`Sometimes My Life Feels Too Good To Be True' - Max Homa on his Remarkable Story
Back in 2017, when Max Homa was better known for his creativity on social media than his achievements on the PGA tour, the Cal alum offered this self-deprecating gem on Twitter:
“Had a few caddies hit me up recently hoping to team up. They heard they usually get weekends off which is apparently a great selling point.”
Max Homa
Homa was approaching the low point of his career as a professional golfer. In 2017 he missed 15 of 17 cuts and lost his PGA tour card.
Yep, he had a lot of free weekends.
Five years later, the 2013 Cal grad is at the top of his game.
Homa won for the second time this season and the fourth time in his career on Sunday, posting a two-stroke victory at the Wells Fargo Championship. The 31-year-old took home a winner’s check worth $1,620,000.
Pretty nice for a guy whose total winnings in 2017 were $18,008.
Max Homa hoists the winner's trophy
Photo by Scott Taetsch, USA Today
Homa climbed to a career-best No. 29 in the Official World Golf Rankings on Monday morning. That’s up eight spots from a week ago, and gives Cal two golfers in the top-30, with Collin Morikawa at No. 3.
Back in 2017, Homa ranked No. 1,282 at one point.
It's taken him a while to come to grips with how far he's climbed.
“All of a sudden last year I get in the top 50 in the world and you start looking around and it’s a new crop of people and you start thinking to myself, ‘Am I as good as these guys?’” Homa said on Sunday.
“So I’ve always struggled with it, but I have great people around me who bash me over the head telling me that I am that guy. I tried to walk around this week believing that and faking it a little bit until I made it.”
He has faked it well all season, posting seven top-20 finishes and missing the cut just once in 14 events. Homa is among just five golfers with multiple victories on the tour this season, joining Scottie Scheffler (four wins), Hideki Matsuyama (two), Sam Burns (two) and Cameron Smith (two).
“I just feel like I'm coming into my own,” Homa said in our Sunday story. “I'm starting to believe in myself and that's all I can really ask for.”
Homa, whose wife Lacey is expecting their first child in November, now has won $4.1 million this season. His career earnings are approaching $12 million.
It's a world away from five years ago when he was forced onto golf’s minor-league tour in order to earn back his PGA card.
The PGA’s next stop is the AT&T Byron Nelson this weekend at TPC Craig Ranch in Texas.
Then comes golf’s next major, the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.
Competing at the top of the leaderboard is the remaining obstacle in Homa’s career.
He finished in a tie for 64th at the 2019 PGA, his only experience in that tournament. He has missed the cut all three times he played the U.S. Open, tied for 40th at the British Open last season and tied for 48th at the Masters last month.
So there still is work to do.
On Sunday, Homa was living in the moment. And it was one worth savoring.
“Sometimes my life feels too good to be true,” he said, "and this is one of those cases.”
Photo of Max Homa celebrating with his caddy by Scott Taetsch, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo