Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Or, if the player was dishonest about his true identity, I guess you can hate the player as well.
If there’s one thing that amateur golfers take seriously, it is a good old fashioned big money scramble tournament. For those that aren’t familiar with how a scramble works in golf, a group of players (typically four) all hit their own shots to start the hole, then choose the best of those shots for the group to play their next stroke from, and that continues on until each hole is completed.
This particular scramble was a 6-player tournament by the name of the “2023 Gangsome,” which was required to have four individuals on each team that belonged to the club it was being played at, and allowed for two outsiders to join in to complete the grouping.
And that’s where J.B. Holmes, the former PGA Tour winner, comes in.
Holmes turned pro back in 2006 after competing collegiately for the University of Kentucky. Since declaring himself a professional, J.B. has won five times on the PGA Tour, with the most recent victory coming back in 2019 at the Genesis Open.
At his peak, the Kentucky native was ranked 14th in the world and became a household name with his strong play at the Ryder Cup in 2008.
Now that Holmes has been removed from professional golf for a while, or at least hasn’t qualified for PGA Tour events, it appears that he was trying to make some quick cash at this 6-man scramble by being brought in as a ringer.
A certain rule within the tournament limited the amount of players with “plus handicaps” (meaning they consistently shoot under par) each team could have, which is what ultimately got J.B. Holmes in trouble. Plus, in order to enter into the tournament discreetly, Holmes used his full name Jonathan Bradley Holmes, which was a point of concern too.
However, for the first day, Holmes went unrecognized and his team was actually leading the tournament, set to make around $21,000 dollars on day two of the event.
After the team’s great play on day one, other competitors in the tournament started to murmur about “Jonathan Bradley” actually being “J.B.” (how did they possibly put that together), and the owner of the club allegedly recognized and called out the former PGA Tour player on the third hole of the second day.
After being determined as a pro, the tournament decided that he and his team were ineligible for the huge prize money, but could still compete for the trophies.
According to a story on Monday Q, once the second round wrapped up, other teams in the tournament were pretty upset about the revelation:
“Word had spread around the course about the true identity of Jonathan Bradley, and when everyone came in for the post-tournament dinner, they found the names of Holmes and his teammates had been crossed out on the leaderboard.
The flight winners were announced, with the top flight revealed last. According to one member, when Holmes’s team was announced, the crowd ‘went crazy, boos started, then some random vulgarities started.’ That was followed by chants of bulls***.”
Pros were actually allowed to play in the tournament, but the team was disqualified from the cash winnings because they lied and cheated their fellow competitors by signing J.B up underneath a different name.
J.B. took to Twitter to give his two passive-aggressive cents on the matter:
“I did play ‘scrabble’ under my real name…John Bradley. It was bring your best team…and we had the best team.”
Well, better luck cheating next time J.B. Holmes. Or should I say, Jonathan Bradley…
