Homa flips the light on his darkness
Struggling star feels right at home at Quail Hollow; A few random Stray Shots
Max Homa is emerging from a long funk with new elements in his corner (Darren Carroll/PGA of America)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On a PGA Championship leaderboard filled with surprising names, one in particular stands out — Max Homa. One of the most open and likeable players in golf has taken fans on a journey into the darkness of competitive golf. On Friday with a tournament-low 64, Homa found his way into the light.
“It’s been difficult because I felt like I was so broken,” Homa said of an excruciating struggle that dragged him into golf’s abyss as he navigated a string of changes including his coach, his equipment, his swing and finally his caddie. Over the course of two years, Homa fell from a career-high of No. 5 in the world at the 2023 Masters to No. 81 when he showed up at Augusta last month riding a run of five consecutive missed cuts.
Along the way, the affable Californian has never shied away from honestly detailing his plight taking place in plain sight.
“It probably doesn’t help me at all if I’m being honest,” he said of his transparency.
“Yeah, I just try to be myself. Sometimes I wish I would probably keep some things in, but at the end of the day, we owe a lot to (the fans). It’s not so hard to be transparent. It doesn’t hurt me in any way.”
That transparency is what makes fans invested in rooting for Homa’s success. And on that front, he made a breakthrough a few weeks ago when he told his new coach, John Scott Rattan, exactly how he felt about the swing changes they’ve been working on.
“I said, I think I should swing it like this. And he said, okay, show me. And I showed him. And he said, okay, let’s mold off of that, let’s make that the model,” Homa explained.
“I thought whatever the swing change was going to be was going to be some grand thing, like something I’ve never done before. We were just like not finding anything on this range session. Everything he says makes sense and it’s very right, but it didn’t feel like me.”
Immediately, Homa started to feel more like his old self and less like an imposter in his own body. “It felt more like my old golf swing back in ’22, ’23-ish. I kind of knew the misses better, my hands just worked through the shot better. … It’s been hard. I feel like I was playing with a foreign swing at times.”
Couple that with growing comfortable with his new caddie, Bill Harke — after Homa’s longtime caddie Joe Greiner dumped him before the Masters and eventually went to work for Collin Morikawa — and the pieces have finally starting falling into place for Homa.
“It’s really hard to change caddies,” Homa said. “I was talking to my wife about that last night. You’re in like a full relationship day one. You’re out there with him, first day is probably eight hours. It’s not exactly a normal first date.
“Obviously (Greiner leaving) caught me by surprise a little bit. I always thought I’d end my career when I’m 60 and Joe’s 65, somehow still looping. Hopefully he was going to go the Fluff (Cowen) route and caddie forever. So I never thought about it.
Harke, who’s carried for Chris Kirk, Colt Knost and Jonas Blixt, came highly recommended by Bones Mackay, who caddied for Phil Mickelson and Justin Thomas.
“Bill is really amazing at the psychology of golf and talking to me and keeping me positive when I start to go a little dark,” said Homa. “Especially at Augusta this year, he was amazing. I had two rounds where it was because of him what we did.”
What Homa did was finish T12 at the Masters — a huge lift knowing that the top 12 finishers at Augusta qualify to return the next year.
“It felt a bit like smoke and mirrors,” Homa admitted since his swing worked hadn’t yet clicked. “I mean, especially then it felt like the last major — the last time I might ever play the Masters. So our house knew the 12th number really well.
“I wouldn’t say a confidence booster, but it was just fun, and golf hasn’t been that fun. So it was cool to have a very fun week. To see your name on the leaderboard at Augusta when things have been miserable was awesome.”
Sitting in the top five at 5-under through two rounds at Quail Hollow is not a fluke for Homa. It was here that the late-blooming Homa finally broke through with his maiden win at the 2019 Wells Fargo Championship. He won at Quail again in 2022, the fourth of six career PGA Tour wins. His last top-10 finish before his precipitous decline was a T8 in last year’s Wells Fargo.
“As I started to feel really good, I knew I was going to come in here and swing it nicely,” Homa said. “I just needed to find some comfort, so this place does that for me.”
Homa’s good attitude is a strength on a major course that has frustrated others because of mud balls. He takes it all in laid-back stride. “I particularly like playing the ball down,” he said. “I think it just causes chaos for the fans. It’s supposed to be entertaining, so seeing people who can look like robots for a while look completely silly isn’t the worst except when it’s you.”
Homa’s biggest shot Friday in going out in a personal-best 30 on the back side was a drive on the 340-yard par-4 14th hole that nestled a foot from the cup for a tap-in eagle.
“It was not the best shot I ever hit,” Homa admitted. “I was aiming one yard inside the right bunker, so I toed it like the perfect amount. I looked up slightly scared of it going left, but obviously it was still a good drive. I mean, you don’t hit it there intentionally unless you’re Scottie (Scheffler) or something.”
Suddenly he’s gone from chasing his tail to chasing his first major title after years of trying to figure out with little success how to play his best on major stages.
“I was told for a long time I couldn’t play a major,” Homa said. “So now all of a sudden I’m being asked about why I play well only in majors. I don’t really have an answer for that one. It’s just golf, I guess.”
Few understand the vagaries and frustrations of the game as well as Homa.
Stray Shots: The great and not-so-great
By Peter Kaufman
1. Two-major club. Who has the most majors in this group? Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, and Jon Rahm.
The answer would seem to be Scheffler. He’s 28 but been so dominant. But like all of the others in this group, he has “only” two majors. Majors are not that easy to win. We assume Scheffler will emerge from this pack and win more majors. But there are no guarantees, of course.