WINDERMERE, Fla. – Champagne skyrocketed into the sky Tuesday evening from the 18th green at Isleworth Country Club, not unlike the hair of Ian Poulter.
At that point, fairly-new Isleworth resident J.B. Holmes was surrounded by reporters, answering questions about his brand-new black 2009 Cadillac Escalade hybrid and the $510,000 in prize money he could stuff in the back seat.
“Yeah, that was probably the best two days I’ve had..,” said Holmes, smiling and pausing for a second.
“Ever.”
Holmes bogeyed his final two holes on the second and lengthy final day of the Tavistock Cup, but still shot 4-under 68 to win the event’s individual crown and $500,000.
Tiger Woods, who shot 70 and disappeared seconds after the awards ceremony concluded, had carried that check to his Isleworth estate the last three years, which meant his second streak in as many days had been run over by an Escalade, so to speak.
“OK, I got him this time. He got me last time,” said Holmes, who lost a 3-up lead with five holes to play against Woods in the first round of February’s Accenture Match Play Championship.
They both joined eight fellow Isleworth residents Tuesday in a 19.5-11.5 victory over crosstown club Lake Nona in the annual two-day event that is as much about golf as it is digesting lobster and crab meat.
It also always ends with a cooler-full of champagne, available to both the winners and losers, labels that never really seem to matter to anybody here.
So it was for that reason that a pair of Lake Nona Englishmen were the first to pop the Perrier Jouet.
Justin Rose sprayed and swigged. Poulter, who finished second in the individual race, poured some down the back of Isleworth’s Craig Parry, who wasn’t expecting the shower.
“Right down the crack of my...,” screamed Parry, unable to finish the sentence.
Stuart Appleby, who had turned his visor backwards, was watching all of this from behind a camera lens, where he had stepped in for a local photographer, and was clicking away.
Holmes was standing behind the microphone of a local television reporter.
“It looks like they’re having fun now,” said Holmes, a Tavistock Cup rookie and winner of perhaps the first Tavistock Slam, which includes the individual championship, long drive and closest-to-the-pin contests. He won $10,000 for everyone on the Isleworth roster by cutting a 329-yard-drive into the wind on No. 7, and was given the keys to his new Escalade after sending his approach on the par-3 15th to 1 foot, 9 inches.
Holmes was in the middle of answering a question when Poulter blindsided him and the television reporter with bubbly.
“You will not get away with that!” screamed Poulter, who stood in the middle of the green with his hands raised toward the sky.
“You’ve won the car,” he screamed, then paused.
“You’ve won the money,” he screamed.
“You’re not going to get away with that!”
Unfortunately, Isleworth’s Paula Creamer missed all of it. Creamer, who had been sitting in the bleachers behind the 18th green covered in a blanket for most of the afternoon, left before the final group finished it’s 6-hour-plus round to catch a flight to this week’s Safeway International. Joining her on that plane was Lake Nona’s Annika Sorenstam, who had beaten Creamer in their singles match earlier in the day.
“Today was a little disappointing, but it was a good experience,” said Creamer who had also spent some time in the Golf Channel booth as a guest analyst. After she finished Tuesday, she was planning to go watch Holmes, “to see how far he really hits it.”
More exciting, however, may have been the news that Creamer this week received her first iPhone, which was included in her Tavistock goodie bag. She also said she got a purse, but wouldn’t say which brand, and joked that the guys may have also got one.
“It was cool being out there with the guys,” said Creamer, whose signature pink golf balls ended up in Woods’ pile on Monday, thanks to the hijinks of Charles Howell III.
Oh, those crazy tour pros.
Posted: 3/26/2008
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