Max Homa Says He Finally Feels Loose at a Major, and He May Be Ready to Contend This Weekend

HOYLAKE, England – A balmy, sunny day turned chilly as the afternoon turned to evening at Royal Liverpool, and Max Homa noted just how difficult the back nine was playing.

It didn’t help that he could hear some noise as he stood over the ball in the 18th fairway.

“You can hear the commentators on the broadcast from the big TV, and I was over the ball and one of them said, 'this is too much club,'" Homa said. “I did an absolutely awful job of not backing off because I knew it was too much club; that was the point.

"So that's a whole other thing. It does matter where you leave it. I've noticed that in links even last week (at the Scottish Open), I've noticed when you're chipping into the wind and when you don't have a bunker in your way, you can do what you want to, which is nice, but the moment you have those things in your way, the golf course kind of dictates what you're going to do."

Homa played long on the 18th, then got the ball onto the green and two-putted for a par and a round of 68, 3 under par and just two shots back of leaders Tommy Fleetwood, Christo Lamprecht and Emiliano Grillo.

And given where Homa was a couple of weeks ago, it was a welcome turnaround in a major championship after he missed the cut at the U.S. Open.

Feeling the pressure for performing poorly in majors in his career, Homa wrote a message to himself on his golf glove a few weeks ago at the Rocket Mortgage Classic that is a reminder every time he grips the club.

“It's just kind of a mantra," Homa said. “It has a bad word in it, so I won't tell you what it is. It's just something I started doing in Detroit. Just stop caring so much and let myself just be myself.

“Sometimes you just need a reminder that it's going to be all right. Just go play golf.’’

For all of his success in recent years—including two victories this season on the PGA Tour—Homa has struggled in the majors. In 16 starts, he’s missed nine cuts and finished no better than a tie for 13th last year at the PGA Championship. This year, he tied for 43rd at the Masters, tied for 55th at the PGA and then missed the cut at Los Angeles Country Club, in his backyard.

“The U.S. Open hurt me a lot," he said. “I played awesome. Had a three-hole stretch that was bad, and it just didn't feel like I deserved to miss that cut. Then I went to the next week in Connecticut (at the Travelers Championship) and missed that one by one and played fine.

“It's just one of those feels like I'm gripping the wheel real tight. Especially everybody knows my major record sucks. I think I'm not myself when I play them. Then I go to regular Tour events and I feel like I free up and I play great. I'm a lot more consistent. Crazy things don't seem to happen.

“Today felt more like that. I felt like I was playing golf on a hard golf course and just hitting good 5-irons and good 3-woods and just moving along."

Homa made four birdies and a bogey and played the back nine in 34, 2 under par. He is tied for seventh.

“I was really happy with the way I played," he said. “I hit it awesome. Only one mistake and just did a really good job. Holed a couple good short ones but didn't have too much stress.

"That's as good as I remember hitting it in a major."