Intimidation no factor for big-hitting Holmes  PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents KAPALUA, Hawaii -- The first couple of years were tough. Kids in high school can be pretty mean, you know. 
J.B. Holmes started playing with them -- and beating them -- when he was in third grade. Yes, you read that right, third grade. He averaged 52.4 on the varsity golf team that year and won the award for most improved. Holmes went on to become a 10-year letterman at Taylor County High, and "that's got to be some sort of record," he said with a shy grin on Friday. All those conference patches he received formed a big gray 'T' on his red letter jacket. The big-hitting Holmes is going after bigger rewards now, though. He's a PGA TOUR champion, winning the FBR Open last year in only his fourth start after earning medalist honors at q-school. As a result, the 24-year-old finds himself in Hawaii this week with 33 other 2006 titleholders for the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship. Not to mention, he's just three strokes off the lead held by Vijay Singh, who has 29 TOUR wins. Holmes has certainly graduated to the big leagues. But the lessons he learned in elementary school have served the Campbellsville, Kent., native well. "I think it helped me because I was a third-grader playing with high-schoolers, so I learned not to get intimidated," he said. "I played (in) the state championship through my senior year, so I was always playing with people older than me and I was beating them. "It didn't matter who they are or whatever. You just do your best and play your game and see what happens at the end." The 5-under 68 Holmes shot Friday in the wind and rain -- alone -- at Kapalua matched Trevor Immelman for the low score of the first two days. He found out 10 minutes before he teed off on Friday that his playing partner, Arron Oberholsher, had a bad back and was going to withdraw. Holmes didn't mind. He had his caddy for company and a job to do. He was patient and paced himself well, playing in about 3½ hours. Along the way, he came up with seven birdies, including four in a row in a back-nine 32, to offset two bogeys. "I think (Kapalua) sets up great for me," said Holmes, who ranks third in driving distance through the first two rounds. "It's wide fairways and a long golf course and as windy as it is, you can't have narrow fairways out here, they would never finish a round with golf balls. "I think it sets up good, especially wet today. The ball is not rolling as well as it normally does at this tournament so it sets up better for the longer hitters." Holmes had an eventful offseason -- undergoing surgery to remove his tonsils and LASIK to correct a vision problem. He lost some weight initially, but Holmes feels he's regained his strength, and the power is certainly still there.
Holmes hit a drive at the 12th hole on Thursday that measured 429 yards. He unleashed a 399-yarder there in the second round and had five total in excess of 300. He also hit a drive of 391 yards on the 18th hole Friday. "Sometimes people (egg me on)," Holmes admitted with a smile. "I can't let them make my decisions for me. ... I got myself on TOUR so I know what I'm doing, so I don't let the crowd urge me to hit something I don't need to be hitting." Holmes admits that he never liked school very much, yet he was two-time academic All-American at Kentucky. That's an impressive feat in itself but becomes even more impressive when you learn that Holmes is dyslexic. "I can read," he said. "I just get everything slower than everything else and you have to read so much in college. By the time I read two pages of the book, my buddies are reading six pages of the book. "If I start reading fast, you switch up the words and it just didn't go through your head right. So it was something that I had to struggle, but the college did a good job and I got tested for it and it was positive." Once the learning disability was diagnosed, Holmes was given extra time when he had to take exams in college. His grade point average went from a 2.3 his first semester at Kentucky to a 3.6. "I think it helps me in golf," he said. "Dyslexia, you've seen pictures, visualize stuff real well and in golf, a lot of stuff is visualization. I picture shots really well what I wanted to do." Holmes saw things extremely clearly in Scottsdale as he pulled away from Ryan Palmer on the back nine on the way to a whopping seven-stroke victory. His father flew in to surprise him, hiding in the crowd until Holmes stepped to the 17th tee. The Cinderella story captured the hearts of America. No less an authority than World Golf Hall of Famer Nick Price told Holmes, "You're going to do well in this game." Unfortunately, though, he couldn't sustain the momentum. He didn't finish higher than 13th in his next 22 starts, and he missed seven cuts. Holmes was disappointed, but he says he learned a lot. He was burned out by the end of the season. He knows now that three tournaments in a row is his optimum. He's more settled in his life, too, after establishing a home base in Orlando. In short, Holmes has adjusted to life on the PGA TOUR. "With the hype I got from the media and the way I won, yeah, my expectations jumped up," he said. "I already had pretty high expectations, so I just made it harder on myself to play well and put added pressure on myself I didn't need. "I've had a year to pretty much let that go so trying not to worry about that now and just take it one tournament at a time. If I play well, I play well. I have the ability to go out there and win, so I just have to go out there and play." |
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network