CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Over the past 10 months, Max Houma has changed pretty much everything he can about golf life.
As he walks the fairway at the Quazul Hollow Country Club this week, he is the venue that won the Wells Fargo Invitational in 2019. His new caddy, Bill Haake, is carrying a bag full of brand new golf clubs after Homa switched equipment and apparel sponsorships in the offseason. Homa also traded swing coaches and went from Mark Blackburn to John Scott Rattan.
“I don’t advise switching between your club and coach at the same time, or making your golf swing,” Homa said Friday. “But I did that.”
All these changes coincide with one of the worst stretches of HOMA’s career. Since he finished 8th in Master last year, Homa has missed five straight cuts this season and has been looking for a swing that can bring him back.
“I’ve hit a lot of golf balls over the past seven months, like the absurd amount of golf balls,” Homa said. “It was tough. Sometimes I feel like I was playing with a foreign swing.”
Through it, Homa has asserted that he is playing better than his score reflects, and in the second round of the PGA Championship on Friday, Homa found his best round since his lowest round in the 2023 BMW Championship and Major, shooting a 7-under 64 for the fight.
This doesn’t come out completely out of nowhere. Homa looked comfortable at Augusta again this year. He finished in a tie in 12th place, but followed up by beating only one golfer on the RBC Heritage’s 70-man field. At last week’s Truist Championship, Homa said he played as good as he remembered recently, finishing with a 30th tie.
“It was difficult because I felt so broken,” Homa said. “(My wife) says, ‘How was it today?’ and “Great.” I’ll leave the next day.
According to HOMA, the breakthrough was not just a single revision, but a combination of things and a commitment to the process. First, he decides to tell Rattan how his swing “feels”; This featured two victories similar to his old swing from the 2022-23 season. HOMA then worked with his new equipment sponsor Cobra to help set up drivers that would fit better on the swing. In short, the updated driver is set up to move left, and Homa swings the fade freely, swings faster, giving it a few miles of ball speed.
“It was fast, but something was stuck on the golf swing or I was stuck on the golf swing, so I couldn’t let it go,” Homa said. “All of a sudden, a lot of things clicked. I didn’t feel like I was fighting anything, so I think it jumped my speed.”
It appeared to be a perfect blend of Friday as Homa fired. Thanks to four birdies and me, I drove the 14th green on par 4 and shot 30 for 9 after leaving a tap-in. When he finished the round he jumped 70 spots to third place, and he led the field with the strokes: driving on the day, third overall in the tournament.
As he stepped down hole 18 and walked towards the scoring area, Homa showed something he couldn’t show after a competitive round for a while: a smile.
“When you’re in your rut, you had to go through that point first? “So it’s like everyone tells him he’s been getting closer for months now, and he has to say it to himself.
It remains to be seen whether HOMA will be able to repeat Friday’s performance. He has been feeling the natural volatility of the game these days more than most people, and knows that a feeling-good swing doesn’t automatically lead to a good score.
But for a player who said Golf “didn’t like him” three months ago, a round like Friday is not a welcome development, but also a verification of the work he has done.
“I knew I would come here and waggle cleanly because I was starting to feel really good,” Homa said. “I just had to find comfort. This place does it for me.”
