A joyous final day
Homa makes good his rare Sunday show to win RM5.9mil
CHARLOTTE: Max Homa traded in a shovel for a ladder to get to places he always thought he could reach.
Two years ago in his second try on the PGA Tour, he made only two cuts the entire season and played only one round on a Sunday. Eight months ago, he was on the verge of going back to Q-school and an uncertain future until closing with four straight birdies to make the cut in a Web.com Tour event that gave him another shot at the big leagues.
It made Sunday all that much sweeter in the Wells Fargo Championship.
In a three-way tie for the lead, in the final group on the PGA Tour for the first time, with Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia right behind him, Homa outplayed them all with a four-under 67 for a threeshot victory at Quail Hollow and his first PGA Tour title.
“I used to say when I hit rock bottom I would find a shovel and kept digging. I went to some low, low places. I realised in that year or two when I started to play bad that my attitude was going to have to get a lot better . ... I’m very proud I finally found a ladder and started climbing, because it was getting dark down there,” said Homa.
Suddenly, the immediate future is bright as can be.
He has a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour, a tee time at the PGA Championship in two weeks at Bethpage Black and a spot in the US Masters next year.
A former NCAA champion at Cal, Homa has “Relentless” in block letters tattooed on his right forearm. The 28-year-old Californian also has a signed photo from former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who once told him to look at the picture and be reminded to believe in himself.
The trophy at his side, Homa’s press conference was interrupted for him to take a call from the 91-year-old Lasorda.
“I guess my whole world is different,” he said.
Golf felt so hard for Homa for so many years after he left Cal, and then he made it look so easy in a final round that made him so nervous he wanted to throw up, except when he had his hands on a golf club. He pulled away with two birdies to start the back nine for a fourshot lead. He didn’t make a bogey until it only affected the final margin. But it was a one-hour rain delay that tested Homa the most.
He was leading by three when he nearly went in the water on the 14th hole and chipped up to six feet when the horn sounded to stop play. With time he didn’t need on his hands, he called his fiancee and his coach and can’t remember what either of them said.
And then he returned and buried the putt.
“I knew in the back of my mind if I made that putt, I win this golf tournament,” he said.
Joel Dahmen, who pushed Homa as hard as any Major champion, saved par with a tough chip over the creek for a 70 and finished three shots behind.
“I didn’t beat myself today, which was kind of the goal,” Dahmen said.
“Max is playing awesome. He’s a good friend. I think we’re going to celebrate tonight.”
Homa effectively sealed it with a perfect play to the green on the parfive 15th for a two-putt birdie, and a 10-foot par putt on the 17th to keep a three-shot leading playing the tough closing hole at Quail Hollow. He made a 10-foot par there, too, and the celebration was on. Homa finished at 15-under 269. “Over the moon, man,” he said before going to sign his card.
“It means a lot to do it under pressure, and job security is great. I haven’t had that.”
The victory was worth US$1,422,000 (RM5.9mil), about US$454,000 (RM1.8mil) more than he had made in his previous 67 starts.
Justin Rose (68) finished alone in third and moved ahead of Brooks Koepka to No. 2 in the world.
Rory McIlroy was primed to join Tom Weiskopf as the only three-time winners at Quail Hollow, starting the final round two shots behind. He never got anything going until it went the wrong way. He turned a 20-foot eagle attempt into a three-putt par on the par-five seventh, failed to get up-and-down on the reachable eighth for a birdie, and then went bogey-double bogey around the turn to take himself out of the mix. — AP