Tour Wrap-Up

We're in that never-never land of the golf season, the endless expanse between the Masters and the U.S. Open, what Maggot would no doubt call the taint.  But when you're a shut-in like your humble blogger and Spring refuses to spring, what else is one going to watch.

So, what's of interest?

Holmes Free  - You have to love the J.B. Holmes story, as Rex Hoggard sums up:

After more than six years, multiples surgeries and plenty of doubt, J.B. Holmes returned to the

winner’s circle on the PGA Tour with a gritty one-stroke victory at the Wells Fargo Championship. 

There was brain surgery in September 2011, a fractured ankle in 2013 following a rollerblading mishap and plenty of reasons to consider life after golf.

That doesn't do it justice, as there were two brain surgeries and also an elbow problem.  John Strege gives the full litany here.  So after two brain surgeries he J.B. decides rollerblading is a good idea?  You don't need to be a brain surgeon to know that's not the greatest idea... 

The finish was a bit more white-knuckle than preferable, but he got it done.  Holmes is still frightfully long, and until the last few holes he demonstrated good touch around the greens as well.  As it turns out, that 10-footer on 17 is what sealed the deal.  No. 18 would have been a frightfully difficult hole to play without that one-stroke cushion.

A nice reaction from those in the golf world as well.  Nick Masuda posts these tweets in his game story:

Paula Creamer (@ThePCreamer): Congrats @JBHolmesgolf on your win!!!!! Talk about perseverance and determination!!! 

Jordan Spieth (@JordanSpieth): Huge congrats to @JBHolmesgolf on an inspiring comeback for such a great humble guy! 

Graeme McDowell (@Graeme_McDowell): That win for @JBHolmesgolf personifies how much of a journey a career can be. Great to see a guy just thankful to be back. 

Greg Norman (@SharkGregNorman): @JBHolmesgolf So happy for you. Well done in your journey back to the winners circle @WellsFargoGolf @PGATOUR. Congrats.

Holmes is now exempt through the end of the 2015-16 season, and might just be licking his chops at the PGA being a quasi-home game at Valhalla, where Holmes played well in the Ryder Cup.

We gave props to Brandon de Jonge earlier for his dramatic comeback in the second round.  Per Masuda he was rewarded for his perseverance:

Brendon de Jonge had one of the most unique scorelines of the week: 80-62-68-69 – good enough for his first top-10 finish of the season at T-6.

To translate that into cold lucre, T6 was worth $239,775 for De Jonge and moved him up 26 places in the all-consuming FedEx cup standings (before the reset, of course).

Doug Ferguson tells us that Rory is bored:

"I'm in the top 10 every week and it is fine, it's whatever. But it's not wins," McIlroy said after shooting a 2-under 70 to finish six shots behind winner J.B. Holmes. 

"It's another solid week. They're top 10s, but they're top 10s without getting in contention either," McIlory said. "I don't want to back door and top 10 it every week. It's nice to pick up a nice paycheck but it doesn't really get the adrenaline going."

You're not half as bored as we are, young man.  How's about stepping it up for us...

And what to  make of our Phil?  We're all hoping that he shows some form before Pinehurst, but he followed up his electric Saturday with a low-voltage Sunday, per Masuda:

LEFTY LOOKS LOST: Phil Mickelson entered Sunday's final round with a career average just over 69 in the final round at Quail Hollow, but this particular one didn't fall in line. 

Mickelson, two shots off the lead at the start of the day, posted only one birdie against three bogeys and a double bogey in a 4-over 76 that saw him drop outside the top 10 at T-11. 

Mickelson is still searching for his first top-10 performance of the PGA Tour season after his worst final round of the season – a season that has seen him break 71 only once on a Sunday. 

"I had two great rounds and I had two pathetic rounds this week," Mickelson said. "The greens putted perfectly, even though I didn't."

From what I've seen, his chipping has been alarmingly bad.  He saved his Thursday round by making everything, but that was an alarmingly-apathetic Sunday.

Also in the Ferguson piece is that there was some background to Jason Bohn's late meltdown:

Bohn said he was warned on No. 16 before his second shot by tournament officials that he would be penalized if he had another bad time. 

"On 17, I didn't feel that comfortable with the wind starting to gust a little bit and it was a situation normally I would have backed off," Bohn said. "But I went ahead and hit it anyway." 

His shot ended up in the water.

To his credit, Bohn admitted that he didn't control his emotions well.  But this has become something of a bad joke.  Commissioner Ratched has made it clear that slow play is not going to be penalized, yet his minions are still out there wreaking havoc.  I don't know whether Bohn is a slow player, but wake me up when they penalize Ben Crane.

Bounce-Back Ladies - A pattern seems to be developing on the LPGA wherein the player who finishes a disappointing second in a given event bounces back and wins next time out.  Michelle Wie did after her second place at the Kraft, and it was Stacy Lewis' turn this week:

There was no near-miss for Stacy Lewis this time. 

This was a runaway for the highest-ranked American after six runner-up finishes in her previous 16 tournaments. 

Lewis shot a 7-under 64 on Sunday in the North Texas LPGA Shootout, finishing at 16-under 268 and six strokes ahead of Meena Lee. It was the LPGA Tour's largest margin of victory since Jiyai Shin won the 2012 Women's British Open by nine.

Lewis is another great story out there, having spent more than six years in a back brace as a child due to scoliosis.   Of course. both Wire and Lewis won "home games," but it continues to be a bumper year for the ladies.  Let's hope they can leverage it.

Same Old, Same Old - Ryan Lavner draws the short straw fills us in on this weeks hijinks:

Not even a stint in the minors could produce better results for John Daly.

Making his first start of the year on the Web.com Tour, Daly cleared the cut line at the South Georgia Classic after rounds of 72-71. Then came the weekend – he posted 82-85 to sit dead last among the 76 players who made the cut. At 22-over 310, he was 11 strokes higher than the next-worst player.

I'm sure he was really grinding on that 85.  Dead last on the minor league tour...clearly he's deserving of more PGA Tour exemptions.

Fireworks - I'd never heard of Chilean golfer Felipe Aguilar, who actually had one European Tour victory heading into the weekend.  Of course, that was back in the Mesozoic Age, but you have to love his finish yesterday at something called The Championship at Laguna National.  Per Alistair Tait:

Felipe Aguilar had gone winless for six years and 76 days – or 166 tournaments – since his first

European Tour victory, the 2008 Indonesian Open. He looked like he was coming up short in Singapore too, trailing Anders Hansen by four shots heading into the final round. 

Out in 2-under-par 34, Aguilar would probably have been content to settle for a nice check. Then he caught fire. He birdied five of his first six holes of the back nine. He added a further birdie on the par-3, 17th to move to 19-under-par, two shots behind Hansen. Then the real fireworks happened. 

Aguilar holed his second shot to the final hole with a pitching wedge from 142 yards. It made European Tour history. He’s the first player to win by holing his second shot on a par-4 finishing hole. 

It meant the Chilean had come home in 28 shots for a 10-under-par 62.

The hole-out is obviously dumb luck, but a 28 is just sick.