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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 13, 2006

J.B. Holmes

HONOLULU, HAWAII

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: J.B. Holmes, thanks for joining us. Good round today, 66, 4 under par, a lot of players still left on the golf course, but you have to be happy with your PGA TOUR membership debut so far.

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, playing good so far. It's been a lot of fun. I'm just playing solid golf.

Q. Talk a little about your round today. Just looking at your score card, five birdies, and one bogey, not a lot of mistakes, only two bogeys on your card through two rounds, so pretty mistake free so far.

J.B. HOLMES: I hit 17 greens today and 14 greens yesterday, so I didn't have a lot of opportunities for bogeys. The one bogey today, I think I 3 putted from about 20 feet or something. Just played solid and hit it on the green, 2 putt and every now and then making one and it eventually adds up.

Q. Being the Medalist at Q School, is different than even if you finished fifth and got your card, coming out first, was there something that gave you more confidence?

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah it gives you confidence, there's a lot of people that are in the TOUR, and when you win by two or three shots it definitely gives you a lot of confidence. Just went out there and confirmed; I felt like I was good enough to play on the TOUR and went out there, and when I won Q School, just confirmed what I thought and gave me more confidence.

Q. Pardon my lack of information here, but is this your first PGA TOUR event not including Q School?

J.B. HOLMES: I played in the Farm Bureau Classic last fall and the U.S. Open.

Q. How did you get in Southern Farm?

J.B. HOLMES: Sponsor's exemption.

Q. What were your expectations coming out to this tournament?

J.B. HOLMES: On Tuesday just to be able to even play. I pulled a muscle in my back and couldn't swing a club on Tuesday or Wednesday. So I woke up Thursday morning and didn't even think I was going to play. So just getting out and getting a chance to play, I was excited. So I didn't really have any expectations, just coming out of a winter in Kentucky, been home quite a bit, just come out here try to have a good time and put up some numbers.

Q. Your back is all right now?

J.B. HOLMES: I've been wearing a heating pad all through the round, but it's still a little tight, but not too bad.

Q. So is this the first tournament of the year and it's bound to come up eventually. Why go from John B. at Q School and J.B. here?

J.B. HOLMES: You know the answer to that.

Q. Is that hard well, I see where we go from here. I'm trying, J.B., give me a break here. You never dealt with that in college or anything?

J.B. HOLMES: Oh, I have my whole life. So just kind of got tired of it, and this is going to be a little bit bigger scale on TOUR.

Q. Bigger scale. Can we go on to the next question now birdies and bogeys? It's going to come up. I just wanted to just get it out of the way. In other words, you won't hear from me the rest of the year.

J.B. HOLMES: (Laughter). All right.

Q. When you were at Walker Cup, you seemed like you might have been a little heavier then, did you lose some weight between here and Walker Cup, did you work out at all?

J.B. HOLMES: No, I don't think I lost any weight.

Q. As an example your game during your senior year, your game at Walker Cup, your game at Q School and your game now, how much variation is there?

J.B. HOLMES: Since I'm out of school, it takes a lot of pressure I just hated school, and it affected the way I played, just all the pressure back at home. After I got out of school, just I was just ready to turn pro. Played solid in Walker Cup and it was just for the last year, just kind of been ready to turn pro.

My game has just gotten better. I got a new putter in the bag, stroking the ball well, and irons, I'm hitting them pretty good, too.

Q. Did you finish school?

J.B. HOLMES: I left about a semester and a half. ?

Q. Can I ask you about the logo go?

J.B. HOLMES: Yum! brands? They own Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's, A&W Root Beer.

Q. Is that how you will be known by the fans out there, being known at the Yum! Guy?

J.B. HOLMES: Hopefully real soon, I don't know.

Q. Over the last decade, a lot of us and others to rush to kind of find the next group of young guns, if you will, to challenge Tiger. What do you think of guys like and you Overton and some of your peers that are coming out in this class, how would you describe yourselves and the talent that you guys bring?

J.B. HOLMES: The class can speak for itself. How many people has made it straight out of college into the PGA TOUR in the last ten, 15 years? We had four guys do it out of my class, so, you know, pretty good. I thought it was pretty good.

And you have another guy that's real good that will be up here before too long, Michael Putnam, so you have five strong guys there. Just played solid and nice to have some friends up here.

Q. Do you guys obviously you're individuals out here, but do you look at yourselves as a class a little bit? Do you guys bond on that level?

J.B. HOLMES: I think so a little bit. I do, anyways. The other guys have been out here a long time, I've got buddies and I guess people to hang out with. It's nice to have a group your own age.

Q. Do you remember playing a tournament in Kentucky with Kenny Perry's kid?

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, it was the State Am, played with him. I think we both shot 70 in the second round or something like that.

Q. Did you ever hear what Kenny's kid told his dad that day?

J.B. HOLMES: No.

Q. A story for another day.

J.B. HOLMES: All right.

Q. How well do you know Kenny?

J.B. HOLMES: I just met him yesterday actually. Hadn't had a chance to meet him. He's a real nice guy.

Q. Any, fraternity for lack of a better word, be it Kenny or Russ or Flesch?

J.B. HOLMES: Russ; I played with Ryan Cochran a little bit growing up, so Russ was at a few of the Junior events. I guess there's not a whole lot of pros from Kentucky. So I guess it's nice to get Kentucky out there and show everybody we wear shoes. (Laughter).

Q. Are you going to still live in Kentucky?

J.B. HOLMES: Right now I am. I'll probably look for some are a little bit warmer. I'll probably keep where I'm from.

Q. Do you consider yourself a wind player, considering how the conditions have been the last couple of days?

J.B. HOLMES: I just like conditions as hard as they can be. I've always played well when the courses are just really, really hard. So I don't necessarily like playing in the wind, but, you know, if the wind is blowing really hard, it's fine with me. I'd rather have windy conditions than perfect conditions, how about that.

Q. Which Open did you play?

J.B. HOLMES: Olympia Fields.

Q. In '03 then. So you were probably 20?

J.B. HOLMES: I was a sophomore. I think I was probably around 20, maybe 21.

Q. Did you ever try anything else, not so much the U.S. Open, but any spots anywhere on TOUR?

J.B. HOLMES: I tried one when I was like 16.

Q. Just for grins?

J.B. HOLMES: Just for fun. Played terrible.

Q. Which one was that?

J.B. HOLMES: It was the Farm Bureau Classic.

Q. How far is that from where you live?

J.B. HOLMES: Three hours. My dad is a Farm Bureau agent, so stuff like that.

Q. Sometimes you hear older players say that the younger generation can't shape shots like we can because the equipment is too good. Someone who has played in the wind and difficult conditions, do you feel like that's not fair; that you guys can do things with the ball that maybe guys in their 50s and 40s say they could do in terms of moving it left to right, right to left, high, low?

J.B. HOLMES: I feel I can control the trajectory pretty good on my clubs. I like to cut. I'm not a real big fan of hitting a draw, but I work around it.

It's a different game now. The people in their 50s, they had to; the ball wouldn't go straight so they had to learn how to do this and how to hit their shots. It's not as much of a demands on it in the game today. If you hit a shot real solid a the of the times the wind doesn't affect it too much.

There's disadvantages, too. You play one way for the wind to move it and you catch it flush, it doesn't move; and if you catch it in the same spot and miss it really bad, it goes way off line. So there's advantages and disadvantages to it.

Q. I think this TOUR is kind of different, a lot of different things, different players the way they are; do you ever talk to Tom Meeks about speed of play?

J.B. HOLMES: About what kind of play?

Q. Speed of play.

J.B. HOLMES: No.

Q. Do you think that you're a fast player, slow player?

J.B. HOLMES: I'm not a fast player. I'm probably a little on the slow side right now, but that's something I can change. It varies in the round probably. I don't know, probably sometimes I'm quicker than other times. I'm a feel player, so it's just kind of when I'm ready to hit the ball and stuff like that.

Q. What equipment did you play in Kentucky in college?

J.B. HOLMES: I had Titleist, just Titleist woods and stuff, irons.

Q. Is this much of a switch for you?

J.B. HOLMES: I have Cobra in the bag now.

Q. All the way through, the irons, too?

J.B. HOLMES: I've got Titleist irons right now, but I'm switching, so they are making me a set. Cobra has got a great driver out right now. I've been hitting it harder and straighter than I ever have. Pleased with what Cobra has done with clubs and stuff.

Q. What is it that made you hate school?

J.B. HOLMES: I have dyslexia, so school was just a lot of extra time for me. Something where it would take somebody two hours to read something, it would take me four hours. You know how much reading there in college and everything like that, so I was always just felt like I was I guess I felt stupid a little bit. I know I wasn't. I made good grades. I had a 3.25 GPA and was a smart kid, but just being able to read real slow, just kind of makes you not feel real good.

Q. When were you diagnosed with that, how young?

J.B. HOLMES: My freshman year.

Q. In college? You made it all through high school then?

J.B. HOLMES: I thought I had it in high school. I was smart enough to overcome it in high school, I had like a 3.3 in high school and I wasn't if I'm not failing, still have good grades, there's no sense in really anyway, I would have gone to play golf or something else. In college first semester, I had like a 2.3, couldn't do it, too much reading. Talked to my advisor and got tested and got extended time on tests because I just couldn't get them finished in time.

Q. How do they test you?

J.B. HOLMES: What do you mean?

Q. For the dyslexia.

J.B. HOLMES: It's hard to explain.

Q. Do the letters just look backwards to you?

J.B. HOLMES: Sometimes you flip them and you don't realize it. Like a dyslexia person sees in pictures, like you say the word "horse" or "house" or something like that, a person with dyslexia will picture a house or horse where somebody that doesn't might picture the word. So like "it," "the," there's no pictures for those words, so sometimes you just skip right over them and stuff like that.

Mine, I don't have it real bad, but sometimes I flip letters when I'm writing and I'll flip letters. People that have it really bad, they flip a lot of stuff.

Q. What about numbers?

J.B. HOLMES: I'm pretty good with numbers. Every now and then I flip a number, but usually I'm pretty good with numbers.

Q. Is that an issue for you, obviously the score card is important out here, and even in college, is that an issue for you?

J.B. HOLMES: No, that's not a big deal. It's sequences in numbers; it's not one hole.

Q. It's not 122 front?

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. So you're thinking, you know, you're like a phone number every now and then, I'll get all the numbers right, but might be one off or something like that.

Q. What did it feel like once you found out what it was, because probably for a while you had a lot of years you weren't really sure what was going on.

J.B. HOLMES: It was nice. It was nice to know that, you know, I wasn't dumb or whatever, IQ test was pretty high, I was smarter than average.

It was almost a relief, you know, kind of like, what's wrong with me, what's wrong with me and you figure out, it wasn't your fault. It was a relief and helped me a whole lot just being able to get the tests done. You have an hour or 50 minutes to do it and I just couldn't get through it in 50 minutes, I'd have to rush and guess the last 15 questions. My grades weren't very good.

Q. Do you do anything for that? Is there any kind of exercises or anything that you can do?

J.B. HOLMES: No. Just try to get a job that didn't involve a lot of reading.

Q. Is this one of them?

J.B. HOLMES: (Laughter.) I'm sure there's some exercises, but there's not a whole lot I think that you can do for it.

Q. What would you be doing if you weren't playing golf?

J.B. HOLMES: I don't know. I guess I'd be a golf pro at a golf shop or something. I've always wanted to do something in golf.

Q. Picked up a club at age ... ?

J.B. HOLMES: 14 months; 1 year old.

Q. How did that happen, in the family?

J.B. HOLMES: My dad just started playing about the time I was born and was really getting into it and he just when I was 3, I would sit on the couch for 3 1/2 hours and watch golf on TV and not move, so that's pretty good for a three year old.

Q. What do you think of the Michelle Wie circus?

J.B. HOLMES: The what?

Q. Michelle Wie circus.

J.B. HOLMES: She's got a great crowd following her. She's a good player. She had a rough time yesterday. I haven't really seen her play. Home state, big following, good for her.

Q. Who did you watch for 3 1/2 hours while sitting in front of a TV?

J.B. HOLMES: Jack Nicklaus was my favorite player what I was younger. I don't really remember. I was always asking my dad where the ball was, "Where's at ball?"

Q. Jack Nicklaus was probably first starting to retire when you were 3 years old.

J.B. HOLMES: I saw him some. (Laughter) I always pretended that's who I was when I was playing in the yards. I always liked Freddie Couples and Davis Love.

Q. Now you're getting closer.

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah.

Q. So you come into the event not sure if you're going to play and just glad that you can play, and now you're tied for the lead, where do you go from there?

J.B. HOLMES: Go out and play again tomorrow. It's just halfway over. Leading after two rounds, had a doesn't that doesn't get you anything, a pat on the back. Just the tournament is just now halfway over, so I've got a long ways to go.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Let's go through your card, you started on the back side with a birdie.

J.B. HOLMES: Hit a great drive on 10 down there about 60 or 70 yards from the hole. Thought I hit a good wedge shot but the kind of died down, and I hit it by the hole about 20 feet and made that for birdie.

12, I hit my driver right and hit a great save shot up there about 15, 20 feet and really thought I was going to make it, and I blew it by about six feet and didn't make the one coming back.

18, the par 5, I hit 3 wood through the fairway. I hit 8 iron, went over and I chipped it up there about three feet and made that for birdie.

2, that's a tough hole. I hit a pretty good drive. I didn't think I could get to the bunkers. The ball trickled into the bunkers, and I punched a 7 iron out of the fairway bunker up there to about eight feet and made it.

5, I hit a 3 wood off the tee, I hit a wedge in there to about two feet, made it.

7, I hit a real good 6 iron up against the wind to about 10 or 12 feet and I made it for birdie.

Q. Do you think your length is an advantage out here?

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, it's an advantage on every golf course. Probably not as big of an advantage at this golf course. It definitely helps on a few holes, but I've got to hit a lot of 3 irons and, too. Takes driver out of my hands on a few holes, with you helps, 9 is a par 5; it helps on 1; helps on 2.

So it helps on quite a bit of holes. I've seen courses that fit me better for length.

Q. Was this your first trip to Hawaii?

J.B. HOLMES: Yes. Beautiful place.

Q. How long have you been here? When did you come over?

J.B. HOLMES: Sunday night.

Q. What do you do from here?

J.B. HOLMES: At the Hope next week.

Q. Exemption or did you get in on your number?

J.B. HOLMES: I got in on my number. I'm playing that one and I'm playing San Diego or is Phoenix before that?

Q. San Diego and then Phoenix.

J.B. HOLMES: As of right now I'm probably going to sit out Pebble and play the rest of the West Coast Swing.

Q. Get a pretty good pick coming out of Q School?

J.B. HOLMES: The 1 seed, yeah. So I should get into almost all of them, if not all on the West Coast Swing, and then there's a reshuffle after that.

Q. What are you thinking of this year? In other words: "This will be a good year for me if I" ... what?

J.B. HOLMES: I'd like to win one this year. You know, Ryan Moore got real close last year. Michael Putnam finished fourth in the tournament he got into. So, why not win one your first year? That's a goal. You set your standards high.

Q. Furyk and some of the guys who have been out here a while, we ask them as a rookie and their first thought was, keep my card. Obviously they go each week to win, but are you thinking higher than that?

J.B. HOLMES: If you set your goals to win or do so many Top 10's and everything like that, then keeping your card will take care of itself.

If you set your goals real high and come up a little bit short, if you just focus on just keeping your card, just keeping your card, then that becomes your goal and I think you almost play down when you could be playing better.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: J.B., thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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