BLAINE, Minn. – Max Homa is having trouble compartmentalizing things.
Sitting at No. 102 in the FedEx Cup season-long standings, he needs to play in the final two PGA Tour regular-season events and play like the Homa of old. But he and his wife are expecting their second child in a couple of weeks and the pull to be home at a very special time is real.
“It’s a little extra stressful, but I think the only way that you can go out and win a golf tournament is by not exactly trying to win a golf tournament. So it’s a weird headspace,” he said. “But I know what I need to do, I need to play unbelievable.”
Homa has struggled for most of the season, which is why he finds himself in this awkward spot in the first place. He finished T-5 two weeks ago at the John Deere, his first top-10 finish of the season, and earned a few FedEx points last week for a T-45 finish at the Barracuda Championship. On Thursday, he got off to a solid start at the 3M, carding a 5-under 66 but still trailed the leader, Adam Svensson, by six strokes.
“I played awesome, probably the worst I could have shot. Hit it so well. Rolled it fine, just couldn’t really make a lot of putts. It was nice to lip one in on the last,” he said.
Homa would like to keep lipping in putts and notch his seventh career Tour win so he can go home to Arizona to be with his wife and help with his young son, Cam. But the harsh reality is that only the top 70 qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs and he’s currently on the outside looking in. Which means he’ll likely be across the country next week in Greensboro, N.C., at the Wyndham Championship, the final regular-season event. Might as well go down swinging.
“My wife told me to play,” said Homa. “Yeah, just every day I finish a day of golf, I look at my phone and see if I’m flying home, so, we’ll see. It’s a good problem to have.”
At last week’s event, he shared that he had checked his phone and found two missed calls from his wife and nearly lost his mind.
“Fortunately, my game’s felt awesome the last month or so, so yeah, just got to, I don’t know, I don’t know how you just make yourself win. I’m just trying to keep doing what I’m doing and see what happens on a Sunday,” he said.
“Dude, I’m freaking out. I’m ready to have the baby and then get settled,” Homa said last week. “I know it’ll be chaos, but I want to make sure I’m there.”
Read the full article here
