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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 18, 2008

J.B. Holmes

TUCSON, ARIZONA

LAURA NEAL: J.B., thank you so much for joining us. J.B., as you know, is the 2008 FBR Open champion, one that brought him from 208th in the world to 65, which got him in this week. He's teeing off with Tiger at 12:02. Can you talk about being at the tournament the first time and your expectations.
J.B. HOLMES: Anytime you're in any Match Play event or World Golf Championships, it's a big honor in itself. I'm proud to be here. I set up my schedule at the beginning of the year, and it was one of my goals to make it into the Match Play. I'm just glad to be here, and hopefully go out and play and see what happens.

Q. What were your thoughts when you figured out what the draw sheet was going to look like, when that finally all settled out and you who you were drawing the first round?
J.B. HOLMES: I'm just happy to be here. Anytime you get a chance to play against the best player in the world or the best player in any profession, in your own profession, you have to be doing pretty good to even have that opportunity. I'm just excited to be able to go out and play and see what I can do. So I've never got to see him up close and watch him play. I get to see and maybe compare a little bit and see what I need to improve on.

Q. Is there any strategy at all you'll take into playing Tiger Woods to try to get a leg up?
J.B. HOLMES: No, it's just match play; you've got to look at it as any other match. You're playing the best player in the world, so you've got to go out and stick to your game. I've got to keep playing the way I've been; that's what got me here, so I can't veer off that path.

Q. I don't remember, did you play in that Hooters Match Play in college? Did Kentucky play?
J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, we played in that.

Q. The Walker Cup?
J.B. HOLMES: The Walker Cup, the Palmer Cup. U.S. Am. I've played some match play, you know, not a lot, but I don't think really any of the Americans have played a lot of match play. So when you only do it once a year, if it's a Ryder Cup play, you play match play. But I don't think anybody is like -- the Europeans play more than we do, but I don't know if anybody is really, really comfortable with it, because nobody plays it that much.

Q. Does your style mesh well with match play or not?
J.B. HOLMES: I think so. Most of the time I'm going to be ahead of my opponents with short irons in. Tiger hits it a long ways. I've never played with him, so I don't know, length-wise, how I compare to him. I think we're pretty close.
I don't think it's an advantage -- if you have a short iron in or whatever, if I hit a bad shot or they hit it close, you know what you have to do, so I think it's an advantage.

Q. Can you discuss being in the spotlight match here, so to speak, on Wednesday, 12:00, it will be nationally televised, everyone will be watching? Just speak to that, for the first round.
J.B. HOLMES: That's good (laughter). Anytime you're on TV you're in good shape. In a golf tournament every week you have the chance to be in the spotlight if you play well enough. I've got a jump start, I don't have to do anything to be in the spotlight. It will be fun. It will be a good experience, and just looking forward to it.

Q. You won Phoenix the first time I think using "the Claw," and then you won it the last time around with a belly putter. Is putting something you've wrestled with throughout your amateur and pro career, or has that always been a little behind the rest of your game?
J.B. HOLMES: Maybe a little bit, yeah. I've never been a bad putter. Nobody gets out on TOUR being a bad putter. But I got out here and it's everybody just makes everything, and so I knew I had to improve on that. I worked on it this off-season and I went to the belly I think at the beginning of the Playoffs, and it works for me. You just got to do what works for you, and it's like anything in golf. Sometimes it's really good, and sometimes it's not so good. But you have to go out there and do your best.

Q. Honestly some people consider you an underdog?
J.B. HOLMES: Some (laughter)? I didn't know who was rooting for me.

Q. Do you have a favorite underdog story or a favorite underdog who you follow or anything like that?
J.B. HOLMES: I like the movie "Hoosiers" a lot. I guess that would be my underdog story.

Q. Did your life change much after Phoenix this year as compared to the previous time?
J.B. HOLMES: No, it's not even close to the way everything came at me the first time. I was nobody, so I came out of nowhere, just out of college and had a pretty good college career. But there's a ton of those that come out every year, some go out on TOUR, some never get on the TOUR. I came out and got my TOUR card; that was a huge career change for me. All the media attention and the way I won, it was much bigger than this last one.
But it's a great feeling, you know, and I just kind of knew how to take it a little bit more. Media attention has not been quite the same, because they've heard of me before, so I didn't just come out of nowhere.

Q. Not everybody handles playing with Tiger so well. How do you plan or prepare for taking that on?
J.B. HOLMES: I'm not going about it any different. I've never played him so I don't know. People that don't play well against him that say that, but he shoots 7- or 8-under, doesn't matter how good you play sometimes. He's a very intimidating player, but it will be fine. I think a lot of some of the advantage he has over a lot of people is he's able to hit it 30, 40 past them, and he has one of the best short games in the world. You give that guy a wedge in his hand, if they hit a 7-iron, they feel like they go right at it and he forces them to make mistakes. Hopefully I won't be 40 behind him. Hopefully I'll be up there around his shots. Maybe that will take a little bit away. But he putts solid, does everything so well, I'm going to have to play really well.

Q. J.B., curious what your thoughts are on the Tucson area and the surrounding course, the people here, et cetera?
J.B. HOLMES: I haven't seen much. I got in last night about 1:00, and I haven't seen one hole yet. I can't answer a whole lot. I'm going to head out there right after this. But people tell me it's kind of like Phoenix, and I like Phoenix. But the course -- they say it sets up good for me. Like I say, I haven't seen it, so I can't say a whole lot.

Q. Can you talk about your game? You've talked about the adjustment to the lifestyle of the TOUR. What in your game is different now, and this year what did you work hard on? What's different from last year?
J.B. HOLMES: Inside 130 yards I worked hard on, because I looked at my stats last year and I was pretty bad in that area. I worked real hard on my wedges in the off-season and bunker play, chipping and putting and everything. And so far in the year my stats have shown drastic improvement. So it's nice to see hard work pay off. So that's mainly what I worked on.

Q. I apologize for the levity in advance, but we're doing a story on autograph seekers. Do you ever get tired of people yelling Tiger's name asking for his autograph?
J.B. HOLMES: I actually haven't played with him so I haven't had that experience yet. I can't imagine what that guy has to go through all the time, not being a mean person or not signing anything, but it's not possible for that guy to sit there and sign all the autographs. Everybody wants his autograph and everything. But he's -- at this point he's earned everything he's getting. You've got to respect him for it.

Q. Do you have it, by any chance, his autograph?
J.B. HOLMES: No, no I don't.

Q. Have you played with him before, in any pairings at all?
J.B. HOLMES: I got paired with him one time at Riviera, but it was two years ago and he got sick. He withdrew. So, no.

Q. You think he was really sick that day or just dodging you?
J.B. HOLMES: He says he's sick, he's sick (laughter). He looked sick the day before; he was coughing and everything. It was miserable conditions. He had a big tournament the next week.

Q. Did you get out there at all? Have you been out here?
J.B. HOLMES: No, I haven't been out here yet.

Q. Did you go over your Walker Cup stuff yet?
J.B. HOLMES: No, I haven't.

Q. I think you were 2 and 1 that week?
J.B. HOLMES: 2 and 1.

Q. Was that Chicago?
J.B. HOLMES: Chicago, won one team match and lost one team match. I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the team, getting to know those players, and being able to go out and play and the team won. It was a couple of matches that were pretty big for the team, so that was fun.

Q. What's the best you ever did in either the Pub Links or the U.S. Am?
J.B. HOLMES: I never played in the Pub Links. U.S. Am, I tried three times, and got in three times, made it around to 16 once. And --

Q. Why didn't you ever do the Pub Links?
J.B. HOLMES: I was a member at a private club and they wouldn't let me play.

Q. Did you ever look at the list of guys in the Pub Links and wonder if they spent their whole life on public courses?
J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I don't agree with what they've got there. I looked at some of those guys, and said, you're kidding me, whatever, that's how it is.

Q. And did you -- I guess in a way you can consider it match play, FBR a little bit, even though it was a very short match play, is it pretty much the same concept.
J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, sudden death is the same thing as match play, except it's just -- you screw up once, you don't get another chance. So match play is a little bit more forgiving than that; you can go down a couple of holes and go down early and come back and still do well in the end. Sudden death you don't get that chance.

Q. How meaningful was it last week, Pebble can be Pebble, but where you were a couple of years ago when you won Phoenix, and then went through the rest of your rookie year not so glowing. But to come back with a good Sunday and a decent finish so quickly after you won again on a totally different golf course?
J.B. HOLMES: I've adjusted, so it's not such a big lifestyle change. I've been out here three years now, and you just know you go next week and play in the next tournament. It was just such an eye-opening to me. Two months before I didn't have a TOUR card, I just turned pro, and all of a sudden a won my first TOUR event two months after I turned pro, so that's a big step. So just -- I guess maybe I wasn't quite prepared for it. I don't know how you prepare for that.
I thought I did a little better than I did, and I just didn't play as well. So it's golf. Sometimes you play well, sometimes you don't.

Q. Is there any significance to the glove being black?
J.B. HOLMES: No, just a Rain Grip. Grew up in Kentucky, a lot of humidity, my hand sweats a lot. I've had other golf gloves, and it got too expensive to pay for it. And I turned to the Rain Grip and I've used it ever since.

Q. When did that start?
J.B. HOLMES: 14, 15.
LAURA NEAL: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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