Max Homa earns his fourth PGA Tour win … Canadians Conners and Hughes pull a switcheroo with their putting and iron play … Good finish for Taylor
After slugging it out with the weather for most of the week, Max Homa went back and forth with Keegan Bradley on Sunday and came away with his fourth PGA Tour victory and second win at the Wells Fargo Championship.
Homa shot a two-under par 68 at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Maryland on a Sunday that saw back-toback two shot swings between the Americans down the stretch. Playing together in the final pairing, the 31-year-old Homa looked set to seal the victory when he birdied the par-4 15th to take a three-shot lead after Bradley made bogey. But the script was flipped on the very next hole when Bradley birdied the 16th and Homa bogeyed.
Homa took a one-stroke lead to the 72nd hole at eight under for the tournament and made par to secure the win and $1.62 million.
“With the weather, how difficult the golf course was, it just felt like, just play golf,” Homa said after the win. “You're going to make bogeys, you're going to make doubles, you're going to mess up. This week more so than others where it's maybe been a little cleaner on Sunday, this one was just hit it, find it, hit it again.”
TPC Potomac saw nearly 50mm of rain on Friday and Saturday.
Bradley bogeyed the final hole to shoot a final round two-over 72 and fall into a three-way for second at sixunder with Matt Fitzpatrick (67) and Cameron Young (66).
“I didn't play my best golf today. It was choppy and then I had a couple good stretches but I had a chance there at the end, so I'm proud of that aspect of it, but I'm pretty bummed,” Bradley said.
It's been three-and-a-half years since Bradley, the 2011 PGA Championship winner, last won on the PGA Tour at the BMW Championship, a win that ended a six year dry spell.
Homa is something of a late bloomer on tour who didn't notch his first win until the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow in 2019 at age 28. Homa has become a fan favourite for his sense of humour on social media and his easy-going nature. After the win on Sunday he spoke about his career-long battle with insecurity despite being a multiple PGA Tour winner.
“I was in Alabama last week with my coach, Mark Blackburn and we put in a lot of good work,” Homa said. “Game's been good and we were just talking most about mental, just being confident. He said, `When are you going to start to believe in yourself?' I said, `Well, I guess maybe today.' So I've just been trying to walk around and fake it a little bit. Honestly, it's funny how that fake it till you make it thing, I started to believe it and I showed up on that first tee very confident today.”
Blackburn has also worked recently with Canadians Adam Hadwin and Mike Weir.
O CANADA
It was opposites day for a couple of Canadian pals on the PGA Tour on Sunday.
Mackenzie Hughes was the top Canadian at the Wells Fargo, shooting a final round bogey-free three-under par 67 to finish tied for ninth at two under for the week. Best known for his great short game, Hughes' three birdies were courtesy of great approach shots that all finished inside five feet from the hole, including an iron to two-feet on the par-3 17th hole. The Dundas, Ont., native hit 14 of 18 greens on Sunday.
Corey Conners looked destined to join Hughes in the top 10 before bogeying three of the final six holes to finish at level par for the week, in a tie for 21st. Best known for his world-class ball-striking, Conners hit just 50% of the greens on Sunday and was under 60% for the week. It was Conners' putting that kept him in contention over the final three rounds, gaining strokes against the field with his flatstick all three days including 2.7 strokes-gained-putting on Friday.
Just when you think you know someone.
CHIP SHOTS
Canadian Nick Taylor bounced back after three consecutive missed cuts to finish T15 this week at oneunder. It's just Taylor's second top-15 finish of the 2021-22 season and his first since the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February where he finished T14 two years after winning the event. Taylor, 34, is the only Canadian of his generation on the PGA Tour with mutliple wins ... Thorbjorn Olesen finished eagle-birdie to win the British Masters on the DP World Tour on Sunday. It's Olesen's first win in nearly four years and his first since he was suspended by the European Tour in 2019 after accusations of sexual assault and intoxication on a plane following a WGC event in Tennessee. He said he had no memory of the event due to alcohol and sleeping pill and was acquitted late last year ... Defending champion Rory McIlroy finished in fifth place at four under in his first start since his Sunday charge to finish runner-up at the Masters. McIlroy's next start will be the PGA Championship in Southern Hills May 19-22. The popular Northern Irishman will defend his 2019 RBC Canadian Open title next month at St. George's Golf and Country Club.