2014 Wells Fargo Championship results: J.B. Holmes completes amazing comeback story with win

J.B. Holmes capped one of the better golf comeback stories on Sunday by winning the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. Holmes, a two-time winner, had not won on the PGA Tour since 2008, a six-year drought due largely to serious ankle and elbow injuries and then brain surgery in 2011. Holmes, a Kentucky native who absolutely hammers the ball, had so much promise wiped out by those injuries and was playing on a medical waiver extension for much of this season. Since his last win, the 2008 FBR Open (which no longer exists), he’d played in 132 events and managed 14 top-10 finishes and two second-place results.

Holmes made a name for himself with those two wins and as an integral part of the 2008 American Ryder Cup win back home in Kentucky at Valhalla. He’d been making some noise on the Tour this year, but this is an event that’s one of the better non-major tournaments of the year and draws a loaded field.

Holmes has a good track record here, but the win over the likes of Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Jim Furyk -- who were all in a place to contend on Sunday -- is definitely a signature career achievement. Mickelson may have had the round of the week on Saturday, and McIlroy was not far behind with his big third-round charge, but it was Holmes who steadily pushed through with 38 one-putts and four straight rounds under par. There have been some pretty great winner’s stories from lesser-known guys this year on Tour, such as Steven Bowditch and Matt Every, but the Holmes comeback from the traumatic brain surgery is as good as it gets. If he’s back out wowing the crowds by crushing the ball and contending regularly, it will be good for golf.

Holmes had the 54-hole lead, but it was Mickelson who started the day as the favorite following his flawless Saturday charge and round of 63. With 18 holes to play, he was just two shots back but Phil couldn’t get anything going up on the green and his chances were wiped out pretty early in the round as Holmes continued to push the leading number. Phil has yet to get a top 10 on the Tour, a T2 debut in Abu Dhabi on the Euro Tour his best result of the season. This week was an improvement over much of his American appearances, which have been a mixed bag of injuries and non-contention (and his first MC at the Masters since 1997).

The putting for Phil on Sunday was pretty atrocious, and a big reason for an ugly 76. In the third round, he rolled in five birdies and an eagle in just six holes. That was part of his dramatic front-nine 29 and his rocket up the leaderboard. One day later, however, he stalled out and could only make a single birdie. At the easier par-4 eighth hole, he three-putted from inside 15 feet, including a missed putt from inside four feet for a bogey on what had to be a birdie hole.

That would be the theme of the day, and Mickelson would even four-putt at one point during an ugly back nine.

The biggest names failing to come through on Sunday has been a theme of the season on the PGA Tour. In addition to Phil, McIlroy couldn’t make things interesting from his spot just outside the top 10. Rory had a lot more work to do, but going low at this course is something we’ve seen from him before. He got under par with a 70, but couldn’t put the pressure on the final groups.

One guy who started the day in the same position as Rory at 6-under was Jim Furyk, and he did make a move almost two hours ahead of the final pairing. Furyk put a little run together on the front nine with three birdies, and then momentarily pulled into a share of the lead with this dramatic chip-in for eagle at the 15th (via PGATour).

That was the start of a flurry of hole-out eagles, with Jason Bohn and Martin Flores also draining them to get to the top of the leaderboard.

But those fireworks aside, no one could catch Holmes, who continued to calmly pour in the birdies and par-saving putts. When those guys started to get close, he simply canned back-to-back birdies to start the back nine and keep a multi-shot margin all the way to the 18th tee. He didn’t exactly play the final hole smoothly, but was able to get in with a bogey for a win that locks up a Masters berth next year and earns him a $1.242 million paycheck.

Here are the full results from the weekend at Quail Hollow: