|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIPMay 12, 2015J.B. HolmesCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome our defending championship, J.B. Holmes. J.B., it's hard to believe it's been a year. Right now you're 3rd in the FedExCup Standings. If could you kind of go through your thoughts on winning last year and more importantly talk about how that's propelled you on to such a great year that you're having this year, also. J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. Well, last year, I come back here, to be able to come out, get a win here at such a great tournament was obviously a confidence booster and this year I've just came out and kind of fed off that win last year and just continued to play well. And, like I said, being healthy is a big part of it and, you know, being healthy for a little while to be able to kind of get in the groove and just string a few good tournaments together. MARK STEVENS: Okay. Thank you. Questions. Q. J.B. you are not old by any stretch but when you see the age of the last few winners or winners this year, do you feel older than you are? J.B. HOLMES: No, not really. I still feel like the best golf is ahead of me. There's a lot of good young players so there's more than -- when I came out when I was 24 there weren't a lot of 20 year-olds. It's guys are coming out, getting ready to play. It's good for the Tour and always fun to have some competition come out. Q. You look back a little bit to last year, just how special a moment that was for you winning here after what you went through? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. Like I said, it was a great moment. I had a lot of hard work to get to there. It was more about not necessarily just that moment and the win it was more about the collective and all the stuff I had gone through to get there. That was the real -- dwelled more on that stuff and old, hard work I put in more than just that moment of actually winning but it was a great accomplishment, and lot of fun. Q. Last year's win, come back to the familiar surroundings, the settings, you get those kind of feelings, the memories come rushing back as you were driving in today? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. Mine you get a little bit of it. It's always nice coming back to a place you won and played well. You get those feelings. I'll get them a lit more when I go out on the course. I haven't been out on the course yet. When I get out there, get into playing a little bit, the feelings will come back to you. Yeah, a lot has happened since last year. Had a lot of good tournaments since then but this was a great memory for me and to always have and always love coming back and playing this golf course. It's a great tract and one of the best run tournaments on Tour so it's always a pleasure when I'm able to come back here and play to Charlotte. Q. The width of the fairway being the one betweens your ears, sometimes narrow, what was it about last year's trip around the tract that fit your eye? Why did this golf course suit you and all the things come into place since last year and where you've been since? J.B. HOLMES: I was hitting it really well. I was hitting my driver well, really well and was able to thread it on a few holes that don't set-up for me. I was able to hit it really well there. I was making putts. Anytime you win you get a few good bounces, make a few more putts than you normally do. Ones that lip out tend to go in. All around good week for me. I was in a very good mental state and very happy with being in the situation that I was in and fortunately I was able to play well enough to win. Q. J.B., following up on Karen's question, do you on Tour, how young is too young out here? What are some of the perils for maybe some of the younger players you kind of experienced early on in your career? J.B. HOLMES: You know, it's different for everybody. Normally you would say 21 years old is probably a little bit too young but look at Jordan Spieth. He's obviously ready. Justin Thomas is another guy that's pretty young but playing pretty well. There's always exceptions to the rule. But in general, you know, I'd say it takes -- once you get out here, takes a couple years I feel like to get used to the lifestyle and traveling so much. If you play four years of college golf or whatever, pretty much high school, everything up until then is kind of an advantage of having your friends around. After that you're traveling and kind of on your own. The traveling is probably more the difficult part. So, it might be a little bit easier for younger guys now since there are so many guys out there. When I came out here there weren't many people my age. It was a little bit different. Like I said, Justin and Jordan are pretty good friends and grew up playing together the whole time. That's got to be nice if you have a buddy out here you've been playing against your whole life. It's a little bit different with more younger guys here. Make it makes it a little bit easier. It's a lifestyle change. More of a three year process. I feel like how they get used to it, how you get used to the tournaments they want to get into and when to take a break and not to play too much. It's a learning process when you get out here. Like I said, it's -- there's always a couple exceptions to the rule, obviously, and handle all the stuff really well. But, you know, you can also see a lot of good young players that come out here and maybe lose their card, didn't manage their time right or do something right. The next time they come out here they figure it out a little bit more. If you look I think you see that a little bit more but you want to put your eyes on Spieth and the guys that are doing so well and just say he's an exception and I don't think you get those players to roll out every year. Q. Speaking of travel and the lifestyle and keeping your energy up, it's been a busy three weeks sort of crisscrossing the country and what is your schedule going to be like to keep your energy up and to keep you in the best place as you head to Chambers Bay? J.B. HOLMES: I'm going to take the next two weeks off here. Probably going to play Memorial and then I'll be off for Memphis. I'm going to take three of the next four off to kind of -- scheduling not the best decision I feel like the Tour did with having The Players right in front -- after coming back from San Francisco. I think that kind of showed last week. Lot of people playing really well missed the cut or it was just -- it was a long trip, long week. So Rickie was out there and he played great. I hated to see them do that because that's tough but it is what it is. I think they're moving it next year so I like to have this tournament before The Players. I thought that was good. It's an easy track over there, good golf course. You know, it is what it is. Yeah I'm going to take the next few weeks off. Q. You're not exempt for --       J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I am. Q. J.B., realistically if players are reaching an elite level younger, can they sustain just the physically and mentally the passion for the game into their 50s like we've seen or do you think careers will be shorter? J.B. HOLMES: I think careers will start to be shorter. Maybe not because of the passion. Maybe just because if you start getting a lot of young players out there you'll push those guys that are 45 or whatever might be out that if they do have a down year and maybe say like a Kenny Perry, where he played okay when he was 46 but at 48, Top-5 players in the world. Maybe if there's some younger guys push him out maybe he just, "You know what, I'm going to go to the Senior Tour." Doesn't work quite as hard at it to get to that. Not that he couldn't get there or didn't have the ability. Maybe you get a little bit of that because it is a grind. If you do it from your 20s until you're 45, 25 years of it, maybe you want a break. Everybody is different. I think that will depend on the person a little bit but me personally, if I was -- if I'm grinding that long and started to get to that point I'm taking some time off. That's me. Q. What's your thoughts on Chambers Bay? Do you have any at this point yet? J.B. HOLMES: Haven't even looked at it. Heard some stories that there's some quirky things there but haven't even looked at it so I can't really make any judgment or say anything about it. Q. Do you have any plans to get out there between now and then to visit? It's not exactly around the corner. J.B. HOLMES: I'm going to go out there Sunday before. It's not really that close. I'm going to do my same routine I do for every week. Somebody said playing it three times before doesn't do you any good, you need to play it ten times before. That's the case, then I'll just go out there and see what it is. Q. Are you the kind of guy, though, talk about your schedule and Chambers Bay, giving yourself sometime before that, are you the kind of guy that kind of plays better after the time away or do you need to be playing? J.B. HOLMES: You know, I've won coming out of both situations. I've won where I played up into it and I won where I've been a week off and this year I won Houston, I was off the week before. You know, it's just all really a mindset and having the right energy. I think at the beginning of the year if you haven't played for awhile it's probably better for me to be playing a little bit but, you know, played a lot of golf to this point of the year so might be better for me to take some time off and be rested coming up because after the U.S. Open it's kind of a world-wind until the end. It's not a whole lot of breaks. Probably rest before that one would be better than playing a bunch. Q. How well do you know your fellow Kentuckian Justin Thomas? J.B. HOLMES: I played with him when he was 12. I know him -- I know him decent. We talk a little bit but he's a good kid and obviously a great player.  I haven't played a ton of rounds with him because we've been in a few different tournaments. He's a great player. You're going to see his name a lot in the future. Q. What circumstances would you play with a 12 year old? J.B. HOLMES: Just up there. He was a really good young player and had some friends in Louisville that knew him and played well. I went out to his home course and he was out there. Kind of that situation. Q. He's compiling a lot of Top-10s. Any scenario he's doing well. But I think if he's looking at what Jordan is doing and what his peers are doing, it might be frustrating for him. What advice do you have? J.B. HOLMES: Well, I mean "peer", you just mean Jordan? I mean he's 21. Q. Patrick. J.B. HOLMES: How old is Patrick? Q. 23. J.B. HOLMES: He's been out here a few years. Your first year out here you got -- he's doing pretty good for his first year out here. He's super-competitive. I'm sure he's frustrated with probably not winning or having some chances so that's what it takes to be out here. You can't be satisfied with the Top-10. You got to be able to work harder and keep giving himself opportunities and eventually he'll come through and get him a win. He's a good player. Q. Do you think the days of really fine college golfer staying four years in college are over? J.B. HOLMES: No, not necessarily. I think it's difficult to get out here right off the bat so, like I said, there's always a few exceptions to the rules. There's always maybe one guy or whatever that's ready but you have to look at all guys that have turned pro early, how many of those really came out here and kept their card, really just the two that I can think of is Justin and Jordan. So, I could be wrong. I haven't followed college golf. Usually takes a little bit of time to get out here. There's not too many of them. They go out on the Web.com or I don't know what it's called now. Is that what called? Q. Yes. J.B. HOLMES: Go out there and hit 20 and come out on Tour and be successful out there. It's difficult to do. You don't see a lot of guys doing it. Some guys are ready, though. In general, I would say probably better to stay three, four years and learn as much as you can before you go because it's not an easy road. You see a couple guys do it, "Oh, it's pretty easy." It's not that easy. MARK STEVENS: Everybody good? Thanks for your time J.B. Best of luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|