What Max Homa told his coach the night before his opening round 68 at the Memorial tournament

Add as preferred source on Google

Max Homa got off to a great start at the Memorial Tournament on Thursday, with a fine round of four-under-par 68.

Homa has been in the golfing doldrums for quite some time now, but his work ethic has never let up.

After playing a practice round at Muirfield Village, Homa said he was surprised by the thickness of the rough at the Memorial Tournament.

And with that in mind, the fact that he hit 10 out of 14 fairways during his opening round obviously played a key role in his score of 68.

The 34-year-old currently sits three shots adrift of first-round leader Ben Griffin.

Homa will be feeling great after day one at Jack’s Place. Now the Californian will be very keen to show some consistency and back up his opening round with another solid showing on Friday.

Max Homa reveals what he told his coach before day one at the Memorial Tournament

Homa has been working incredibly hard to get back to somewhere near his best over the past nine months or so.

There have been a few green shoots recently, notably his second round 64 at the PGA Championship two weeks ago.

However, there have been more setbacks than steps forward for the six-time PGA Tour winner.

So Thursday’s round of 68 at Muirfield Village would have been extremely welcome for Homa.

He spoke to reporters after his opening round and opened up on how good he’s swinging the club right now.

He said, “I’ve been trying not to worry so much about justifying it, but it does feel nice to — you know, I told my coach last night, this is the best my swing has felt in a really long time. Then the whole game kind of felt like that. So I just pointed it out, and I guess I didn’t need it to, I didn’t need to shoot a low number to validate that, but I just, it just feels nice. Because it really does — I was texting him, We weren’t BS’ing about it, it just felt good, looked good, felt like I could hit the shots I wanted to hit. So, yeah, I guess it’s not a justification, I guess, but you still want to get something out of it when it feels that good. Because this game, I mean, there’s so few chances for most of us to play a stellar round of golf, so you would like it when it feels good to go out there and actually post a number.“

The American then responded when asked how long it has been since he felt ‘at peace’ with his swing.

Homa said, “Probably a while. I think that run at the playoffs right before the Ryder Cup, it just felt like I could do a lot with the golf ball. Then kind of since then it was, I just felt like I was always fighting something. Then it just starts to get tiring. So I feel like, yeah, maybe a little bit at the PGA, a lot more at Philly Cricket, and then the most here of just — it just felt like I could go out there and see what I wanted to do. And I didn’t always have to hit the hardest shot, I knew that there was a shot I had up my sleeve that was going to feel easy and predictable. So it’s been a while.“

Max Homa’s 2024 vs 2025 PGA Tour stats

Homa has been a shadow of his former self in 2025.

But has he actually been that much worse this year than he was last season?

The numbers suggest that the answer to that question is no.

It’s clear to see from those numbers that Homa’s decline began last year.

And he deserves huge credit for the way in which he has continued to work hard off the course in an attempt to rediscover his best form.

Hopefully Homa wins again soon because he more than deserves some success after the hard yards he has put in.