Global Golf Post - January 30, 2012

MYRTLE BEACH,
SOUTH CAROLINA

has felt the pain of a crushing defeat. He had
a chance to win at Augusta National in 2008
but couldn’t get it done and finished in a tie for
third. His post-tournament press conference felt
much the same as did Kyle Stanley’s at Torrey
Pines. The tears flowed on both occasions.
“For anybody in that position, it’s a dev-
astating finish – never want to see anybody
go through that,” Snedeker said. “Kyle is an
unbelievable talent. The sky’s the limit for him.
I hope he’s not beating himself up too badly.”
Snedeker respectfully toned down his
victory celebration on the final green and said
to Stanley, “I’m sorry.”
“What a whole range of emotions I’ve gone
through the last hour-and-a-half,” said
Snedeker, who started the sudden-death
playoff believing he had the advantage because
he has been in that situation before.

J.B. Holmes, the PGA Tour’s reigning long-
drive champion, is back. He made his season
debut at the Farmers Insurance Open. It was his
first start since the PGA Championship in August.
On September 1, Holmes underwent brain
surgery. It was soon followed by a second.
“It feels like it’s been forever, but I’m just
happy to be back,” said Holmes, who missed
the cut with rounds of 76-69. “I’ve been work-
ing pretty hard the last few weeks. Just ready
to get back out here and get back into the com-
petitive tournament and just see how it goes.”
Holmes began experiencing vertigo-like
symptoms in May but continued to play and
posted three top- 10 finishes. The diagnosis
was Chiari malformations, structural defects
in the cerebellum. The only known treatment is
surgery and Holmes underwent the operation at
Johns Hopkins University. A second surgery was
necessary when some stitches became loose.
“After that, everything’s gone pretty much
according to plan,” said Holmes, who had a
titanium plate inserted in his skull.
“It’s scary at first. Talking to the
surgeon and stuff, he said for a brain
surgery, difficulty-wise, for him it was
only about a 1 out of 10. So that makes you feel
better. He said he had done 250, 300 of them. A

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