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FBR OPENFebruary 3, 2008J.B. HolmesSCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome the 2008 FBR Open champion J.B. Holmes into the media center. J.B., congratulations. With the win you pick up 4,500 FedEx points as you make your way through the FedExCup year. Yesterday when you were in here you said you thought it was probably going to take 4- or 5-under today to get the job done. It wasn't 4- or 5-under, but you ultimately got the job done. J.B. HOLMES: I knew if I shot 4- or 5-under -- I thought 3-under would do it, but the conditions, it was a little more windy today, it was colder, so just a little bit -- if the conditions would have been the same, I would have shot a little better. But luckily even par got me into the playoff and I pulled it through. Q. Take us through, if you don't mind, both putts, in regulation and in the playoff. J.B. HOLMES: Well, the putt in regulation, me and my caddie were reading it, and we were kind of thinking a ball, ball and a half, and he had a good read on it. He said it's a ball outside. He said, that's it. You hit it there, you'll make it. I said, all right, you've been reading greens well all day. I lined up, hit a good stroke and it went in the hole. Q. Was it right to left, that putt? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, it was about a ball outside right. Q. What does it say about you that you didn't fall apart under those circumstances and were able to do that? J.B. HOLMES: I can play under pressure, I guess. I've always tended to do well under pressure, in junior golf and college and everything. I didn't have my best stuff today, but I fought and I hung in there and I made it when I needed to. Q. How much were you grinding this week after your rounds, hitting balls, putting? You were out here a little bit -- J.B. HOLMES: Well, I really wasn't hitting much. I made the cut last week but I hit my driver just horrendous, and I was still hitting it bad this week. I probably spent between Monday and Wednesday, I probably spent 20, 22 hours out there hitting balls, putting and chipping with my golf instructor Matt Killen. Then the first round I hit it better, but I still hit a couple left, I hit a couple in the water, and just got a little better every day. Probably the best was yesterday, and today was pretty good. I worked hard and got it to where it worked. I pretty much just tried to get a routine this week and I hit balls and putted after every round just for a little bit. I even did it last night when it was dark. Q. You had bogeys there in the middle of the round. Can you talk about how you were able to turn the momentum there and maybe what your thought process was? J.B. HOLMES: Which ones? I had a bunch today (laughter). Q. Just in general, I mean, coming down the back nine. J.B. HOLMES: Back nine? Yeah, well, 10, I just -- I pulled it over there, and then I hit a pretty good shot out of there, jumped out more than I thought and it went over the back of the green. I really didn't chip well today. I had been chipping well all week, and today I had some pretty easy chips that I just hit very poorly. So I hit a bad chip there. And then I didn't hit a good putt, either, made bogey. So I was like, come on, let's go. The tee shot on 11 is always intimidating, so it's great to get up there and hit a good shot there. I hit 3-wood and just killed it, right up the right side. I hit a good wedge in there to about 12 feet and I really thought I was going to make a birdie, and I hit a good putt and just misread it, so I made par there. And then I didn't hit a very good shot on the next hole. And I didn't hit a very good chip, again, but I made a big putt. I made a big 12-, 15-footer for par, so that really kept me in it. Then the next tee shot was what I've been fighting all week. I hit it way left, hit the cart path, a little unlucky there, got kind of behind a tree, chipped out, hit a mediocre wedge to about 20 feet and had a good read on it and hit a good putt again. So those two holes were huge right there keeping me in it. And then the par 5, I thought I had a one-shot lead at the time there. Hindsight is 20/20, but maybe laying up would have been a better option there. I've been hitting my wedges really good and putting well, so wedged it up there and made birdie, par at worse. But hindsight is 20/20, if I hit it up there six feet and made eagle. Then I hit a pretty good shot on 16, a little bit left, hit an 8-iron a little bit further than I thought I would, good putt. 17, hit a great 3-wood right at the flag. I thought it was going to get up there, and then I hit a poor chip again, and then I hit a putt -- we read it and I hit it right where I wanted to. I thought it was right in the center and it just didn't break. And then 18, we've talked about 18. Q. When you're playing the No. 2 player in the world in a playoff, what's your mindset, because it looked like you were in a different mood in the playoff than coming down the stretch. J.B. HOLMES: It's match play in a playoff. I don't have to beat the whole tournament, I've just got to beat him. You know, it's all or nothing, so I just buckled down and -- Q. Does it phase you you're playing the No. 2 guy in the world? J.B. HOLMES: No, I felt like I had the advantage. I could hit over the bunker, and he had been sitting in the clubhouse. I just walked off, I was loose, I was ready. The hole favors me, no reason I shouldn't win. That's how I went into it. Q. When you hit that drive on the playoff hole, you kind of walked away, I kind of said it was like Barry Bonds hitting a home run. Did you know when you hit that that it was -- J.B. HOLMES: Oh, yeah, I smoked it. I thought it actually went further than it went. I just absolutely killed it, and it was on a rope. No doubt in my mind it was over the bunker and up there. Q. You mentioned it was a little bit of redemption for you for people not believing in you. Do you think you've been kind of short-changed over the last year or two because you haven't won? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, a little bit in some aspects. I just had a little trouble adjusting to all the traveling out here. And I just got married in November, so I'm more settled in life and happier right now. I think my best golf is ahead of me. Q. When did you sort of become cognizant of what Phil was doing? I know during your round there weren't a ton of leaderboard opportunities to see what was going on. J.B. HOLMES: I was kind of banking on Phil. Well, you can tell when Phil makes a birdie. There's a bunch of people following and you can hear the roar all over the golf course. I thought he was 13 when he was 14, so I kind of planned on -- did he birdie 17? Q. Yeah. J.B. HOLMES: Where the pin was, I kind of thought he probably would birdie that. When I looked up at the scoreboard and saw that he finished 14, I was one back, I needed to do something. Q. At one point you had a four-shot lead. Did the choke word ever enter your mind as you were playing like 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, it always pops into your mind, but I fought through it. I hit some bad shots, but it's golf. Nobody goes out there and hits a perfect shot every time. I didn't have my best stuff today, and I came through and I won. I didn't give up. I played hard, and when I needed to make it, I did. Q. What was the difference between when you won last time you were 21-under, and this time you were only 14-under, seven shots between two tournaments? J.B. HOLMES: Weather. This tournament fluctuates. Last year 21 won, but weren't there like eight or nine people above 14-under? Q. Yeah, 21-under has won the last two years and you've got one of them. J.B. HOLMES: So it was a little colder -- Q. Did the course play differently at all? J.B. HOLMES: I think it played a little bit longer. They got so much rain on Sunday, it made the fairways a little bit wet, but the greens firmed out so people had to hit longer clubs into the holes and it was just hard to maybe hold them close. Q. What did you think of the crowd on 18, both putts, because it's like a lot of them were rooting for you. J.B. HOLMES: That's a great feeling. Phil was in his hometown and I felt like I had a lot of people rooting for me. That's always a good feeling. There was tons of people there, and it was just a great stage to come through. Q. There's a little tournament in April, Georgia. J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, The Masters. Q. What's your thought on that? J.B. HOLMES: Always wanted to play in the Masters. That would be a dream come true getting to play in that, so I'm very excited about that. Q. How do you think it sets up for you? Obviously a lot of big hitters have done well there over the years. J.B. HOLMES: I haven't really played it, so I can't say. They keep making it longer. So as I say, it sets up for big hitters, but the main thing around there, you've got to make putts. It doesn't matter how far you hit it if you don't make putts. It'll be a lot of fun to go play. Q. Which tournament, the earlier one or this one, which one do you think you play better in? J.B. HOLMES: I felt like I played better probably at the other one. I made a lot of long putts this week. Probably the first one I was hitting them a little bit closer. I don't know. I hit big shots on all stages, both tournaments. I probably made more big putts in this tournament than I did the other one, but I played well enough in both of them. You can't really compare them two different times. It was hot when I won last time, 75, 80 every day, and we had a frost delay almost every day here, so it was colder. Q. Did you expect Phil to make a run today before the round even started? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. You know, I kind of did. I knew he was four shots back, so I knew if I shot 2- or 3-under somebody was going to have to shoot 7 to beat me. So I figured they had a lot more pressure on them than on me. I got it under par early and then just hit some bad chip shots. Just didn't hit good shots and I didn't make the putt when I needed to. Then towards the back nine, I knew this tournament you can't really look at a whole lot of stuff until you get to the back nine because there's so much stuff that can happen on the back nine. You've got so many holes you can make birdies, but the holes you make birdies there's water and you can make bogey and double. So you just kind of go into it, and there's a few holes out there you expect people to birdie. If you're in the last group your lead is going to shrink a little bit because you haven't got to those holes. You've just got to make sure that you birdie the holes when you need to, to make the putts. Q. You were playing the second ranked player in the world on a golf course where he's won twice and you felt like you had the advantage in the playoff, right? J.B. HOLMES: Yes. He had been sitting -- he hadn't played in 30, 40 minutes. I'm sure he was hitting balls and stuff, but I just walked right off the green and went back and played the hole I just played. My putt in the playoff was the exact one that Charles had, so I knew exactly what it did. Like I said, I felt like I could carry the bunker real easy, and Phil -- I thought Phil could, but I think he decided to hit 3-wood. When a guy is hitting 3-wood and I'm hitting driver and I'm 80 yards past him, I mean, how can you not feel like you have the advantage? Q. It looked like your ball was on a tricky little slope there. Was it? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, it was above my feet a little bit. If it had been about six or seven yards further it would have been tougher. But I hit it perfect, just where I wanted to. Q. What did you hit? Sand wedge? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I only had like 72 yards to the flag and 60 front or something, or 64. I was just trying to land it on the front, because on a downhill slope it's hard to get it to spin right there. Q. How hard was your lie in regulation on 18 when you had to drop? J.B. HOLMES: It wasn't easy, but it wasn't real hard, either. For the shot I was going to hit, I was going to open it up a little bit and try to hit it high and be soft. I mean, I dropped into a decent lie. It wasn't great. Q. What was the yardage on that one? J.B. HOLMES: I don't even remember. Q. 78, according to ShotLink. J.B. HOLMES: It was about 78, but I was looking at the front yardage. I think it was like 67 or something over the front. I'm just trying to land it -- I knew I had to make birdie so I was trying to land it between 67 and 71 yards to get it close to the hole. Q. Was that putt tougher than the one on 17 that you missed? J.B. HOLMES: Which one? Q. The one on 18. It was an 11-footer, I think. J.B. HOLMES: We misread the putt on -- I hit it right where I wanted to and just misread it. We read the one correctly on 18. Neither one of them moved a whole lot. I knew the one on 18 was going to go left and the one on 17 I thought was going to go left, but it didn't. Both of them weren't extremely hard putts, but when you've got to have a birdie and you've got to make the putt, it makes it a lot harder. Q. What does this do for you? J.B. HOLMES: Big confidence builder. Hopefully it gets me points for the Ryder Cup team. That's what I want to do. I want to play in my home state for my country. I got to play in college on the Walker Cup team and some U.S.-Japan teams and that's always been the best experience for me in golf. I love the international competition. My main goal this year is to make the Ryder Cup team. Q. How well do you know Valhalla? J.B. HOLMES: I played it a lot in college. It's probably one of my favorite golf courses. I've played it quite a bit. I've played it once or twice since they've redone it, but I've been around it several times. DOUG MILNE: J.B. Holmes, 2008 FBR Open champion. Thanks a lot for coming in. Congratulations. End of FastScripts |
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