Getty Image / Richard Heathcote
On Wednesday, a story broke that 5-time PGA Tour winner J.B. Holmes had been disqualified (along with his team) from a high-stakes 6-man club scramble and Calcutta.
The scramble scandal story was covered extensively here on BroBible yesterday. Later in the evening, J.B. Holmes took to Twitter to clear the air on what really happened.
If this is the first time you’re reading about this, the gist is this:
J.B. Holmes is a well-known PGA Tour player who won 5-times, most recently at the 2019 Genesis Open where he beat Justin Thomas by 1 stroke and took home $1,332,000 for first. He has an easily identifiable short backswing.
J.B. Holmes entered a 6-man club scramble with a calcutta where teams could bid on and ‘buy’ other teams with the chance to win tens of thousands of dollars. Holmes was competing under the name John Bradley, which his initials stand for, but most of the world only knows him as J.B. and not John Bradley.
J.B. Holmes took to Twitter to clear the air
After the story went viral, J.B. shared this update:
Here is the Tournament rules and what actually happened. We were winning -21 after round 1 and that’s how they made the flights. pic.twitter.com/zCNUm0kNYY
— J.B. Holmes (@JBHolmesgolf) June 1, 2023
The third slide reads:
“John Bradley +4 handicap was what my friend turned in as a joke without my knowledge. Handicaps were not used in the event. No strokes were given to any team. The event did not check anyone’s name or GHIN to see if they were correct because the premise was bring your best. Each team was allowed to have 2 plus golfers on the team. We had 1, me.
“We had a +4, 1, 4, 11, 12, and 14 handicap that were correct and turned in to the event. Guessing at mine since I don’t have one. When I play at the member guest at my club they play me at +4 so that’s what I used. My team was winning at -21 after first day.”
“Neither I nor anyone on my team bought or bid on our team at the Calcutta. I was not even present for the Calcutta. I was playing for fun with my friend and had no intention to nor did I attempt to make money at scramble.”
“The next day the person who bought my team found one of the guys I was playing with and asked if he would buy half the bid. I did not buy in but the other members did. They did not let us participate in the Calcutta even though no rules were broken.”
“The man that bought our team got his money back. Unfortunately, what was meant to be a fun golf outing with a friend has turned into a compilation of inaccuracies.”
This certainly clears up a lot of what was first shared by Ryan French of Monday Q and which I reported on here at BroBible.
Yesterday, it seemed like the used of ‘John Bradley’ instead of J.B. Holmes might have been possibly used in deceit but J.B. cleared that up in one fell swoop with his statement. His buddy used that as a joke and there was nothing nefarious about it.
In Holmes’ replies, there are people claiming that knowing ‘John Bradley’ was J.B. Holmes would have drastically changed the bidding in the Calcutta which may or may not be true. But Holmes is correct in that no rules were broken, his team only had one plus handicapper, and the only goal was to go low.
Case closed.