HOMA PROVING HE BELONGS WITH BEST
Max Homa kept hearing from his coach, caddie and other supporters that he needed to carry himself with more confidence, an attitude befitting a multiple PGA Tour winner.
With his fourth win overall, third in 15 months and second since he gave up his popular podcast to focus on his career and mental health, the 31year-old is starting to believe.
Homa played solid, steady golf during a week of cold, wet conditions and a back-andforth Sunday duel with Keegan Bradley, closing with a 2-under 68 for a two-shot victory in the Wells Fargo Championship in Potomac, Md.
“All of a sudden last year I get in the top 50 in the world and you start looking around and it’s a new crop of people and you start thinking to myself, ‘Am I as good as these guys?’ ” Homa said. “So I’ve always struggled with it, but I have great people around me who bash me over the head telling me that I am that guy. I tried to walk around this week believing that and faking it a little bit until I made it.”
With his win last September in Napa, Homa joins Scottie Scheffler (four), Hideki Matsuyama (two), Sam Burns (two) and Cameron Smith (two) as multiple winners on tour this season. He has yet to
contend in a major, but his next chance comes in his next start, the PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
He also moves to sixth in the Presidents Cup standings, meaning he’s in position to earn a return visit this September to the Wells Fargo’s usual home, Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C. Homa got his first career win in 2019 at Quail Hollow, which took the year off as Wells Fargo host while it prepares for the U.S.-versusInternational team competition.
“I care about nothing more than making that Presidents Cup team, so I really hope captain Davis Love III was watching
today,” he said.
TPC Potomac, which last hosted the tour in 2018, held up well despite torrential rain on Friday and Saturday and unseasonably cold temperatures most of the week.
Bradley started the day with a two-shot lead, gave it away on the par-5 second hole and got it back on the par-4 eighth before Homa finally took command for good on the back nine. A bogey on the closing hole gave Bradley a 2-over 72 and a tie for second with Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick.
Bradley led the field in putting under the PGA Tour’s “strokes gained” metric, a welcome change for a player who’s struggled on the greens for nearly a decade.
“It’s the best it’s been since I’ve had the belly putter and it’s not even close,” he said.
Homa played conservatively Saturday, the toughest scoring day of the week, but was aggressive right away Sunday while keeping his umbrella stowed in his golf bag for the first time since the opening round.
He twirled his 7-iron as he watched his approach on the par-4 first hole settle 8 feet from the hole. A lob wedge to 8 feet on the par-4 fifth was good for another birdie, and a 7-iron inside 10 feet on the par-3 ninth allowed him to turn in 34, 2 under for the day and tied with Bradley, who steadied himself after a nervy start.
Elsewhere
Thorbjorn Olesen finished eagle-birdie for the second straight day for a one-shot victory over Sebastian Soderberg in the British Masters at Sutton Coldfield, England, his first European tour title in nearly four years.
Steve Flesch rallied from four shots behind with a 7under 65 for a one-shot victory over David Toms, who missed two 6-foot putts on the back nine, in the Mitsubishi Electric Classic, his second title at the TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Ga.