Max Homa’s last two seasons have been disappointing, to say the least. He’ll hope to turn that around at The Masters.
The former world number five has not won any PGA Tour event since the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open.
He’s tumbled all the way down to 81st in the rankings and was only invited to The Masters because of his unlikely 3rd place last year.
But that isn’t the only glimmer of hope for Homa at Augusta National this week, despite five straight missed cuts.
Max Homa shoots amazing score on front nine at Augusta National
Homa revealed before The Masters starts on Thursday that he played an unbelievable practice round.
The American said that he was seven under par in just nine holes at Augusta, which would be hard to believe for Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy.
It seems unlikely that Homa could put in such an incredible display, but his talent has never been in question, and he seems to be trending in the right direction.
He said: “The swing changes are complicated to explain because people think I’m crazy. I think my wife thinks I’m nuts. But it feels incredible. It has felt better and better every week.
“There are little things in tournaments that I don’t trust. I have new misses, and golf is the cliche that it’s a game of misses. Typically, I always miss the ball right my whole career and now it has been less of that. But I have this subconscious fear of right. So it’s trying to get comfy.
“But I just played the front nine at Augusta about three hours ago and had the craziest day ever. I shot seven under in nine holes. So I know it’s in there. But I have been doing that a decent amount in practice, like last week, my practice Monday to Wednesday was a joke and then I go out there and I’m four over through four in the tournament when it matters.
“All that said, it does feel good, but obviously, it’s got to show up when it actually matters at some point! But it’s not through a lack of effort and I don’t mind talking about it and being vulnerable because I do know that some people like to play it cool and avoid it. But I do think that you owe stuff to the fans at times and I have been really lucky to have some pretty awesome support from everybody. So it doesn’t hurt me to talk about what I’m going through. I know I’m trying my a– off to not suck.
“At some point, hopefully, this flips around, hopefully this week. I didn’t necessarily prove that I could win this tournament but I sure as s—- can get third! And third sounds okay right now.”
Max Homa says he feels more confident before The Masters this week than last year
Homa was also in a difficult place with his golf game last year, yet only Scheffler and Ludvig Aberg finished above him.
That suggests that he’s well-suited to the golf course, which, alongside his behind-the-scenes improvement, should give him confidence ahead of the tournament.
There would be few more popular winners of the Green Jacket than Homa if he were to pull it off.
“That was the whole thing last year,” he added. “Pretty much after Augusta, right after May, every week my practice wasn’t very good. I wasn’t playing well at home, and it felt like when I got to the start of the round on Thursday, I was… if it didn’t go well, I kind of knew that it wasn’t going to. I just didn’t really feel good about it. I could piece some things together here and there, but it wasn’t good.
“Then kind of early this year, like the middle of January, it felt similar. It was just… it didn’t feel great. It clicked at the Waste Management in Phoenix. I grasp this all sounds crazy because I have missed all of these cuts since, but I started to feel good, and when I was home, it felt good, and some practice rounds were really good.
“Definitely haven’t felt like that. It’s more frustrating I guess, because when I do go to Thursday I am super jazzed to play and then I make bogey at the first few and I’m in the same exact spot but I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I just think the tunnel is really, really long. Way too long.”
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