The Sentinel-Record

Homa steady in Sunday duel, gets 4th tour win at Wells Fargo

- BEN NUCKOLS

POTOMAC, Md. — 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 31-yearold 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.

“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, California, 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, North Carolina. 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.-versus-Internatio­nal 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 par4 eighth before Homa finally took command for good on the back nine.

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