drives the interest in the game.

Distance drives interest in the game? Hmm...so is that why ratings are in the toilet and play is way down? I knew it!

Watson is more than a circus act experiencing his 15 minutes. He is the reason why Tiger Woods went to graphite and why Mickelson was experimenting with a 47-inch shaft this off-season. Watson is the future. He is 6-foot-3, 180 pounds of elasticity, and he didn't appear the least bit nervous on the weekend, finishing with an eagle on Sunday for a check of $244,800 that represented job security.

Bubba is the reason Tiger went to graphite?

Huh, wonder why Tiger's never credited him? Shameful Tiger, shameful.