J.B. Holmes came from four strokes back of Justin Thomas to win The Genesis Open on Sunday, but unfortunately for Holmes and golf fans around the world, the pace at which he did so was a much bigger story.
Holmes has had similar experiences in which his pace of play has been criticized, most notably and recently at the 2018 Farmers Insurance Open at which he took over four minutes to decide to lay up on the 72nd hole.
On Sunday at Riviera, Holmes’ pace was once again was brought to the forefront as CBS’ golf team called out the pro on the broadcast for his deliberate nature.
By the par-3 4th hole of the final round, the announcers had seen enough, and they didn’t hold back their criticism.
JB Holmes takes an eternity to putt pic.twitter.com/uiAS1eBpEF
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) February 17, 2019
If you’re plumb bobbing a 1 foot putt with me I’m throwing your bag in a lake pic.twitter.com/uCrceicFaE
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) February 17, 2019
“Here is J.B. Holmes, going through all the maps and scales and typography data that he can find,” lead announcer Jim Nantz said.
“The issue I have with that is not that he’s doing that, it’s that he had plenty of time to do that while Justin was getting ready for his shot or Adam was getting ready for his shot,” on-course analyst Peter Kostis added. “And he waited until it was his turn to play to go through his whole routine.”
A few holes later, Ian Baker-Finch added his thoughts to the mix as Holmes prepared to play his approach into the par-4 8th hole.
“This is just where J.B. takes so long to get ready, to get the feeling right,” Baker-Finch said. “It could have been done when Adam Scott was playing.”
Playing alongside Thomas and Adam Scott, Holmes fired a final round 1-under par 70 while the other two posted 4 and 5-over par rounds, respectively.
Asked after the round about the pace of play, Scott was also critical.
“Well look, we know he’s generally a slow player. When you get conditions like this, everyone turns into a slow player,” Scott said, according to GolfChannel.com. “We know he’s a slower player. It wasn’t affecting things. I mean, it just takes a long time to get around.
“I’ll tell you my thing on slow play is it’s never going to change. I think, just get over it. Until television and sponsors say, ‘No more money,’ slow play ain’t going to change.”
