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WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIPMay 4, 2014J.B. HolmesCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA THE MODERATOR: We will get started. I'd like to welcome the winner of the 2014 Wells Fargo Championship, J.B. Holmes. Congratulations on your third career PGA TOUR victory. With the win, you punch your ticket to next week's PLAYERS Championship and move to the top‑20 in the FedExCup standings. Certainly all wins are significant, but given all that you've overcome, I would imagine this is a pretty special win. J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, this is a big win for me, it's been since 2008 since I've won, and since then I had two brain surgeries and broke my ankle and had arm surgery, the list goes on. So it's a huge win and to get in the top‑20 in the FedExCup, that's huge, and just to win in a venue like this with such a good field and the golf course is always so well manicured, it's just great. I'm just ecstatic. Q. J.B., if I'm not mistaken all three of your wins have come when you've held the 54‑hole lead. Why do you think you are so good at playing from ahead when others falter in that position? J.B. HOLMES: I have no clue. I've just been able to seize the opportunities when I've gotten up there, and today I was able to hang in there, got off to a little bit of a slow start, but was able to make a run there from 8 to 11 and throw in some birdies and it seemed like really everybody ‑‑ except Jim, nobody was going low today. Q. You put that trophy next to the piece of the skull? J.B. HOLMES: I put the skull in the trophy. Q. Where is that? J.B. HOLMES: It's in my closet. I rarely look at it, I just know that it's up there, so like I said, it's been a long road. It's nice to get in the winner's circle again and my game is in a good spot, and I worked really hard on it on the off‑season last year‑‑ the whole year was my off‑season, I guess, but it's nice to have that hard work pay off. Q. I wonder if you could talk about the importance of the putt on 17 and why you didn't play the 18th more conservatively or how you chose to play the 18th. J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, that was huge. It gave me a 2‑shot lead going into the last hole, and then that was big. So I was‑‑ I felt comfortable over that putt. I felt like I was going to make it, and I had a good stroke and it went in. The 18, I hit it down the middle every day this week, and it was either hit a 3‑wood which ‑‑ the wind was coming off the left, I planned on cutting it, and it would push it into the bunker more than likely anyway, so I figured why not hit it with a hard driver, and if goes out there in the middle, great, and if it goes in the woods, I can chip it out from there, and 2‑putt from there. Then I hit it over into the woods, and I actually had a pretty good opening, so I didn't really‑‑ I hit it up there and wasn't trying to be that conservative on the chip, but thought I would get it on the lower tier, just to be safe. Then I had a good 2‑putt, so it was good enough. Q. Sweating over that 3‑footer? J.B. HOLMES: Not really sweating, wanting to try not to get too excited, to calm yourself and make sure you hit a good putt. I've missed a 3‑footer before, so it wasn't like it wasn't in my mind or anything, but I felt confident over it. It was an inside left putt, and I've been putting great all week so I felt I was comfortable with it. Q. When you were standing over that 3‑footer, you stopped for a minute and you looked kind of off into the distance a little bit and took a deep breath. Was there anything else going through your mind? J.B. HOLMES: Just enjoying the moment. So you don't get that very often, so getting up and thanking God for letting me have the opportunity to do it, whether I made it or not and just enjoy being there. Q. I know you said a minute ago two brain surgeries.  Can you hopefully just walk us through what they were or what the steps were? J.B. HOLMES: I had a Chiari brain malformation. It's basically where my brain was sitting on my skull. It was going down into the hole where your spinal cord and everything comes up, and it was causing me to be dizzy and vertigo‑like symptoms and really bad headaches. So it started happening at the PLAYERS, in 2011‑‑ you guys know. And then it was a process to figure out exactly what it was, and then once I figured it out, I think I had surgery second week of the playoffs, and then about a month later I had a complication with the adhesive they used on the patch, the glue, I was allergic to it, so every time I tried to come off of steroids I was getting bad headaches. That was the most painful part was when I tried to do that, so they went back in and stitched it up this time, didn't use any glue. Basically the same surgery twice. They went in and removed a piece of my skull to get my brain so it wasn't sitting on that, and the spinal cord fluid could flow through. Q. J.B. with a 2‑shoot lead going into 18 did you consider iron there? Or was it driver all the way? J.B. HOLMES: No, it was driver all the way. I thought even if I did hit it in the water, I would be in the water, way up there, take a drop and have a wedge in my hand. So if I hit a long iron, then I've got another long iron, and it was just ‑‑ with two shots it felt like that was the best scenario for me. I have been‑‑ I was hitting that straighter than my 3‑iron today, so I was more comfortable with that club anyways. Q. Did the broken ankle curb your roller blading days‑‑ J.B. HOLMES: Over. Q. And exactly how did that happen? J.B. HOLMES: Well, I really don't like running, so I was trying to figure out a way to do cardio that was somewhat fun and turned out not being roller blading. That was the last time I went. Q. How do you‑‑ J.B. HOLMES: Me and my wife went out and said, hey, that will be fun, so turned out it was fun for a short period of time. (Chuckles.) Q. J.B., in your multiple come‑backs, was there ever a time when you doubted if you would ever get back here? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. I never dwelled on it, but there is always that flash that will come into your head, but I never thought I wasn't going to be back out here, I never let myself go there, it was always just the next step and next process to get back to where I needed to be. It was just one step at a time. I looked at it like that. If you looked at the big picture of everything that was happening, yeah you could get down on yourself, but after the surgery it was, I need to get better and do my rehab and after that I need to get my swing speed back, and steps like that. So I never sat back and looked at the big picture. And there's a lot of other people that could have it a lot worse. So even if I never played again, to have the career I had before that, a lot of people would kill for that, so it was a blessing to be out here, and it still is a blessing to be out here and you gotta look at it day by day and hope for the best. Q. Did you go five months without hitting golf balls at all? J.B. HOLMES: Five or six, something like that. Q. What was that like? J.B. HOLMES: It was nice! It was great. I hadn't done that in forever, maybe ever. It was nice to spend time with my family and friends and actually took a vacation that didn't involve golf. It was nice. Soon after I broke my ankle, I was kind of realizing that‑‑ I was in a bad spot when all that happened. I was unhappy with the way things were going and that kind of gave me a break, literally, and gave me time off from golf and let me reevaluate. And it was‑‑ it ended up being a really good thing for me. I probably wouldn't be here if I wouldn't have broke my ankle last year. Q. How long after you broke your ankle did you decide to have the elbow surgery? J.B. HOLMES: It was about a month. Q. Kept you out most of it didn't it? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. I was more worried about that than the ankle. The tennis elbow bothered me. I started to hit too many balls too quick after the brain surgery, and for the next few years, I was getting shots in it, and actually when I broke my ankle, I didn't know if I was going to be able to play the next week anyway it was hurting so bad, so it was a blessing in disguise. And while I was out, I said well I might as well get it fixed, too, so I talked to the doctor, and he said 85% usually works, and we went in and got it done and started rehab. About three months after that, I was able to start chipping and hitting balls and stuff like that. Q. Secondly, coming back this year with a little bit of uncertainty, medical extension and everything and a PGA, going to Valhalla, was that ever on your mind? Were you excited to get that done and what were you doing there? J.B. HOLMES: What was I doing there? Q. Valhalla in 2000? J.B. HOLMES: I was on the scoreboard, like 15 or 16. Q. Could you hit it further than Tiger back then? J.B. HOLMES: How old was I? Q. Like five or something (Chuckles). J.B. HOLMES: I was probably close to him. I don't know if I passed him but I was 300 plus. Yeah, going into it, thinking about it a little bit, I knew I had 19 events to get my card. Obviously the big thing was I was starting late to make money to get into the PGA. I wanted to be at Valhalla, so a little pressure, but I didn't really‑‑ I had been playing well and didn't worry about it too much. I did it in 10 or 11 events, so never got to the point where I gotta do something. I was‑‑ I played really well the last five weeks and it was not something I tried to dwell on. Just like anything else if you try to dwell on it when you can't do anything about it it's not any good. Golf you have to take one shot a time and it doesn't do me any good to worry about if I'm going to be exempt or get into the PLAYERS or anything else like that when I'm out there hitting a 5‑foot putt. Q. You mentioned the list is long. Is there a moment when that goes through your mind out there and if so, how do you push that back and try to focus? J.B. HOLMES: You know, I try not to worry about it too much. I feel like I get past it and then I almost forget about it. You guys are asking about the brain surgery like I said I don't remember what year it was. I'm trying to get past that and live now. I'm going to be in the present. All those things are difficult but everybody has very difficult times in their life and goes through hardships and mine was that so far. Something else could happen next week, we don't know. But it was a good experience for me and I grew from it. You gotta‑‑ can't learn from mistakes or what's going on, then you're behind in the game. Q. Could you talk a little bit about next week? You've had some success at Sawgrass. J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I'm excited to get in, I got my 8 points this week to get in. (Chuckles.) Looking forward to going there. I really like that tournament, I like the golf course, so it's nice. I get to go home for a day and I can drive up; it's not too far from the house. It's a good week. I enjoy going there and the TOUR does a great job. It's a great golf course, just kind of like‑‑ a little different than this last three holes but exciting finishing holes there, too. THE MODERATOR: J.B., congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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