AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | Max Homa used the word “fun” repeatedly to describe his Friday at Augusta National.
That adjective wasn’t heard elsewhere among his competitors on a demanding day at the 88th Masters.
Early Friday, Homa completed a Masters personal-best 5-under-par 67 with two birdies on the last three holes of his suspended first round, then gutted out a 1-under-par 71 as wind roared across Augusta National.
At 6-under 138, Homa has injected himself into a spot where he never has been after 36 holes of a major championship: contention.
“It’s been fun. These conditions have helped almost lean into the patience and all the things you hear, the clichés,” said Homa, who was tied with Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau for the lead. “So, I feel like I’ve done a great job of that and then hit some good shots alongside that.
“It’s been quite fun.”
Homa, a 33-year-old Californian and six-time winner on the PGA Tour, has been known to disappear at golf’s biggest annual events. He owns only one top-10 finish – a T-10 at last year’s Open Championship – in 17 previous major starts, including nine missed cuts. That’s a record in the big games that belies his No. 11 world ranking.
Much of Homa’s joy Friday came not only from his rise up the leaderboard but from his position on the tee sheet: paired with Tiger Woods.
Among his earliest childhood memories of the game, Homa recalls watching TV as a 6-year-old while a 21-year-old Woods stormed to a record 12-stroke victory at the 1997 Masters. Fast forward nearly three decades and Homa got to enjoy the Tiger Woods Show close-up in a pairing that included another former major champion, Jason Day.
“It was quite fun today to just observe the crowd and how they react to Tiger and what he does,” said Homa, who said that playing with Woods can be an advantage despite the surging mass of patrons and associated hoopla. “And the crowd doesn’t know you’re there, which is pretty awesome.”
Through two days, at least, so is Homa.
“When I had been out of position, I had done a great job of getting back into it. I made some really good putts to make that look even better. In general, just taking what I get, what the golf course gives me.” –Max Homa
After a quick turnaround from his morning wrap-up of round one, Homa opened the second round with a birdie at the par-5 second. He hit 7-wood into the wind at the brutish 226-yard par-3 fourth and holed a 36-foot putt. A clutch up-and-in par save from 147 yards at the par-4 fifth, after he drove into a fairway bunker, proved to be pivotal, he said.
From there, Homa battled persistent 20-mph winds that gusted into the 40s, creating sandstorms from the bunkers and even affecting putting, with determination. He succeeded where many others failed Friday in stringing together pars and simply hanging on.
“When I had been out of position, I had done a great job of getting back into it,” he said. “I made some really good putts to make that look even better. In general, just taking what I get, what the golf course gives me.”
Homa hit 15 of 18 greens in the second round and avoided Augusta’s greenside bunkers during a steady two-birdie, one-bogey round. Just as key through 36 holes, his mental game appears to be on a par with his physical game.
“Regardless of outcome, I’d like to maintain this outlook I have on how I’m playing golf,” Homa said. “Good shot, bad shot; doesn’t really matter. Did I go through my process? Did I commit to my shot? And once it takes off, I might as well close my eyes. I’d like to see if I can continue to do that this weekend. I think that’s something I would like to take with me going forward.”
Homa hasn’t won on tour in 15 months, dating to the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open. His record at the Masters, as at the other major championships, doesn’t scream breakthrough: two missed cuts followed by a T-48 and a T-43 in the past four years. But he has shown good form on the road to Augusta, with three top-25s in his past four starts, including a T-25 at last week’s Valero Texas Open.
And during the first two days at Augusta, he enjoyed a playing lesson of perseverance from the game’s grand master: Woods.
In the past year, Homa started writing in a journal, choosing inspirational messages to himself: “five or six things I’m grateful for – usually people, sometimes opportunity,” he said. “I’ll be quite grateful to play Saturday at the Masters.”
And perhaps even record a lifelong major-championship memory while draped in green.