	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

March 29, 2016

J.B. Holmes

Humble, Texas

DOUG MILNE: J.B. Holmes, thanks for joining us for a few minutes here defending your title at the Shell Houston Open.

I know it's a place you're glad to get back to, not only with the win last year but you also finished 2nd I believe in 2009 and another Top-10 in there as well and playing well this season.

Had a couple of Top-10s so far this season, couple of almost Top-10s this season. So, just a few comments on being back here at the Golf Club of Houston.

J.B. HOLMES: It's always great to come back to a place you're familiar with and had success at. The Shell is always a great tournament. The golf course is also in unbelievable shape, a great precursor to the Masters. Fun course to play. Crowds are great. It's just a treat every time you get to come back to Houston and play. It's such a wonderful place.

DOUG MILNE: It was certainly quite the special win last year in light of the couple that you beat in the playoff. Does that give it kind of a kick it up an extra notch knowing that you've taken out Jordan and Johnson?

J.B. HOLMES: Anytime you can get a win it's great. To do it against a great player like Jordan and Johnson was great. Anytime you can win in a playoff it's unbelievable. The guys that you're playing against had a great week. Jordan had an unbelievable year last year so it was nice of him to let somebody else win one (laughter).

Q. Speaking of just this tournament setting up for the Masters, how much did you feel like last year playing here, winning here, helped you with whatever you did last -- at the Masters which I think was your second start?
J.B. HOLMES: You know, it's just -- the golf course is in such good shape and the greens -- it's nice to be in a competitive place in a golf tournament the week before a Major and to have similar conditions.

It's always -- so you don't have to go from a different type of grass or, you know, slower greens. It's nice to go ahead and get acclimated to greens of the speed that they have at Augusta. So, it's definitely -- some people like to play a week before and some people don't.

I think for -- to play before a tournament, this one is about as close as you can get condition-wise, you know, to next week. Obviously the greens next week are -- have a lot more undulation and very difficult and tricky greens but the greens year-in, year-out and this week, too, are usually just perfect here.

Q. J.B. look at the scorecard, obviously plays long here and when your name is on top of the leaderboard, it would show that you probably play for big hitters.
Is this a course that plays better for the big bombers or does it not really matter?

J.B. HOLMES: I don't really think it matters. I mean if you look who has kind of won here it's kind of been a mixed match of everything which usually is a good tale of a good golf course. It is a longer golf course.

They have bunkers placed very well. I don't hit maybe quite as many drivers as people might think. It's not just a grip-it and rip-it-type-golf course.

You got to hit it out there in the right spot. There's definitely advantages to hitting it further in some places and -- but there's a few places where, you know, you got to lay back and hit a 3-wood or hit something else.

It's not -- if everybody says it's really long, it's a bomber's golf course, it doesn't quite play as long as it says it does because you have to -- everybody kind of hitting to the same spot on a lot of holes because you got to stay short of the bunker or something like that where Johnson, he hits it out there pretty good but you wouldn't consider him a bomber and he's played really well here. D.A. Points, he's the same thing.

You've had some guys hit a long ways win and some guys that definitely are not short. I don't think you're going to see somebody out here, one of the shorter guys on Tour but if you hit it out there 290, it's plenty long for this golf course.

Q. Would it be fair to say that accuracy off the tee is not very important this week?
J.B. HOLMES: Where you miss it is important. Like I said, the golf course condition is in such good shape and treat it like the Masters so the rough isn't very high.

There's a few holes where I might hit it right where I'm looking but might be in the rough because there's water to the right if you miss one and all kinds of room left. It's more of kind where you miss it.

As far as being in the middle of the fairway on every hole is definitely a key anywhere. You can get away with it here, not having to do that if you hit it in the right spot.

There's a few spots like No. 8 the par 5, I'm basically just -- unless the wind is into me I'm kind of aiming over the left side of the bunker just because I got room there and the water kind of cuts in on the right so I can take away -- hit it right where I'm aiming and you'll see some of the longer hitters going that route just to kind of stay away from the water. There's a few instances where you can do that and not really have to hit it in if the fairway.

So, that's -- that can be an advantage but, at the same time, you can get an awkward lie or angle so it's a good set-up. I mean -- if you do hit it left on that hole you have to carry the bunker on the front of the green. You hit it in the fairway you can run it up.

I think they've done a good job of those places where you have them where you can't hit it over there, it's a more difficult shot but you don't have to worry about the water. This is a place if you miss it in the right spots you don't have to be in the fairway every hole.

Q. J.B. I know some guys in preparation for the Masters test some different clubs. Do you change your bag stuff at all, like the Masters, to fit the course or have you kind of seen certain clubs work better than others?
J.B. HOLMES: I've got 15, 16 clubs in my bag that I'll use depending on course to course. It's clubs I've played with and used to. There's certain weeks where they might fit in better than it does others.

I'm not really trying new clubs but I definitely have clubs that, depending on the week, I can change back and forth a little bit.

Q. Do you think that the way that you won, the comeback, the playoff kind of excites you a little bit more going into this weekend?
J.B. HOLMES: I'd rather have a ten shot lead and cruise in personally (laughter). That was last year. Obviously I'm going to take the good memories I had from that, it was an unbelievable year but this is a completely different year you know, nothing -- if you won last year and gave you a two stroke head start, maybe that would be but you're starting the same as we do everything else and I'm just going to take the good vibes I have from this place and just go out and do the best I can and hopefully have a chance to do the same thing I did last year.

Q. Champions here historically haven't repeated. Vijay did. What changes? When you get out there do you think about what you did last year and trying to duplicate it or is that the biggest mistake you can make?
J.B. HOLMES: You can look at any golf course. When does a lot of times a guy repeat?

Q. It's unusual.
J.B. HOLMES: First of all, all the guys out here are really good golfers. It's hard to win a tournament, period, much less certain one every year at the same time.

And also usually defending people will -- you'll have expectations and lot of times you'll get out of people's routines where you have to do extra stuff for the week, just because you're defending champion doing a few things.

There's just different things you have to do defending and if you're not careful you can start thinking about last year and, "Oh, I won that tournament", you have that and tee off and you can definitely get ahead of yourself.

It's a different challenge than normal and I think it's just -- it -- it's really hard to win anyways. I think it can add a little bit to it.

If you're not careful you can put too much expectations on yourself instead of just going out there and having a good time and just enjoying the tournament that you enjoy.

Q. You guys the lead at the top changed with Jason replacing Jordan No. 1. Do you guys pay much attention to that?
J.B. HOLMES: I didn't know that happened until you told me (laughter). No. Jordan and Jason and Rory are kind of the three that interchange right now that are playing great. We don't really -- we're not staring at the World Rankings or anything like that.

You know who are the good players out here and it doesn't really matter if they're 1 or 2, you can have a guy that's 150th in the world win and a guy that's 400th win. There's a lot of good golfers here.

You know, at the level that those two have played in the last two years, 2-1, 1-2, I mean they're both great players. You know when they're playing they're probably going to have a chance to win.

Q. Everybody's performance speaks for itself obviously. You kind of like the fact that you have this ranking or do you prefer it didn't exist?
J.B. HOLMES: I think the World Rankings are good. I wish there was a little bit better system for it. I think the system, it's okay.

They could definitely do some stuff that's a little bit better in how they give out the points and the strength of field and the way they have it but I mean you could get into the details of that but it's -- it's a system that's working right now.

I'd like to see them get it to be a little more accurate but if you play really well it doesn't matter. The way it's set-up now it's basically you just get big points if you finish in the Top-3 and if you finish 10th in a PGA TOUR event, which is pretty good week, you really don't get -- you really don't get very many points.

You would like to see it where it was spread out a little bit better than that.

Q. Do you think a Top-10 finish -- the very short version of what you're saying, Top-10 should weigh a little more?
J.B. HOLMES: Should weigh a little more. It just depends on how they strength some of the tours and I feel like the PGA TOUR is probably the strongest throughout Tour in the world. So, I feel like a 10th place here should have a little more weight than, say, an Asian Tour or maybe the European Tour I feel like is the second best tour in the world. They have a lot of great players, too.

I feel like our 90th guy on the list is a better player than their 90th guy on the list. Top 30, Top 40 guys are great players and up there with us.

I think as far as a complete field, I feel like the PGA TOUR has stronger players throughout. Like I said, I'm not saying -- great fields on the European Tour. Depth-wise we have the deepest players.

Q. How do you feel about the state of your game going into this week, going into the Masters?
J.B. HOLMES: It's good. You know, I'm playing -- I played -- I'm on the up-rise. I played really good earlier in the year and hit a little bit of a lull in the last couple of events. It's going in the right direction. I'm improving where I need to improve and getting ready to go and excited about this week and next.

DOUG MILNE: All right. J.B., thanks for your time.

J.B. HOLMES: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297