British Open 2019: J.B. Holmes’ disastrous final-round 87 cost him a boatload of money

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — After firing 66-68-69, J.B. Holmes was 10 under par through three rounds at the Open Championship, good for second place. Though he faced an uphill battle in the final round, trailing 54-hole leader Shane Lowry by six shots, a bad weather forecast for Sunday gave all the chasers hope that they might be able to make up some ground.

Holmes teed off in the penultimate group with Brooks Koepka, but it didn’t take long for things to go south. Holmes made a double bogey on the 1st hole, a brutal opening blow. Four more bogeys followed on the front nine, mitigated by just one birdie. Holmes made the turn at five 0ver on the front side.

Things only got worse on the back. Holmes suffered a triple bogey, three double bogeys, and two additional bogeys for a back-nine 46. What’s worse, his resulting final score of 87 caused Holmes to plummet 64 spots down the leaderboard into T-67 — a loss of approximately $700,000 in prize money. Holmes finished the championship at six over par overall, ahead of only three other players who made the cut.

Had Holmes managed to stay in the top 4 on Sunday, he would have earned an invitation to next year’s Masters — a tournament he’s played in only five times over the course of his career, finishing T-4 in 2016 — as well as valuable world ranking points (Holmes is currently ranked 55th in the world).

It was a rough day all around, with playing partner Koepka also appearing visibly irritated by Holmes’ pace of play. Holmes opted not to speak to reporters after his round.

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