Despite success, Holmes and Weekley show they have a lot to learn

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — J.B. Holmes and Boo Weekley have a down-home style that clicks with the Louisville crowds. On the driving range Friday afternoon, Holmes was bombarding the stage where the opening ceremonies were held on Thursday. It was about about 325 yards away, and the grandstands erupted in cheers every time Holmes bounced one off the roof.

As Weekley practiced his putting, a man wearing a camouflage hat said to his pal, "Man, I love Boo. He's wearing blue pants, black shoes and white tube socks!" With a Tennessee accent, his friend replied, "Hell, he's just happy he found a pair of socks."

Everywhere the pair went during their four-ball match against Lee Westwood and Soren Hansen on Friday, choruses of "Boooooo" filled the in the air. Holmes, who was an All-American at the University of Kentucky, was greeted with hollers of "Go Cats!"

But for all the flag-waving and cheering the pair incited, Holmes and Weekley's inexperience was glaringly evident in two key situations.

At the Ryder Cup, No Experience May Trump Bad Experiences

There’s a reason “EXPERIENCE” is the first thing we list on our resumes: It matters. Experience is where we’ve been. It’s what we’ve done. It’s who we are. It’s a “massive asset,” England’s Lee Westwood said today at Valhalla.

Westwood was speaking of Ryder Cup experience, and he should know, having amassed 15 1/2 points in five Ryder Cups. But what if a player has only losing Ryder Cup experiences in his back pocket? Or, worse yet, only drubbings? (See the Team USA members of 2004 and ’06.)

What’s that kind of experience worth?

“Anybody who has played Ryder Cups in the last 12 years, I mean, we've lost five of the last six Ryder Cups, so most of their experiences are bad experiences,” U.S. captain Paul Azinger said last month. “So it’s not like experience is going to be a great help.”

Zinger wasn't just yapping. He went on to award three of his four captain’s picks to players without a lick of Ryder Cup experience: J.B. Holmes, Hunter Mahan and Steve Stricker. It’s better to have no Ryder Cup memories, Azinger seemed to be implying, than a scrapbook full of bad ones.

Westwood today took the discussion a step further, noting that to gain experience, you, well, need experience. “There might be a rookie on the American team that’s just made for the Ryder Cup, really raises his game for that situation. We’ve yet to find out,” he said. “I think it may be the same on our team. We've got four rookies and they might settle in quite easily. Who is to say Justin Rose isn’t going to be an unbelievable Ryder Cup player and never lose a match? So you never know all of these things.”

Which has helped make the Ryder Cup the game’s most consistently compelling drama. Even in blowouts, it’s great fun seeing which Ryder rooks can weather the pressure -- and which fold like Origami. 

“These guys have all withstood a lot already to get here,” Stewart Cink, a four-time U.S. Ryder Cupper, said today of the American debutantes, who also include Ben Curtis, Anthony Kim and Boo Weekley.

“I think being a first time Ryder Cupper in 2008 is maybe quite a bit different than it was in the ’80s or the ’70s because there are so many big tournaments around the world. Golf is scrutinized more than ever before, and the Ryder Cup is just another event of which you have to really perform well. So they are tested. The six guys that are on our team that have never played the Ryder Cup before have a lot of experience in other ways.”

Just look at their resumes.

J.B. Holmes has a Web site?

Hungry for information about the midway leader of the 90th PGA Championship? I present you the J.B. Holmes Web site at, of course, jbholmes.com.

Yes, J.B. Holmes is a fine player. Decent fellow. Kills the ball.

But his own site?

We're not talking about Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson or even Ernie Els, on whose site you can learn about Stellenbosch wine. I think a PGA Tour player should have at least five wins or one major to be able to launch his own Web site. Holmes, with two victories, could meet that criteria with two more good days at Oakland Hills.

(Photo by Shamus Gregory/Getty Images)

Video: J.B. Holmes Friday at the 2008 PGA Championship

Here is a quick video interview with J.B. Holmes, the only player who finished under par after two rounds of play at the 2008 PGA Championship. (Video courtesy of Cobra Golf)

J.B. Holmes bludgeons Oakland Hills with driver

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- On an Oakland Hills course infamous for its gnarly rough, the clubhouse leader J.B. Holmes bucked convention by swinging for the fences. Bombing his driver "exactly where I was looking" every time he swung it, Holmes made five birdies and shot a second-round 68 to get to one under overall.

"I hit a couple out there that might've got close to 400 [yards]," said Holmes, who is averaging 337.5 yards off the tee on measured drives this week, first in the field.

He left himself only 65-70 yards to the green on the 435-yard first hole, then reached the par-5 second with a driver ("that was close to 400, probably") and a wedge to 12 feet from the pin. His eagle putt grazed the edge of the hole but wouldn't fall.

Holmes drove the green on the 300-yard, par-4 6th hole and two-putted for birdie, and was left with only an 8-iron to reach the 593-yard, par-5 12th hole in two. He missed the green, but got up and down for birdie. He estimated after the round that he hit driver on 10 of 14 possible holes.

"I played great," he said. "I hit the ball well. I left a few putts out there, but overall it was a very good ball-striking round, is probably the best way to describe it."

 

20-somethings raid Ryder rankings

Conventional wisdom has it that experience trumps youth when it comes time to make up a Ryder Cup roster, but it may be time to rethink that old chestnut given recent Cup mismatches and the current streak of solid play by American 20-somethings

Ryan Moore, 25, did most everything right in losing a three-hole playoff to Adam Scott at the EDS Byron Nelson on Sunday. At 23rd on the Ryder Cup points list, Moore still has a way to go to make the team on points (top eight) or as one of captain Paul Azinger's wildcard picks, but he's got plenty of time to keep rising up the ranks. What's more, a handful of his contemporaries are also knocking on the door.

Sean O'Hair, 25, won the PODS Championship last month and is at 10th on the points list.

J.B. Holmes, who turned 26 last weekend, won the FBR Open and nearly beat Tiger Woods at the WGC-Accenture and has risen to 13th. (A Kentuckian, he's the most likely to get a captain's pick for Valhalla.)

Brandt Snedeker (above), 27, fought bravely at the Masters and is at 9th. D.J. Trahan, also 27, won the Hope and is at 14th. Hunter Mahan, 25, played well in last fall's Presidents Cup and is at 15th. Johnson Wagner, 28, nabbed his first Tour win in Houston and is at 18th.

Not long ago we were decrying the paucity of good young American golfers. There were no players in their 20s on the 2006 squad, and only one, Woods, made the 2004 lineup (with, ahem, mid-century clubbers Fred Funk and Jay Haas). Given that both of those outfits lost by the same score, 18 1/2 to 9 1/2, Azinger should take comfort in selecting from the current crop of untested, untamed youth. He can't do much worse.

(Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)

Keep an eye on J.B.

It's never a good sign when a player in his 20s switches to a long putter, but J.B. Holmes is still the most intriguing Masters first-timer in this year's field. It's not completely unreasonable to predict a top-15 finish when the Kentucky crusher tees it up at Augusta National next week. He's crazy long and fearless when he gets it going, and he can even make his share of putts with the long wand.

He took out Phil Mickelson in sudden-death at the FBR; nearly eliminated Tiger Woods in the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play; and he won the Tavistock Cup last week with a 4-under 68. He also won the long drive at the Tavistock with a poke of 327 yards (not surprising), and closest to the pin (surprising), hitting a 223-yard shot to 1.5 feet and earning himself a Cadillac Escalade Hybrid. Not bad for a day's work.

(Photo: J.B. Holmes at the FBR Open in February, by Fred Vuich/SI)