The Golf Watch

Woods and Mickelson grouped together, but Watson and Holmes is my choice

When I read that Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Adam Scott would be playing together next week at Torrey Pines, I thought, 'what a great idea.'  The networks and the fans will be happy.  Plus, ESPN's Chris Berman will have a field day with the threesome, so get ready for plenty of new sayings you would never want to add to your repertoire with your Sunday group.

Even though it will be a fun threesome, the group that excites me the most is the longhitters group of Bubba Watson, J.B. Holmes, and Brett Wetterich.  While none of them show much emotion on the course, you know they will be hitting the big stick a ton.  The kid scorer assigned to the group will be kept busy.

Follow up: Holmes apologizes to Nicklaus

I've had a lot of action on the site the past couple of days due to a post on Sunday night about J.B. Holmes not shaking tournament host Jack Nicklaus' hand after a disappointing final round of 77.  According to Jeff Rude of Golfweek, Holmes apologized to the Golden Bear soon after...

He (Holmes) maintains he “idolizes” the Golden Bear and didn’t see him standing there among other committee members dressed similarly.

“I would never do anything like that,” he told Golfweek through an aide.

When he learned of the situation through a call from his father-in-law, watching from home, Holmes hurriedly walked back down the hill, apologized to Nicklaus and told him he hadn’t seen him, according to the Holmes camp.

Holmes said Nicklaus told him not to worry and thanked him for coming back to visit.

Did Holmes snub Nicklaus?

Typically, tournament host Jack Nicklaus waits beside the 18th green to greet the last few groups finishing up their final rounds. The first group that Nicklaus greeted included J.B. Holmes and Nick O'Hern. 

Holmes, an American and 2-time winner on tour, didn't say anything when he walked past Nicklaus.  O'Hern did shake Jack's hand, and Jim Nantz of CBS said:

Uh, turn to your left there guys.  What was that all about?  Jack just said, was that J.B. Holmes, didn't he win the FBR Open this year?  What was that all about?...I don't know, I guess he didn't see him.

From the replay, it does look like Holmes acknowledges Nicklaus with a nod from afar.  But no handshake?  Walking up farther behind, Holmes' caddy was seen chuckling at what just took place. 

J.B. shot a disappointing final round of 77, so we'll cut him a break.  Plus, it looks like he tossed his ball to a kid in the crowd.

Holmes wins at FBR, but what about Phil's swing?

This week's finish at the FBR Open was the most exciting of the year.  Former FBR winner J.B. Holmes fought off and defeated Phil Mickelson on the first playoff hole with a birdie to capture his second PGA tournament.  Even though Lefty finished in second place, Peter Kostis made an interesting observation about Mickelson's swing during CBS's telecast:

Gary McCord: Now, Peter, what do you think, is he (Mickelson) getting this swing by Butch Harmon?   How long is it going to take?

Peter Kostis: In my opinion, he’s reverted a little bit.  I think he was swinging better last year toward the middle of the year then he is right now.  I think I see him sliding a little bit more, swing getting a little longer across the line.  He just hadn’t had the opportunity because of that respiratory illness to spend enough time working on it I don’t think.