If Max Homa introduced himself to golf fans with his social-media humor a few years ago, it’s his game that’s made him a familiar face now.
In other words, Homa is no joke.
Though he does have an entertaining perspective on the world and the game he plays, Homa has emerged as a force on the PGA Tour, having won three times in the past 15 months after edging Keegan Bradley, Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young by two strokes in the Wells Fargo Championship at TPC Potomac on Sunday.
Three years ago, Homa got his first tour victory at the Wells Fargo Championship. Now he has four wins and has positioned himself to be in the mix for the U.S. Presidents Cup team in September at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Homa got his breakthrough win.
“I’m starting to believe in myself. That’s all I can ask,” said Homa, who had a three-stroke lead with a wedge in his hand in the 16th fairway, only to see it melt to one stroke on the final tee.
Homa, who won the 2021 Genesis Invitational and started this wraparound season with a victory in the Fortinet Championship, adopted a new putting routine at the Masters where he began working with instructor Phil Kenyon, who persuaded Homa to use AimPoint on the greens. On the final nine holes Sunday, Homa holed a series of key putts to hold off Bradley.
In 2015, Homa lost his PGA Tour privileges and questioned whether he was good enough to play at the highest level. It’s all different now.
“Obviously winning helps confidence,” Homa said. “It doesn’t feel super foreign. In general, I’ve just been kind of leaning on how well I’ve been playing the last six, seven months.
“(My) game feels really good, so I’ve just been trying to approach each round and go out there and play like I’ve been playing over the course of four days or a season.”
Rory McIlroy, who finished fifth while trying to win his fourth Wells Fargo Championship, has watched Homa’s evolution.
“When you look at him play, you think he should have done better than he has,” McIlroy said. “That’s sort of how he looks, how he swings it, his whole demeanor.
“Sometimes it takes a guy a little bit longer to figure their games out and, I guess, live up to their potential, but he definitely seems to have come into his own over the last couple of years."
Because the Presidents Cup will be played at Quail Hollow Club in September, the Wells Fargo Championship made a one-off visit to TPC Potomac, and a challenging course was made more difficult by rainy, breezy, chilly conditions. The calendar may have said springtime, but the real-feel temperature outside Washington, D.C., said otherwise.
Homa was also aware that Sunday was Mother’s Day, just 12 days after he and his wife, Lacey, announced they are expecting their first child in November. It only added to the moment on Sunday.
“Perspective was running rampant today,” Homa said. “I feel like life’s good. I have a good life, and I’m playing some good golf.”
Ron Green Jr.