Just when JB Holmes was on the brink of stardom, things started to go very wrong.
Three years ago, playing at the Players Championship, the American felt slightly dizzy during his rounds. It was later diagnosed that he had structural defects in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance.
He had to have brain surgery — not once, but twice. The first time was to remove a piece of his skull (which he has preserved in formaldehyde in a bottle in his cupboard) to make more space for his cerebellum and brainstem.
That was followed by a second opening of his skull cap, after he developed an allergic reaction to the adhesive that was holding the titanium plate to the base of the skull, resulting in intense headaches.
That wasn’t the end of his travails. Once recovered from his operations, Holmes hit the driving range with a vengeance and injured his left elbow and struggled for nearly a year with it.
To make matter worse, he then broke his ankle while rollerblading last year. That was the time when he used the down time wisely and also underwent surgery on his injured elbow.
The 32-year-old former Ryder Cupper and winner of two PGA Tour titles is one of the more popular stars on the Tour, especially because of his ability to hit the ball a country mile.
And despite not having achieved full mobility still, he had enough not only to win the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow last week, but also emerge as the longest off the tee in the tournament – at a whopping average driving distance of 333.9 yards.
This truly is a second coming for the go-for-broke JB, whose style will surely bring some cheer to the golf fans feeling gloomy in the absence of Tiger Woods, and the form of some of the big stars.
The Anthony Kim mystery
On the eve of the Wells Fargo Championship, it was natural to find out the whereabouts of one of tournament’s most sensational winners – the 2008 champion Anthony Kim.
At the age of 23, Kim beat a quality field at Quail Hollow by five shots, and then won the AT&T National nine weeks later. His status in world golf then was much like Rory McIlroy’s now – everyone marking him out as the next big thing in the game.
And when he made 11 birdies in a single round at the Masters in 2009, golf was ready to welcome a new superstar.
But Kim also developed an image of being a wild guy, indulging in late-night parties and generally displaying an attitude not expected of a professional golfer.
Exactly two years ago, he withdrew from Quail Hollow with a tendinitis, and has never been seen again on the PGA Tour. But this is the sad part. The Golf Channel asked Kim’s agent Clarke Jones about a possible comeback, and he had no answer.
When asked if Kim was playing any kind of golf, even social, the answer was a ‘no’.
There was a rumour going around that Kim was actually suspended by the PGA Tour, allegedly for drug abuse, but thankfully, that theory was categorically denied by Jones.
Maybe Kim should have a talk with Holmes. Whatever he is going through, he can definitely draw some inspiration from JB.
Going nuts for Coconut
Add another one to the fabulous list of golfers with amazing nicknames. The virtually unknown Thai Panuphol Pittayarat delighted the fans not only with his surprisingly stunning display of golf – he was leading last week’s The Championship at Laguna National for the first three rounds – but also because of his nickname ‘Coconut’.
We have had several animal nicknames down the years – Shark, Walrus, Bulldog, Golden Bear, Goose, The Pink Panther, El Gato, El Pato – but I can’t remember someone named after a fruit.
That’s not all. Coconut also revealed he has a brother nicknamed ‘Tamarind’ and a sister nicknamed ‘Lemon’.
Apparently, Pittayarat’s parents wanted to give them names that weren’t very common.
Stat of the Week
525 – That’s the number of balls PGA Tour stars have hit in the water surrounding the island green of the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, host venue of the Players Championship. That’s only for the last 10 years, which means an average of slightly over 13 balls getting wet every round. The last hole-in-one there – Miguel Angel Jimenez in 2002.
