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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 6, 2014J.B. HolmesPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome J.B. Holmes, the most recent winner on TOUR at the Wells Fargo Championship last week. You're about to make your eighth start in THE PLAYERS Championship. Kind of talk about your thoughts from last week and coming into this week. J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, obviously a lot of good thoughts, a lot of good feelings coming from last week, and looking forward to playing this golf course. I really enjoy it. I've had some good finishes here, so looking forward to getting out there and hopefully getting back in contention. Q. When you had your initial situation with the‑‑ J.B. HOLMES: Brain? Q. Yeah, was it displaced‑‑ what did they describe it as? J.B. HOLMES:  Basically my brain was sitting on my skull and preventing spinal fluid and causing symptoms. Q. What kind of symptoms are there from that, if any, and during the process, including the second surgery, was there a lot of pain? What were you going through? J.B. HOLMES: The symptoms can be vertigo‑like symptoms, dizzy, really bad headaches, sensitivity to light. So a lot of stuff that maybe you could miss a little bit if you were having a desk job or something like that, but stuff that golf‑wise really affected me and was definitely hurting‑‑ I could make some cuts, but I really didn't feel like I could compete. And then, yeah, there was‑‑ when they cut part of your skull out, there's quite a bit of pain. They had to go through the muscles and I had a real stiff neck, and it took over a year to‑‑ year and a half. I'm still working on getting all my rotation back with my neck, and a lot of rehab. It was a lot of work. Q. Initially, did you think you had just migraines or developing that kind of thing? J.B. HOLMES: We didn't know what it was. We thought initially it could be a sinus infection‑‑ not a sinus infection, an inner ear infection. I had something like that before where I was a little bit dizzy, but it seemed like my brain or body would equal it out, then it would be okay, and then this time it was different, though, it never really went away. Then we thought it was vertigo, then we thought it was cluster migraines, then finally about the sixth doctor we figured out that it was this, and that was what was causing it. Q. You had, obviously, the brain procedures and then a string of injuries and so forth. Once you were back to playing and kind of had moved past that, what was the most difficult thing for you or maybe the most frustrating part of the game for you until, obviously, last week? J.B. HOLMES: Just getting healthy was the most frustrating thing, just taking the time to get back and get to 100 percent, and playing out here some, not at 100 percent, so a little frustrating, maybe just doing a couple things that I've never really done before or certain things in my golf swing that I struggled with that I hadn't struggled with before. Little things like that, just not being able to do what I was used to doing. It was part of the process and part of the working to get back out here, and then once I got back out here, it was just I had a different outlook on it and tried to enjoy it more, and so far I've done a pretty good job with that. Q. Just a couple quick follow‑ups, what were some of those things that you, all of a sudden, were doing that you hadn't done before? J.B. HOLMES: You know, I don't even really remember all of them. I'm pretty good at forgetting all that stuff. You'd hit a shot here or a shot there, sometimes out of the rough I'd leave my‑‑ usually the face would shut a little bit, where I was leaving it open, more things like that where normally on a swing it would sometimes be closed with maybe my arm being weak or whatever, it was open, not having the distance that I normally did. When I did that, I tried to swing differently to get more distance or hit more up on it and stuff like that. Little things like that that you probably couldn't see, but more integral parts of the game, that I knew, hey, I usually do this and didn't react the same as I had most of my life. Q. You mentioned kind of appreciating things more. If you could maybe compare yourself as a person or player before everything that you went through versus once you got through it, what was the biggest difference? J.B. HOLMES: I mean, just a different outlook on life, just learning to be more grateful. I've gotten closer to God and really worked on being a better Christian and just trying to learn to let stuff go and let God have it. In the end, it's just a golf tournament. As big as this tournament is, in five years you could ask somebody, hey, who won THE PLAYERS, and 99 percent of the people won't know. It would be a great honor to win this tournament, and it's a great, great opportunity to play, and as much as I can just enjoy the moment and enjoy the memories, that's really what you can take from it, and friends and family can take more of that away than a win. Sometimes a win might be the best memories and sometimes it might be missing the cut and going out with your friends on Saturday night. They all came to see you and you actually get to spend some time with them instead of them watching you on the golf course. You never really know exactly what's going to be the best for you in your situation, and you've just got to trust that what's happening is happening for a reason, and go with what's going on. Q. Going off the brain for a moment, it's so rare out here to see anybody win two weeks in a row. To me, you would think, someone is in good form, they should have a great chance to win the next week. Do you have any thoughts on that? J.B. HOLMES: Everybody is really, really good. Yeah, I mean, it takes a lot out of you, a lot of emotional stuff. With people maybe more like Tiger and Phil and Rory, you see those guys, and they're doing the media and it's full and they're doing that every week, so it's maybe not that big of a change for them. But for the people‑‑ I hadn't been in the media as much, and now I've got a media session now and had a lot of media last week. It can change your routine. A little bit of that can affect it, and again, it's just kind of draining mentally and physically to be up there playing and in competition and all that stress the whole time. You don't see people do it a whole lot back‑to‑back, and that's one of the reasons, even those bigger players, you don't see them play that many tournaments in a row. They'll play one, two in a row and then take a break because of all the media and a lot of times they're in contention, so it's a lot of stress. That was my third one in a row. This is my fourth tournament. You don't see‑‑ I think more of that reason; it takes a lot out of you and you don't see people playing four and five events and being in contention every week. It's just stressful. Q. When somebody has a really prominent obstacle to overcome like you did, it feels like it could be a blessing and a curse a little bit. Obviously, the blessing that you're winning now. The curse being that you have to answer questions about it over and over. Is that something that you think about? Does it become tiring? J.B. HOLMES: Well, it just depends on how you look at it. It can be a blessing, as well. People are talking about that and maybe they're making aware more the chiari. I never really heard of it and a lot of people have never heard of it, so maybe it's making them more aware of that and somebody that's struggling in their day‑to‑day things, they're saying, maybe I'll get that checked out, so maybe it can help people. As a burden to me, I can look at it as, yeah, sometimes answering the same question over and over can be annoying, but if it helps one person, then who am I to be mad at that or frustrated at that. I'm just very blessed to be out here, and if I can do anything to maybe help somebody out there or let them know about something that they didn't know about that they're struggling with in their life and I went through it, maybe they can get through it easier or avoid long years of trying to figure out what it is or whatever. Hopefully, it can help somebody. Q. You mentioned the physical element of going week after week after week and playing tournaments, but do you think the success and the momentum from last week will help you at all for what's a very difficult course out here, very unique course? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, it goes both ways. It's very, like I said, mentally taxing. It can wear you out mentally and everything else. But also it has a lot of good feelings and obviously you're playing really good and your confidence is up. You can kind of look at it two ways. You can go and can see somebody definitely‑‑ a lot of times you will see somebody win and then compete the next week. It's just, going back to the first statement, a lot of people are really good out here, and it's just hard‑‑ you're talking about somebody, how many people win two times in a year. There's just not that many people. So then to make them back‑to‑back, it's a difficult task. There's a lot of good players and the strength of the fields have gotten better every year, so you're seeing a lot of young players that are great players that come out here that are fearless and coming out here winning. Q. Take me through your relationship and your friendship with Brandon. He's been your boy all along. J.B. HOLMES: I mean, let's see. We've been on the‑‑ he started playing high school golf in fifth grade, so I was starting the third, so I was there a year before him and he was a year ahead of me in school. So we were playing golf together for a long time. We were on the tee ball team together. We've been best friends for a very long time. It's great to have him out there and just a buddy on the bag and enjoying it with me. He's gone through some changes, too, and we both kind of got to grow together. It's just a really great thing to have a good friend like that on the bag and be able to enjoy the moments that we have and the awesome experiences we get to have being out here on TOUR. Q. Can you imagine your life without him on the bag? J.B. HOLMES: I mean, I'd rather not. I like having him out there. But he took off for a year and actually got injured, so we ended up both taking a year off. But yeah, I've gone that route without him, and there's a lot of good caddies out here and a lot of good people, but I do enjoy having him on the bag and just having a good friend out here. Q. You've had some good years, some good tournaments here. What's been your game plan as far as throttling back a little bit; and then comment, please, on the 17th hole, love it, hate it, somewhere in between? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I mean, this is just like any other TOUR event in the week. There's holes where you hit driver and there's holes where you don't. I feel like they're pretty clear‑cut out here. The ones you can get in the fairway with a wedge in your hand and ones you can go for a little bit. That's kind of week to week and getting it in play and making the best opportunity to make birdie for you. And then 17, I think it's a great hole. Coming down the stretch, it gets the wind in you and everything. It's a difficult hole to have to mean so much, and you see a lot of players coming in that hit a good shot and kind of get a bad bounce, or every year you see somebody make that really big number. Maybe if it was the 8th hole or the 5th hole or a different hole on the golf course, it would‑‑ from a player stance, maybe be a little bit better, but from a watching stance and the stadium atmosphere, I mean, it's pretty awesome. You don't get that opportunity very much. It's a really good finishing hole, the way they have it set up. It's a lot of fun for viewing, and this is a sport about entertainment, so they got it right. Q. According to ShotLink, and they've been doing it since 2003, you've got the longest recorded drive in the history of this tournament. In 2008, you hit a 372 on No.1. Do you remember, it was the first shot of the‑‑ J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I was‑‑ Q. Do you remember a whole lot about that? J.B. HOLMES: I had 30 or 40 yards or something like that. It was right where I was aiming. Q. Do you still hit driver off 1? J.B. HOLMES: Depending on the wind, depending on how I'm hitting it, I can. It just depends on how the course is set up and if it's wet and what the carry‑‑ there's a bunch of factors that goes into it, but it wouldn't be out of the realm for me to hit driver on 1. Q. With 17, what's it like playing it on Sunday? How does it feel, a lot of decisions to that Sunday pin, how aggressive you want to be, and what's it like deciding what you want to take on with that hole, especially when you're in there late? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I mean, basically, the smart shot is just to hit it‑‑ basically every time you're just trying to hit it over that bunker, and if it rolls to the right, great, and if it doesn't, you take your par and get out of there. It's kind of funny, because it's such a short hole and you put land all around it and everybody is firing at that pin. Like I said, it's a great hole, a lot of excitement on it, and with all those people around and as big as this tournament is, it puts a lot of pressure on you, so it makes that shot a lot more difficult. Most people are pretty conservative on it, and most of the time when you see people get it over there, they push it. Most of the time. There's a rare few that might go right at it, but most of the time they're probably just trying to hit it up there, just right on that edge, and if they hit a good shot it rolls down. Sometimes you'll see people hit it right where they want to and it'll stay there. A lot of times you'll see somebody start right at it or go right at it, most of the time I feel like they push it. I might be wrong. You can ask other players, but I would think so. Q. Do you have the length to take apart any golf course? I was wondering if there are any holes, other than 12, where you know you're going to try to drive the green or have you ever in a practice round tried to hit it as far as you could? J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, most of the time when I try those things, on those holes, most of the time on 12, like you said, I rarely hit driver in the tournament, I have a couple times. But in the practice round is when I would try that to see where it would end up, or to certain pins or whatever, just to see where it ends up. A lot of times it's not the best play and sometimes it is, and sometimes it's situational. The par‑5s, a lot of times I'll try to get one out there a little bit to have less club in there, but like I said, most of the time I test that prior to, and if it works out, then that's good. Like last week on 8 at Wells Fargo, I hit driver every day, where in the past I've kind of laid up more and they've redesigned it where it was a little bit more enticing to go after it. I was aggressive with it that week, and it worked out great. I made four birdies on the hole. Q. Do you ever hit driver on 6? J.B. HOLMES: Let me think, which one is 6? No. I think I have before, but it's too tight, and there's no really chance of getting it on the green. It runs out. There's bunkers there. There's really no advantage of doing it. You're just kind of risking for something that‑‑ you can hit an iron and have a wedge in and still make a better score. So you're bringing stuff into play that's just not really worth it. Q. Just talk about, as far as round by round, the adjustments you have to make with different pin positions and a lot of those greens moving a number of different ways. J.B. HOLMES: I mean, there's green light pins and there's red light pins. So there's pins that you can go right at it, and if you do miss it, short‑side it or whatever, your up‑and‑down is not too bad. Then there's times where you can't get it to‑‑ you need to be short of the pin and stuff like that. You just kind of know that going through the practice rounds and actually playing here so many times you kind of know where the pins are going to be, so you kind of know where you can hit it and where you can't hit it, and there's holes to go at it and then there's holes where you just hit it in the middle of the green and two‑putt. That's just kind of an everyday thing week to week. You kind of know. I don't necessarily look at the pins and be like, I have to do this and I have to do this before the round or anything. It's just kind of coming up, this is the pin on the right, we have to make sure we're a little left of it. That's kind of how we go through it. I wish we hit it where we aimed every time. We don't always do that. But we're trying to make it the easiest situation so, if we do miss it, we have the best chance at par; and if we do hit a good shot, we still have an opportunity for birdie. Q. You talked a lot about a new outlook, new perspective and that kind of thing. What was the turning point in that, being away or something that happened when you came back? J.B. HOLMES: I mean, I just got tired of the fight of trying to do it my way, and obviously it wasn't working. It was stressful. I wasn't enjoying the game. I even pondered doing something else. I wasn't enjoying it, even when I was playing well, so I was like, what's the point of being out here and traveling so much and being away from friends and family if you're not even going to enjoy it. I just kind of got to a point where something had to change. I went the route I went, and everything has gotten a lot better and a lot easier. I've been able to let go of‑‑ that's the process I'm going through is trying to let go of the results and not worry about it as much. It's still a process, and at times I don't do what I'm supposed to do, but I'm trying to work that way, and the more I can kind of let go of the results and just hit a shot at a time‑‑ you can't control everything in golf. After the ball leaves the club, I can't do anything about it, whether it hits a bird or hits a sprinkler head, whether it hits the pin and goes in or doesn't. You know, golf is a lot like life. You've got to trust what you're doing, do the best you can, and sometimes you're going to get some good breaks and sometimes you're going to get a bad break. It just depends on how you look at it. Q. Pondering doing anything else specifically? J.B. HOLMES: No, I didn't get too far in that. I didn't really want to. You know, just wasn't happy with where I was going and went for a change. MARK STEVENS: Thanks for your time, J.B. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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