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SHELL HOUSTON OPENApril 5, 2015J.B. HolmesHUMBLE, TEXAS Q. Awesome afternoon for you. I was talking to your wife. You were really excited to go to Augusta. You're going to have to wait a little while to make that trip now. J.B. HOLMES: Such a great day being on Easter, Christ rising again. I was happy to be out there today, know how lucky I am that He's in my life, and just got a lot of good bounces, made a lot of putts. One of those days that everything went well and what a day for it to do it. Hopefully it will be enough. Q. Take me back to the start. You birdied the first five holes. All of a sudden the complexion of the day sort of changed. How did you ride the momentum around the golf course the way you were playing? J.B. HOLMES: I mean, when you got it going, you keep doing what you're doing. Don't change anything. Yeah, starting out with those first five kind of puts me in contention. So really didn't look at the scoreboard all day, try to do the best I could on each hole and knew I had to have a few birdies because I thought it was going to take a low number to have a chance because I already -- it's gotten tougher here the last little bit. We'll see. Q. How much tougher did it get? In the midway part of the back-9, the air was thicker. J.B. HOLMES: Here on the last few holes the ball wasn't going anywhere. On 9 I hit my 3-iron, 230, almost 240 in the air. On 18 I hit my 3-iron 206 in the air. It was playing a lot tougher there coming in the stretch, yeah. Q. You hit a ton of great shots to make a ton of birdies. I thought the shot in front of the green on 17 and the two coming down 18 may have been your best swings of the day. J.B. HOLMES: Always good to do it when it matters the most. I've been struggling with my driver all week. I didn't hit it that great today either, but hit it good on the holes I needed to and missed where I needed to miss. Hit a great shot on 18 and a great 3-iron. It was probably the best two swings of the day. And I thought I made the putt on 18. Had a really good stroke. We'll see. Hopefully that's enough. Q. Awesome round. Stick around. Here with the clubhouse leader, J.B. Holmes, have a beautiful 64, and J.B., you birdied seven of your first eight holes. Was it difficult for you to stay in the moment and not get ahead of yourself and think about a sub-60 number or winning this tournament? J.B. HOLMES: That's always a belief. That's really what I'm working on in my game the most, trying to stay present and do the best I can, hit one shot at a time. Today I felt like I did really good with that. Your mind wants to jump ahead. I always brought it back. It was a great day. Q. Some highlights from this great round. You birdied the first 5 come to the par-5 4th, this is your third here. J.B. HOLMES: Hit my drive in the bunker and able to lay up. Felt really comfortable with a good yardage. Hit a great 54 right in there close. Q. Made that for birdie. This is the 5th hole, your second here. J.B. HOLMES: Hit a great tee shot. Felt really good about this yardage. Hit it up in the air, I thought it was good. When it got on the green, I thought it was going to go in. Just caught the edge. I'll take it. Q. You birdie your first 5 there. What are you thinking at this point? J.B. HOLMES: Thinking I'm in the tournament. I'm trying to get in the tournament and I knew it was going the take a low number today to give myself a chance. Hit a great 8-iron there at the flag. I don't know if that was a benefit or not. But I ended up making a birdie. Count it as a good break. It was just a great day. Started off that well and figured out something on my putting last night. Really felt confident with the putter today. Made a lot of putts. Q. Go out in 29. This is your second on 11, tough shot. J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. Again, I had a wedge so I felt pretty good, and I thought I maybe hit it just a touch short. Hit it right at the flag and got in there close. Q. We move to 12 and this one for birdie. You are really rolling the ball well. How confident are you over the ball with the putter right now? J.B. HOLMES: Felt great today. Was really confident with it. There I was on 18, been struggling with my driver. Really good to be able to hit this fairway and hit one down the middle. Nice. Tough hole today. Q. How tough is this tee shot, considering the conditions as well? J.B. HOLMES: Very tough. It's probably the toughest finishing hole on Tour, especially when the wind is like this, gets the wind like this. You know, it's starting to rain a little bit now and the ball isn't going quite as far. It's tough. Those last three holes coming in is tough. Q. This approach shot was clutch. How would you rate that? J.B. HOLMES: It was awesome, a great shot. I was trying to hit a little bit right of that, but I hit it really solid. I knew in the air it was going to be enough club. Hit it great. Now I thought I made that putt. Kind of stopped right there at the end. 4 on 18 is always good. Q. You going to make up for Kentucky losing last night? I know you're a big Wildcat fan. J.B. HOLMES: They had a good run and they played well. It was a great game to watch and just wasn't quite enough. Hopefully that will be enough for me today and we'll see. Q. Great day, congratulations. Kind of walk through the front-9 you had and the rhythm you developed there early on. J.B. HOLMES: Started out great and felt great with the putter. Just trying to come into this round being Easter and just thinking about what's important today, Christ rose again, and that was just my main goal today was to have fun and show respect to Him. And, you know, I got some good breaks today and I putted well and the ball was going my way. Hopefully at the end here it will be enough. Q. Huge confidence boost to start your round like that. Put you in the spot you wanted to be. J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. I mean, didn't really plan on making five birdies in a row but always want to. It was a great start for me, and it got me right in the thick of things and played pretty solidly the rest of the round. Q. When you're heading into the final day and down a few strokes, is there more of an aggressive mindset heading into things? J.B. HOLMES: With reason. I mean, because you can -- you know, when you feel like you got to make some birdies. I knew I had to make some birdies going out there. Few times you're going to be a little bit aggressive, got a wedge in your hand. Also times where you can be too aggressive and go the other way. You don't want to do that. I was in a good spot today. I felt if I get out there and throw a low number -- I thought it was going to have to be closer to 10. It's gotten a little tougher. Hopefully that will be enough. Q. Overall throughout the weekend did you kind of feel that you can get to this point where you were at today with your play, especially with the putter? J.B. HOLMES: I really struggled kind of with the putter most -- kind of weird. Kind of the first day I hit my irons really well and putted pretty good. Then the second day I didn't hit my driver so good and didn't putt -- didn't putt bad, but didn't putt great. Yesterday felt like I just kind of got it around. Didn't really do anything really solid. I worked some after the round putting and everything, figured something out. I felt great with the putter today. Still wasn't real comfortable with the driver. But was able to miss it in the right spots and knew where I could be and get a good score. Good day for me. Q. Did you know about the course record? J.B. HOLMES: I didn't know about the course record. I just want to do the best I can and -- today that was the best I could do so far. Hopefully that will be good enough. Q. Were you letting some frustrations out from last night? I know that was hard for you to watch. J.B. HOLMES: They played a good game. It was a great game. Not much you can say. It was tough. Great season for them, they played great. Like to see it go the other way. Hopefully it will go my way today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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