There is an argument that no player should be giving Jim Furyk more of a headache as he prepares to make his captain’s picks ahead of the Presidents Cup than Max Homa.
On recent form, there are going to be plenty of fans who implore Jim Furyk to overlook Max Homa ahead of the Presidents Cup. Homa has not had a top 10 on the PGA Tour since the Wells Fargo Championship back in May, while he was unable to make The Tour Championship.
Homa now sits 12th in the qualification standings ahead of Royal Montreal, but there are the likes of Akshay Bhatia, Billy Horschel and Justin Thomas below him in the standings, which may not do his cause many favours at all.
Having said all that, Homa’s record in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup has to be taken into consideration, with Homa winning four points at Quail Hollow two years ago. Meanwhile, he was, by far, America’s top points scorer in Rome last year, with Rory McIlroy the only player on either side to win more than the 33-year-old.
What Jim Furyk has been told to tell Max Homa ahead of Presidents Cup
Of course, no player can do more out on the course to prove themselves to Furyk following The Tour Championship. But speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman believes that Furyk should offer Homa the chance to force his way into the team ahead of the Procore Championship.
“If I were Jim Furyk, I’d say, ‘hey Max, I’m going to pick you for this team, but the only way that you will be on the team is you have to play in Napa’. It’s a tournament that he’s played most years, but he’s not playing this year because Fortinet’s not the sponsor anymore,” he said.
“I would say, ‘hey, you’re either playing that event or you’re not, and if you don’t play, you’re not on the team’. And to me, for guys you feel need the reps, that’s the way I would approach it if I was Jim Furyk, the captain. Scottie Scheffler doesn’t need the reps, but Max Homa, on the other hand, we need to see more driver reps.
“If you go look at his stats at the BMW, it’s obviously the off the tee stuff is where he’s been struggling, just with a couple of bad drives a round. He hits plenty of good ones, but he hits a couple wayward ones when you’ve got out of bounds that tight like you did at the BMW, some loose shots get penalised. Royal Montreal, not as much from what I understand. But let’s look past the driver, at one point, he was losing 11 strokes off the tee but he was first in approach game, so in this format, you’re able to hide a little bit.”
A real gamble from the American captain
Of course, the issue for Furyk would be if he gave Homa a place on the team in such terms and then it became apparent that his game was not in the right place in California. That would surely do Homa’s confidence no good at all, particularly as someone else will have obviously missed out on the call to make the team.
However, as Kaufman notes, Homa has good memories at Silverado, having won the event on two occasions in the past.
Confidence is arguably nearly as important as form in a match play event, as players are able to leave a bad hole or two behind them completely. So if Homa is able to restore some of that belief, it could prove to be an inspired decision.
But it would certainly be a gamble from Furyk to make a pick in that fashion.
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