CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA | No matter how great the time investment, how relentless the work or how positive the self-talk may be, there comes a moment of reckoning.
It’s a variation of the old line about doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. It can run through a golfer’s mind like bad blood when all the practice balls, the video sessions and the heart-to-hearts with whomever will listen need one more thing – validation.
When the stars align, it can be a single swing that produces the eureka moment and there’s a story about Tiger Woods having just that happen before he went on his most spectacular run.
More often, it’s a string of good days that build into good weeks and, ideally, good months.
In Max Homa’s case, there have been enough encouraging signs for him to believe the swing work bread crumbs he’s following are leading him out of the dark forest he’s inhabited for a year or so.
That’s why the 7-under-par 64 Homa shot Friday in the second round of the PGA Championship did more than thrust him toward the top of a leaderboard in search of star power. It was another birdie-speckled bit of proof that Homa is walking toward sunshine again.
“It’s been difficult because I felt like I was so broken,” Homa said Friday during a long post-round interview that could have doubled as an enlightening podcast.
Homa, who has been ranked as high as fifth in the world ranking, effectively disappeared from view after a T3 finish at the Masters in 2024. He eventually changed coaches from Mark Blackburn to John Scott Rattan, changed equipment from Titleist to Cobra and even changed his clothing from FootJoy to Lululemon.
In early April, his longtime friend and caddie Joe Greiner told Homa he was quitting. Their friendship meant too much to both of them and the poor results were beginning to take their toll.
Seemingly the only thing that stayed the same was Homa’s poor results, even when he could sense improvement. Homa’s story resonates, in part, because he emerged from the depths several years ago to become one of the PGA Tour’s top players.
Going through it again, Homa understood he could come out on the other side.
It doesn’t hurt that Homa got his first PGA Tour victory in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow six years ago, helping him feel comfortable in his still rain-soaked surroundings.
There are no assurances the good vibes Thursday and Friday will carry into the weekend but there’s a reason to believe, because a few weeks back, Homa listened to his own voice.
He and Rattan were not getting much from another practice session even though what they were chasing made technical sense. But golf is as much or more about feel than it is about mechanics and Homa wasn’t feeling it.
“Everything (Rattan) says makes sense and it’s very right, but it didn’t feel like me. It was close to the positions and everything … I wanted to do, but I just said I want to try to do it this way and just let me know if that looks OK,” Homa said.
“It was immediately like, we’re going to do that, and let’s just work off of that as like the template … it feels more like me. It looks more like when I swung at my best, I think.”
It gave Homa the simplest but perhaps most valuable thing – trust. He could stand on a tee and let it rip, knowing where the ball was going rather than hoping where it might go.
“When these guys play great, that’s all they do – point and shoot and smash it. He’s starting to get that rhythm back. He’s been trying to guide it a little bit but when you’re playing bad, you try to keep it in play and that’s no way to compete,” said Bill Harke, Homa’s new caddie, who was recommended by Jim “Bones” Mackay, Phil Mickelson’s longtime looper.
Study Homa’s stats this season and they tell a discouraging story. He ranks 184th of 185 in strokes gained approach and 176th of 185 in strokes gained total.
It doesn’t feel as bad as the numbers might suggest, Homa said, but it’s a tough puzzle to put together.
“Especially with my wife, she’ll ask me on days at home, like how was today? I’ll say great, and we’ll leave the next day and shoot a zillion. She doesn’t get it,” Homa said.
“It’s hard to explain because I don’t – I can give you the technical version of all of it, but at the end of the day, it is odd. I’ll play some really good practice rounds. Waste Management [Phoenix Open] in particular was probably the best I’ve ever driven the ball in my life, and even in the first round on Thursday, I think I shot 6- or 7-over. It’s just a hard game.”
The numbers are trending the right way again and Friday was further evidence of that. Starting his second round on the 10th hole, Homa made a breakfast birdie to open then made consecutive deuces at the 13th and 14th holes, the second coming at the drivable par-4 when his tee shot stopped within 2 feet of the hole.
“It was not the best shot I ever hit. I was aiming one yard inside the right bunker, so I toed it like the perfect amount,” Homa said.
“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.”
It’s little things like the tee shot on the 14th hole that can turn a good day into a good week. It doesn’t hurt that Homa got his first PGA Tour victory in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow six years ago, helping him feel comfortable in his still rain-soaked surroundings.
The Southern California coolness that comes through with Homa disguises a burning competitiveness. He has watched and listened to athletes in other sports, taking lessons and cues when he can.
Earlier this year, he invoked a line used by Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts – “I’ve had purpose long before anybody had an opinion about it,” Hurts said – and applied it to himself.
“Everyone’s been telling him he’s close for months now. He’s got to tell himself that now. A round like today is a round he’s going to take to heart,” Harke said.