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Mark Schlabach
LA JOLLA, Calif. — For the first time in months at last week’s WM Phoenix Open, PGA Tour golfer Max Homa finally felt comfortable holding a driver in his hands.
During the first two rounds, Homa’s drives were mostly straighter and landed in the middle of the fairways at TPC Scottsdale. On the difficult 11th hole in the first round, Homa had his highest ball speed, a sign that he had freedom in his swing again.
“That’s what’s so odd about last week is that is the best I swung the golf club in like, this is going to sound crazy, but potentially ever,” Homa said.
Somehow, Homa carded 76-69 in the first two rounds and missed the 36-hole cut by five strokes.
“Golf does not like me at the moment, I’ve noticed that,” Homa said.
That’s where the six-time PGA Tour winner finds himself heading into this week’s Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines. Once ranked No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking and one of the more popular golfers on social media, Homa is searching for any kind of silver lining that his form is turning around.
Homa has been mired in a brutal slump since tying for third at the Masters in April 2024 and has fallen to 60th in the world.
“I know I’m getting better even if it looks like I’m getting worse,” Homa said during a news conference Tuesday. “I think I know what I’m doing is right. It’s very difficult to continue to see bad [results], but last week I actually hit the ball incredible, and I missed the cut by five.”
Homa has changed just about everything after failing to win on tour last season for the first time since 2020. In 2024, he had three top-10s in 22 starts and failed to advance to the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
Homa, 34, parted ways with longtime swing coach Mark Blackburn and brought in John Scott Rattan, director of instruction at Congressional Country Club in Potomac, Maryland. After more than a decade of using Titleist clubs, Homa also switched to Cobra Puma Golf during the offseason.
So far, the results haven’t been much better, at least in terms of scoring. After tying for 26th at 19 under at The Sentry in Hawaii, he withdrew following a 5-over 77 in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Then Homa tied for 53rd at 6 under at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Homa ranks 149th on tour in strokes gained: total (-.889), 177th in approach (-1.209) and 120th in putting (-.203).
“I think I know what I’m capable of,” Homa said. “Secondly, I know that I am quite tough when it comes to this stuff. I’ve gone through this much worse before where the results weren’t coming.”
Following the 2015 season, Homa lost his PGA Tour card and had to return to the Web.com Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour). After earning his card back, he made only two cuts in 17 starts in 2017 and made $18,008. He was ranked outside the top 1,000 in the world.
After missing the cut in Phoenix this past weekend, Homa found inspiration from something Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts said about his journey from losing his starting job at Alabama, transferring to Oklahoma, and then winning MVP honors in a 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday.
“I had a purpose before everybody had an opinion,” Hurts once said. “It’s not about anybody else.”
“It stuck with me,” Homa said. “I don’t know how I never heard that, but like two days ago I did, and it just made me realize, like, however the score is looking to those, like, outward, like, last week would never make sense to anybody unless you’re part of, like, my tiny little thing, you would never think that we made progress.
“It would look like another kind of red X on the year. I think that that’s going to be, like, a major steppingstone and something we’ll all look back on.”