Slow play mars J.B. Holmes’ Genesis Open victory

J.B. Holmes (slowly) won the Genesis Open on Sunday, but the pace at which he did it proved to be the real story.

It’s quite fitting that the oft-delayed Genesis Open ended on Sunday with one of the slowest players on the PGA Tour lifting the trophy.

J.B. Holmes plodded his way around Riviera Country Club on his way to a final-round 70 and a one-stroke victory over Justin Thomas at 14-under. The takeaway after the tournament, however, was not that he won but how slowly he did it.

Holmes constantly stretched the USGA rulebook, which mandates 40 seconds to play a shot, often taking more than a minute to hit a putt. Holmes’ pace of play has been the subject of controversy before, but the spotlight of a final round at Riviera only served to magnify the issue.

The windy conditions on Sunday afternoon didn’t help players get off the course faster. Holmes put the blame for his meticulous shot-making on the wind, even sounding somewhat annoyed that the issue was brought up.

“Well, you play in 25 mile-an-hour gusty winds and see how fast you play when you’re playing for the kind of money, the points and everything that we’re playing for,” he said at his post-tournament press conference. “The greens are fast…you can’t just get up there and whack it when it’s blowing that hard.”

Holmes’ play caught the attention of the TV announcers and members of the media, who noted the hypocrisy of the powers in the game for not enforcing their own rule.

Holmes insists he’s made an effort throughout his career to get faster, but if tournament officials aren’t going to penalize him he’s going to keep playing by his own pace.

“When I first got out here I was really slow. I’ve sped up quite a bit,” he said. “Like I said, the conditions made it tougher too. I mean, sometimes you’re waiting for the wind to stop blowing 30 mph. I’ve gotten better and there are times when I’m probably too slow, but it is what it is. I was never on the clock, never even got a warning.”

Playing in the same group as Holmes on Sunday was Adam Scott. Last week Scott volunteered to become the first to get a penalty for slow play in an attempt to draw attention to the issue. His feelings on the matter didn’t change on Sunday. “My thing on slow play is it’s never gonna change. Just get over it. Until television and sponsors say ‘No more money,’ slow play ain’t gonna change,” he told Golf Channel.

While Holmes was slowly inching towards victory, his other playing partner, Thomas, was slowly falling apart. Thomas began the final round with a four-shot lead but made five bogeys and a double bogey in a round of four-over 75. Holmes took the lead with a birdie at the 10th, but fell back into a tie with Thomas after three-putting from three feet on the par-five 11th. Crucial par saves at the 13th and 16 gave him a two-shot lead, but Thomas got back into contention with a birdie at 16. Thomas, though, missed a 20-footer for birdie at the 18th that would have forced a playoff, giving Holmes his fifth PGA Tour title and first since 2015.

Thomas wasn’t the only one to struggle in the wind on Sunday. Scott shot five-over, Tiger Woods one-over. Then there’s Jordan Spieth, who shot 10-over 81 to fall from fourth place at the start of the round to 51st.

By winning the Genesis Open Holmes qualifies for the WGC-Mexico Championship next week, but he insists he’s not going to play, instead going on vacation with his family. After the long week of weather delays at Riviera, he and the rest of the players could use a nice break.