J.B. Holmes wins Genesis Open in an unlikely putting contest

J.B. Holmes overtook fellow Kentuckian Justin Thomas at the Genesis Open thanks to superiority in the least likely of places

J.B. Holmes is from Campbellsville, Ky., about 90 miles south of Justin Thomas’ Louisville home. So as the two took battled through the closing nine holes of the Genesis Open Sunday at Riviera, the contest felt a bit like a backyard brawl.

Given their combined two over par finish, what it bore no resemblance to was a Kentucky Derby. Thomas began the round with a four-stroke lead, but three bogeys in the first five holes helped him lose all of it by the seventh green. Another bogey at 10 thrust Holmes in front, but that lasted only as long as it took Holmes to bogey 11 while Thomas birdied.

The final pratfall, a fatal one to Thomas, occurred at the 454 yard par 4 13th when he four-putted his way to a double bogey that slow-walked Holmes back into the lead. When Thomas compounded that error with a three-putt bogey at 14, he dug his own hole deep enough that even a birdie at 16 couldn’t help him escape. By dint of making pars on the final seven holes, Holmes held on for the victory.

The irony of Holmes winning a tournament due to putting will not soon be lost on those who follow the game closely. He entered the week ranked 202nd out of 219 in Strokes Gained Putting this year. But that’s nothing new; since Holmes began playing the tour regularly in 2006 he’s enjoyed exactly one season with positive Strokes Gained Putting numbers. That was 2010, when his putting gave him a visible-with-a microscope six-hundredths of a stroke advantage on the field per round.

More from Pro Golf Now

Yet that’s what happened at Riviera, where Holmes suddenly discovered the joy of finding the hole. His 8.17 Strokes Gained Putting for the week ranked first in the tournament field. At the pivotal par-3 16th Sunday, Holmes plopped his tee shot in a greenside bunker and pitched 20 feet long, leaving him outside of Thomas 10-foot birdie try. He rolled it dead in the heart.

Here’s how capricious the game of golf can be. In missing the cut last week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am, Holmes’ Strokes Gained Putting Score was -3.88.

Poor old Justin Thomas must have felt like he was having an out-of-body nightmare. He entered the week ranked 38th on the tour in putting, and coming off back-to-back seasons where his putting gained him about a quarter-stroke per round. Yet here was Thomas losing the tournament on a four-putt followed by a three-putt while Holmes made the big ones.

At the 18th, Holmes faced an uphill 60-footer he needed to get down in two in order to preserve his victory. He stiffed the approach putt within a foot, eliminating the drama almost entirely. When Thomas’s birdie attempt slid past, the victory was sealed.

Next. Tiger Woods: Genesis earns Invitational status in 2020. dark

By the standards of week-to-week tour performance, the victory for J.B. Holmes was a relatively pedantic one. His tournament Z Score, the standard deviation measurement of his separation from the field average, was -2.22. That’s the smallest margin of dominance since Xander Schauffele’s victory with a -2.15 Z Score at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in early January.

Home/PGA