Tag: J.B. Holmes

6 notables among those who missed the cut at 2024 Cognizant Classic

Many golfers saw some wild fluctuations between their Thursday and Friday scores.

The field of 144 at the 2024 Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches is down to 68 after the cut came on Saturday morning at PGA National.

Play was halted for darkness after each of the first two rounds, and that meant 13 golfers had to return to the course Saturday morning to finish their second rounds. There were actually 14 who hadn’t played 36 holes by Friday night but Chandler Phillips withdrew with one hole to go. He was 6 over.

The tournament, in its first year with a new name, has $9 million up for grabs, with $1.62 million going to the winner. Chris Kirk is the defending champion and he’s tied for 24th. Bud Cauley is the solo leader after two days. He’s at 11 under. The cut was 2 under.

There is a slew of others not so lucky after a windy Friday at PGA National, many of due to some wild fluctuations between the score they signed for Thursday compared to their scores on Friday.

Rickie Fowler, Max Homa among notables who missed the cut at the 2024 WM Phoenix Open

The cut at TPC Scottsdale didn’t happen until nearly 2 p.m. local time Saturday.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Rain delays, frost delays, 4:30 a.m. alarm clocks, playing as many as 30 holes in one day and 20,000 drunk, screaming and often booing fans – and that’s just at 16 – this is a week where PGA Tour pros earned their paycheck at the WM Phoenix Open. Yet the 132-man field still must be whittled down, even if the 36-hole cut day extended to nearly 2 p.m. local time on Saturday thanks to multiple suspensions of play.

When it was all said and done, 73 players moved on for 36 more holes at TPC Scottsdale and a chance to take home the trophy as champion and more than seven figures in prize money. The total purse this week is $8.8 million, with $1.584 million going to the winner.

It took a score of 2-under 140 to make all that hard work and effort pay off into a paycheck in the Valley of the Sun.

Among those to sneak through on the number included Tom Kim, who rallied to shoot 5-under 66, Garrick High (67), Adam Scott (68), Brian Harman (69), Sungjae Im (70) and Zach Johnson (70).

Two of the three Monday qualifiers made it through in Jim Knous (66, T-34) — read his story here — and former Arizona State golfer Nicolo Galetti (67, T-34) as did Bud Cauley (-5, T-23), who made his first start since the 2020 Fortinet Championship. Kevin Chappell (68) made a 12-foot birdie putt at nine, his last hole of the day, to make the cut on the number.

But not everyone was so fortunate — Adam Svensson, for one, missed a birdie putt from 44 feet. Here’s a closer look at the notables who were sent packing at the WM Phoenix Open.

PGA Tour winner kicked out of $30K Calcutta after he signed up under abbreviated name

Holmes was recognized by the club’s owner.

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Jonathan Bradley played in a six-man scramble last week in Franklin, Tennessee, at Franklin Bridge Golf Course, an annual tradition at the club called the “Gangsome.”

Twenty-two teams played in the two-day event, with three flights created after the first day. A Calcutta was created for each flight, with 70 percent of the pot going to the team with the lowest score on day two, and the rest going to the runner-ups. The Calcutta created for Bradley’s flight held $30,000, or $21,000 for the winners.

After Day 1, Bradley’s team held the lead at 21 under, and its sights were set on the trophy and the hefty payout.

However, after Bradley hit his tee shot on the third hole during the second round, the club’s owner recognized his swing.

“That looks like J.B. Holmes,” Brooks T. West thought to himself he noted in a story at Golf.com. “And then he hit, and I’m like, ‘That’s J.B. Holmes.’”

Holmes, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, entered the event using his first and middle name instead of the more widely known, J.B.

Once Holmes was discovered, his team was refunded its Calcutta buy-in and was made ineligible for the big purse. However, the team was still allowed to compete for the trophy, an award given to the team with the lowest two-day total in each flight.

In a tweet on Holmes’ account, he responded: “They did not let us participate in Calcutta even though no rules were broken. The man that bought our team got his money back. Unfortunately what was meant to be a fun golf outing with a friend has turned into a compilation of inaccuracies.”

Ryan French of Monday Q Info spoke with a few members of Franklin Bridge and said: “According to one member, when Holmes’ team was announced, the crowd ‘went crazy, boos started, then some random vulgarities started.’ That was followed by chants of bullshit!”

Holmes was not at the dinner afterward, and his team picked up the hardware and left in a hurry.

The two-time Ryder Cup participant hasn’t been too shy about what happened, posting this photo to his Twitter account.

“If he would have just said his name was J.B. Holmes, that would have been fine,” West told Golf.com.

Holmes has made eight starts on Tour this season. He’s missed six cuts and his best finish came at the Genesis Invitational — an event he won over Justin Thomas in 2019 — where he tied for 67th.

Wells Fargo Championship: These two PGA Tour pros withdrew citing back injuries

Andrew Putnam and J.B. Holmes are heading home early.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Andrew Putnam and J.B. Holmes both withdrew from the Wells Fargo Championship on Thursday citing back injuries.

Putnam, 34, played 15 holes at Quail Hollow Club in the first round before calling it a day. He made a double bogey at 18 and four consecutive bogeys starting at the third hole, dropping to 7 over before deciding he was in too much pain.

Putnam was ranked 33rd in the FedEx Cup standings heading into this week. He has made 15 cuts in 20 starts this season, including a T-2 at the Zozo Championship and a T-4 at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Holmes, 41, withdrew from the tournament three minutes before his first round tee time. He was replaced in the field by Austin Cook.

Wells Fargo: Photos | Best merchandise

Holmes won at Quail Hollow in 2014. But he missed nearly all of the 2021-22 Tour season due to surgery, making just one start at the 2021 Fortinet Championship. Holmes returned at the Farmers Insurance Open in February and has made just two cuts in eights starts. According to his agent Terry Reilly, Holmes’s injury wasn’t related to his previous back trouble and he didn’t want to waste one of his remaining starts on his major medical extension if he wasn’t feeling 100 percent.

Holmes’s tales of woe is long as he’s endured the following injuries during his career: brain surgery, ankle surgery from a rollerblading accident, tennis elbow, vertigo and more recently back issues.

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Will Zalatoris leads list of notables to miss the Thursday cut at Farmers Insurance Open

Zalatoris missed a birdie putt at the last that would have awarded him a Friday tee time.

Welcome to your rare Thursday 36-hole cut report.

The wind huffed and puffed and blew half the field at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on their way out of town. It took even-par 144 to survive and advance and claim a Friday tee time and remain alive with a chance to hoist the trophy and go home with the winner’s surfboard on Saturday.

It will be a big field with 19 players tied for 54th place, including Rickie Fowler and Tony Finau, who both made birdies at the last to give themselves a chance to try and catch 36-hole leader Sam Ryder (-12). But not everyone was so lucky. Here are some of the notable names to miss the cut.

Phoenix Open superlatives: Three aces, three eagles in a day, 32 pars and more

Webb Simpson got his first win since 2018 after surviving a playoff against Tony Finau and that was just one of the key numbers this week.

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It was an eventful week at the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Webb Simpson got his first win since 2018 but only after surviving a playoff against Tony Finau.

That was just one of the numbers that tells the story of the week at TPC Scottsdale.

A third 62

Finau shot a 62 on Saturday to vault up the leaderboard and claim the third-round lead. It was his third 62 of the season, most on the PGA Tour.

57 straight without a bogey

Finau bogeyed the fourth hole on Thursday and then went 57 straight holes posting par or better. Along the way, he posted 14 birdies and an eagle before bogeying the eighth hole on Sunday.

Three days, three aces

There are four par 3s at TPC Scottsdale. The most famous, of course, is the 16th. But on the first three days of the event, golfers aced the others, one per day, in order.

MORE: Scores | Photos | Trophies | Money | Winner’s bag

On Thursday, J.B. Holmes aced the fourth hole. On Friday, Scott Piercy got one on the seventh hole. On Saturday, Webb Simpson got his third hole-in-one on the 12th hole.

That set the stage for some Sunday dramatics. But it wasn’t meant to be. When Simpson, the last golfer to tee off on 16 for the week, hit the green but didn’t make a 1, the ace-less streak on 16 continued. Francesco Molinari in 2015 had the last hole-in-one there.

Four days, four birdies on 16

He didn’t ace the 16th but Denny McCarthy did birdie it on Sunday, giving him a 2 on the hole in all four rounds.

He’s the first to go four-for-four on birdies at No. 16 since 2003 when Luke Donald did it.

32 straight pars

Harold Varner III had the most ho-hum week going at TPC Scottsdale. His first round Thursday was notable, however, because it consisted of 18 pars.

Harold Varner III finished his second round at even par after setting a PGA Tour record with 32 consecutive pars. Photo by Golfweek

The par streak continued on Friday for Varner, who parred his first 14 holes.

His par on the 10th hole broke the old PGA Tour record in the Shotlink era.

His birdie on the 15th hole broke the string, but left Varner at 32 straight pars.

It’s the most consecutive pars to open a tournament.

Three par 5s, three eagles

On Saturday, Collin Morikawa tied the course record with eagles on all three of the par 5s.

That hadn’t happened since 1987, ten years before Morikawa was born.

He eagled the third from the bunker and then completed the hat trick with eagles at Nos. 13 and 15, putting his name in the tournament record books. What’s more, Morikawa has yet to miss a cut in 17 events as a pro.

8:24 a.m.

A few golfers paid tribute to Kobe Bryant during the week. Justin Thomas wore Kobe’s high school jersey on the 16th hole. He also had a purple and gold head cover on his putter. Max Homa wore a No. 24 Kobe jersey on Thursday. Tony Finau wore purple and gold golf shoes and donned a No. 8 Kobe jersey in all four rounds on the 16th hole.

And at 8:24 a.m. on Sunday, the grounds crew cut the hole at No. 16. They marked it 24 paces on, eight paces in from the left, in honor of Kobe Bryant.

Then they put in a special flag that had 8 on one side and 24 on the other.

J.B. Holmes takes lead into weekend at Waste Management Phoenix Open

J.B. Holmes is in position to join Phil Mickelson and Mark Calcavecchia atop the all-time wins list at TPC Scottsdale.

J.B. Holmes is looking to join the likes of Phil Mickelson and Arnold Palmer as a three-time winner of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Holmes won his first two PGA Tour events in 2006 and 2008 when the tournament was known as the FBR Open.

Now he’s in position to join Phil Mickelson and Mark Calcavecchia atop the all-time wins list at TPC Scottsdale. Palmer and Gene Littler won the Phoenix Open before it moved to its current location.

Holmes had six birdies plus an eagle on the par-4 17th, where he drove the green, to shoot a 65 on Friday and take a one-stroke lead into the weekend at 13 under.

“I hit some really good putts,” Holmes said about his run on Nos. 15-17, where he went birdie-birdie-eagle. “I hit a great 5-iron on the par 5, almost eagled that one. And I hit a great iron on the next hole. It went a little long but made a great putt. And then the tee shot on 17 was fabulous, so that gave me a shorter putt for eagle and luckily I made it.”

PHOENIX OPEN: Scores | Tee times, TV info | Updates | Photos

Holmes has so far this week eagled a par 3 – when he aced the fourth hole in the opening round – and he has eagled a par 4 after his drive stopped 6 feet, 6 inches from the cup. While he hasn’t eagled a par 5 yet, he has made birdie on five of the six par-5 holes he’s played.

“I don’t hit it as far as I used to,” he said in reference to the last time he won at TPC Scottsdale. “I could move it a little bit better. I still get it out there, but the golf course has changed more than anything, like, 12 holes are different than they were when … I won last time.”

Giving chase is Wyndham Clark, who led by two after the first round. Clark shot a second-round 69 after his opening 61. He is a shot back.

Billy Horschel and Byeong Hun An are T-3 at 11 under, two shots back, while Scott Piercy is in fifth at 10 under.

Horschel is in contention for his first victory since the 2018 Zurich Classic (with Piercy) after making birdie at 18 on Friday to shoot 3-under 68. Meanwhile, An posted five birdies on his back nine, including at the 18th.

Piercy made the second ace of the week – and 19th on Tour this season – when he got a hole-in-one on the par-3 seventh hole from 194 yards out. He said it was his first ace on the PGA Tour.

“I guess whenever you make a hole-in-one in Phoenix, it’s pretty awesome. But I just did it on the wrong side where everybody didn’t see it,” Piercy said of the less populous seventh hole.

Jon Rahm made a move late Friday after he ripped off five straight birdies on Nos.11-15 but he bogeyed 16 after going off the back of the green with a 9-iron and also bogeyed the 18th.

“Frustrated is a very light way of putting it right now,” said Rahm, who is T-12 at 7 under. He can ascend to the No. 1 spot in the World ranking with a win this weekend. “I put a great swing on five birdies, playing great golf and then just an absolutely terrible finish on the second nine. … I don’t know what to say.

“It’s an easy shot on 16, I mean, how short it’s playing, 3-wood to the front edge of the green on 17 and just driver-wedge on 18. So could not be an easier finish but to finish 2 over par on those three holes, yea, that pisses me off.”

Holmes’ last win on Tour came almost a year ago at the Genesis Open in Los Angeles. He has five PGA Tour victories in all.

Defending champ Rickie Fowler rebounded from his opening 74 to post a 65 on Friday to easily make the cut.

Missing the cut this week: Jordan Spieth, who shot 74-69 to miss out on the weekend by two shots, and Harold Varner III, who set a PGA Tour record with 32 consecutive pars to start a tournament. He broke the streak with a birdie on 15.

One group failed to finish before darkness but all three golfers in that group missed the cut.

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J.B. Holmes aces fourth hole at Waste Management Phoenix Open in up-and-down opener

J.B. Holmes’ early hole-out did much to erase a double-bogey at the second hole and help him chart a path to the clubhouse lead early in the day.

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It’s hard to lament the timing of a hole-in-one, but at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, everything is more exciting at the par-3 16th, also known as the stadium hole at TPC Scottsdale. Alas, when J.B. Holmes made an ace in the opening round, it came at the par-3 fourth, not the 16th.

Still, the early hole-out erased a double-bogey at the second hole and helped Holmes chart a path to the clubhouse lead early in the day.

RELATED: All the aces on Tour, 2019-20 season
MORE: Scores | Tee times | Updates | Photos

Holmes, who also got considerable TV time at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open when he drew a final-round pairing alongside Tiger Woods, opened with 7-under 64.

At the fourth hole, which checked in at 175 yards, he chose a 7-iron for his tee shot. When he walked away with the hole-in-one, it helped Holmes on his way to quite the rollercoaster round. After a double, a bogey, two birdies and the hole-in-one on the front, he straightened things out for the second half of his round.

Holmes closed with six birdies on his back nine and, oh yeah, one of those just happened to be in front of the crowd at No. 16.

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Top 10 comeback stories in golf in the last decade

Woods and Suzann Pettersen made headlines in 2019 for their dramatic victories in golf’s biggest events, but here are 8 other big comebacks.

As the decade winds down, we have time to reminisce over some of the best storylines in golf — most notably being the comebacks.

Whether we’re talking about the resurgence of Tiger Woods the most recent comeback of Brendon Todd winning back-to-back PGA Tour events after seriously considering retirement, we rank them all.

With not much time to catch our breath, Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio takes a look back at the top 10 comeback stories in golf over the last decade.

Brendon Todd after winning 2019 Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda. (Rob Carr/Getty Images)

10. Todd’s pizza plans on hold

Brendon Todd won the 2014 HP Byron Nelson Classic and then got the full-blown driver yips. From 2016-18, he missed 37 of 41 cuts and contemplated quitting the game and buying a pizza franchise. Then, after starting the 2019-20 season with four missed cuts, he won the Bermuda Championship and Mayakoba Golf Classic in back-to-back starts.

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