The PGA Tour season is still very young, but so far I’ve loved every bit of it. There seems to be some magic in the air this year. Maybe I’m just a golf addict finally getting his fix, but every tournament this year has had some interesting and entertaining component. This week’s FBR Open was no different.
The FBR is the most rowdy and most crowded (over 500,000 for the week) tournament on the PGA Tour. The crowd was very entertained (as was I) by the sheer power of rookie J.B. Holmes. I thought Bubba Watson was a bomber, but Holmes is insane. 350+ yard drives which carry bunkers that are 320 out by 20 yards? Whoa. The fact that he hits the ball so far is amazing, but even more amazing is that he’s got half a back swing and doesn’t appear to even cock his wrists. His back swing goes back about 130 degrees less than Mickelson or Daly and he knocks it 20-30 yards farther.
Palmer Meltdown
The final round at the FBR found Holmes paired with Ryan Palmer who brought a 2 shot lead into the back 9. Palmer succumbed to the pressure faded away. It was hard to watch palmer knocking balls into the drink as he lost it.
Short game
Lost in all the googling over Holmes’ length are some other stats which are keys to his victory however. His putting average was 1.66 and his GIR was 69.4%. Even better was his scrambling which was 81.8%.
Tiger comparisons already?
Yes this 7 shot victory for Holmes was awesome. Yes he appears to be an amazing player. But the announcers jumped the gun a bit in comparing Holmes to Tiger. Hold on fellas. Holmes has only won ONE tournament. He’s been on tour for less than 2 months. He’s going to have to prove himself over a more extended period of time before comparing him to the likes of Tiger is warranted.
HOGWire – Golf Industry News
[…] e to get back in the game. Back to J.B. He was fun to watch! Like the other bloggers (hookedongolfblog, golfblogger, Bogeylounge, Perform Better Golf) I think we are in for a treat this season […]