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PGA TOUR: Medalist Holmes goes from golf phenom to PGA TOUR player

/noticias.info/ By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents Click here to find out more!


The first word most children say is either "Ma-ma" or "Da-da."

Not John Holmes. The first word out of his mouth was "ball."

That's not surprising, though, considering the toddler was already hitting golf balls in his front yard when he was 14 months old -- diapers and all. Not to mention, when Holmes was in third grade, he began playing on his high school golf team. That's right, the third grade.

"Yeah, that gets a lot of people," Holmes said in a telephone call Monday afternoon, the amusement evident in his voice. "I lettered 10 years."

The former child prodigy continued his meteoric rise on Monday when he won the PGA TOUR National Qualifying Tournament at Orange County National by three strokes over Alex Cejka. The 23-year-old from Campbellsville, Ky., closed with a 69 to shoot 24 under and win medalist honors in his first appearance in the grueling, six-round event.

"Relief is the best way of describing what I'm feeling," Holmes said. "I'm just glad it is over. ... I just went out there and tried to play 18 holes every day and act like I was playing with my buddies."

As a result, he'll have a new circle of friends next year on the PGA TOUR. Holmes, who birdied his final two holes on the blustery Monday, is the first player to leave college and win the qualifying tournament in the same year since Oklahoma State's Willie Wood did the same thing in 1983. The former Kentucky Wildcat is only the fifth player to post all six rounds in the 60s since 2000.

Holmes, who turned pro after playing in the Walker Cup, had to compete in all three stages of q-school in his first attempt at making the PGA TOUR -- surviving a field of more than 1,000 who started with similar high hopes. He made it look easy, too, shooting under par in 12 of the 14 total rounds.

Holmes opened the all-important final stage last week with a 69 that left him in a tie for 16th. Another round of 3 under on the second day vaulted Holmes into a tie for second -- and he was never lower than joint third before moving into a tie with D.A. Points at the top of the leaderboard after Sunday's 66.

"I just tried to let it happen," Holmes said. "I didn't fight it. ... I'm extremely happy with the way I played. I was glad to go out and prove that I could do it."

Holmes has proven himself at all levels, too. When he was 8 years old, he started playing with -- and against -- players twice his age at Taylor County High School. He joined the team after his father, Morris, called the coach and told him that Holmes already could shoot in the low 50s for nine holes.

"They weren't that good at the time," Holmes recalled. "So I went and tried out. By the fifth grade I was the No. 1 or 2 man. I played in the state tournament when I was in seventh grade and I won it as a sophomore."

Holmes, who remembers watching PGA TOUR events with his dad as early as the age of 3, admits it wasn't easy. But the lessons he learned have made him a better golfer -- and in a not-so-roundabout way, prepared him for his rookie season on TOUR.

"They made fun of me a lot until I started beating them in the fifth grade," Holmes said. "It was a good learning experience. I enjoyed playing, but it was hard on me. I learned a lot about how not to treat people. But I got through it. I learned not to be afraid of people or of the situation. I learned not to worry about someone's age or who they were.

"It helped me my whole life in golf. It taught me not to be intimidated."

By the time Holmes was in the eighth grade, Taylor County had developed a standout golf program and the teenager began to realize he had a future in the game. Essentially self-taught, Holmes credits "the good Lord who blessed me with this ability.

"I am an idiot when it comes to the golf swing," he said.

Holmes loved to play, though. His parents would drop him off at the course at 9 a.m. and he'd try to squeeze in 54 holes with a buddy before dark. Holmes sees those hours on the course as invaluable.

"I learned how to play golf," Holmes said, with the emphasis on the word play. "I didn't learn how to hit the ball. I learned how to get the ball in the hole. I'm not a range player. But I think that helps me when I play bad. I can figure out how to get it around the course and salvage my round. Other guys are like, oh no, I've got to go find my coach. I don't have one. I have to fix it myself."

Not that any such adjustments were necessary at q-school.

"It's always been a dream of mine to play on the PGA TOUR," said Holmes, who got a "high-five and a hug" from his parents after he holed his final putt Monday. "It hasn't really soaked in yet." notas_de_prensa_archivo