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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 24, 2011

J.B. Holmes

MARANA, ARIZONA

COLIN MURRAY: J.B., thanks for joining us. 1-up victory over Ernie Els this morning. Just give us a couple of brief comments about the match.
J.B. HOLMES: You know, it was close all day. I think 1-up was the most I ever got. Towards the end we both left a few putts out there. But overall it was -- felt like it was a pretty well played match. I think he was under par and I was under par, too. It was fun.
COLIN MURRAY: You just talked about catching up on your sleep a little bit. Have you gotten into any sort of routine? Are you well rested now after the late night?
J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I got some sleep last night, so I'm good. Not too big of a deal. Not an issue now.

Q. Do you recall ever, maybe as an alternate your rookie year, showing up and having not played a course at all or even set foot on it before, and just run out to the range?
J.B. HOLMES: No, it never happened. I won pretty early in my rookie year, I got into most of the stuff. I didn't have that situation. I played tournaments in junior golf and college where I haven't seen it before. It's not the first time.
And half the time, even on practice rounds, the first time you see a golf course, I've gone out and shot 65 or 66 before. You'd like to get some practice rounds in for sure, but I just went into it, I don't have to have a practice round.

Q. Just rely on the yardage book, because obviously Brendan hadn't been here either?
J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, it's a good yardage book. So we just kind of go by that. And he went around and asked some other caddies before we played, some of the yardages and stuff like that. But we did as much as we could before. But we got up at 5:30 and played early. So there wasn't a whole lot of preparation we could do. But we did the best we could.

Q. What did you do last night?
J.B. HOLMES: Last night?

Q. Or yesterday, once you got done here.
J.B. HOLMES: I laid in bed in my room from about 3:00, went to sleep at 9:30. We just relaxed and watched TV and just hung out.

Q. What time were you up this morning?
J.B. HOLMES: Got up at like 7:15, 7:30.

Q. So you feel about normal?
J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I mean the time change didn't bother me. I've been on the West Coast this whole month. And I was in Orlando for one day, 24 hours. So I was already accustomed to this time change, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Q. Rickie said he really likes match play. And of course he did very well in the Ryder Cup, and so far he's doing well here. Are you a match play advocate or you'd just as soon not, or do you feel it's not as fair as stroke play?
J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I like it. I enjoy the one-on-one competition. You don't get that as much in golf. So it's nice to have that every now -- I mean, I wouldn't want to play it every week or anything. But I wouldn't mind maybe seeing another tournament of match play. I like it. It's fun and a lot of the Ryder Cups or the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cups are that, so it's good to get to play some.

Q. Did you play it much in college at all?
J.B. HOLMES: I played in the Walker Cup. I think that was really the only one that did the match play. And a couple of U.S. Amateurs and that was about it.

Q. You have your own standing on the Tour now, but can you say a little bit about what you were thinking about going up against somebody like Ernie in this round?
J.B. HOLMES: You know, obviously Ernie is a great player. He had a great year last year, and he's done very well in match play in the past. You know the guy is going to be tough to beat. You know he's going to play well. You've just got to get out and do the best you can, try not to get too far behind, because a guy like that really knows how to close it off. So just stay close all day and make the best of your opportunities.

Q. How close were you to going from LA, not going back home, going from LA to here? Did you think about that at all?
J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, I thought about it quite a bit. Even on Sunday night, I had my agent calling around seeing if anybody else was going to drop out. And he kind of said I heard Tim Clark is 50/50. Usually when somebody says that, that means they're playing. So I just decided, you know, I don't want to sit here for two days. I've been playing for a month, I didn't want to sit for two days and waste two days off. So I figured I'd just go home and if I get the call then I'll come back. Luckily, I got the call.

Q. This is your 5th week?
J.B. HOLMES: Yes, this is my 5th week.

Q. It would seem like there is an element of psychological warfare out there in match play where you're playing the guy at least as much as the course. Does blowing it by guys -- they're looking at your butt the entire day?
J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, that helps, I think, in match play. I've been hitting my driver great this week. I was 40, 50 yards past Ernie a few times today. And it's always -- I would assume it's intimidating to see that. I've got lower irons and I always get to see what they do. If they hit a bad shot then -- Ernie's short game out here is usually so good, they're going to make pars anyway. But you know when to fire at the pin or be more aggressive and play it safe.
COLIN MURRAY: J.B., thanks. Good luck tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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