Max Homa on the Wells Fargo Championship earlier this week.
getty photos
“I’ve never been asked that before,” Justin Thomas mentioned at his Tuesday-afternoon press convention on the Wells Fargo Championship, in Charlotte. “That’s a great question.”
Other gamers obtained the question, too. Two extra, to be actual: Xander Schaufelle and Max Homa.
Why do you love golf?
That may sound like a foolish factor to ask such an achieved group of gamers. But, as Thomas rightly famous, it’s not. For one factor, there’s no straightforward out. A easy “yes” or “no” received’t do, nor will a canned reply that golf followers have heard dozens of instances earlier than. For one other factor, the query just isn’t solely private but additionally so optimistic in its framing {that a} participant has no alternative however to dig in and provide a substantive response. Introspection required!
Schauffele, a seven-time Tour winner and Olympic gold medalist, was up first.
In brief, Schauffele mentioned, he loves the number of the sport.
Yes, he acknowledged, there are repetitive parts — “the physios, the range sessions, the coaching, all that stuff feels the same week in and week out; I can see that getting tiresome as you get older,” he mentioned — however on the course each shot is completely different, each swing or stroke a brand new problem.
“Up against a root, you hit a tree, it goes out of bounds, you hit a cart path, you hit it in the bunker, it plugs in the lip,” he mentioned. “You’re playing outside, and there’s so many variables that come into play and it’s an everlasting challenge.”
Thomas, who has 15 Tour wins, together with a pair of main titles, was subsequent.
“I love the individual part of it,” he mentioned. “I like that there’s no one accountable or no one to choose you up or nobody to convey you down aside from your self. I like the truth that you possibly can simply exit and get it. It’s discovering what you could get higher at, it’s the problem of attempting to get higher.
Max Homa isn’t regular. He’s much more attention-grabbing than that
Dylan Dethier
“I just, I love everything about it. There’s nothing better than when you put a lot of hard work in and you start to see it paying off and you get yourself in contention in a big tournament like this or in a major championship and you execute those shots and make those putts and handle that moment like you know you can, and how you’ve been practicing and you pull it off and you’re the one holding the trophy, that’s why I love golf.”
Great stuff, proper? As if it had been ripped from the pages of a movie script.
Thomas’ response was paying homage to the musings of Phil Mickelson, who at a press conference years ago opened up about his personal ardour for the sport: “I love everything about it. I love the challenge internally of just playing against a course and trying to win against a course like Old Man Par Bobby Jones used to talk about. I love the solitude of playing by myself out in the evening or practicing. I love playing with my family and friends and having that camaraderie. I love the competitiveness and the smack talk, friendly games come in play, and I love the tournament competition. I love everything about it.”
See? Good matter!
Finally, it was Homa’s flip.
If you recognize solely a bit one thing about Homa, it’s possible by way of social media, the place he’s as fast to playfully zing one among his follower’s swings and as he’s to take a self-deprecating shot at himself. That jokey persona isn’t actually Homa, although. Or not less than it’s not all of him. When he’s away from his telephone, he’s a thinker, a fierce competitor and an endlessly laborious employee. Those six PGA Tour titles of his, the newest coming at Torrey Pines in January, didn’t simply fall into his lap.
Homa grew up in L.A. and realized the sport from his father, John, who would take younger Max to beat balls on the no-frills double-decker vary at Griffith Park. That basis led Max to a glittering SoCal junior profession that might land him on the University of California-Berkley golf workforce. Today, he lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., together with his spouse Lacey, toddler son Cam and canine Scotty. He loves the Lakers and Dodgers and Tiger Woods.
We offer you this context as a result of when Homa was requested the L-question Tuesday, he went deep. Like, actually deep. And the extra you recognize about Homa, the extra you’ll admire the thoroughness and thoughtfulness of his response.
Max Homa will get known as out for sluggish play. Then he owned it
Jack Hirsh
“I think when I was a kid I truly loved golf,” Homa started. “I’m not so sure I love golf anymore, but I love competing and getting better so much, so golf provides the platform for that. People ask that [question] in a different way a lot, but like golf is a job now. But when I’m home and I think about like last week, like I practiced so much and one of the members at Whisper Rock asked me like on Sunday, he said, you need to take a day off. I told him, I was like it’s not the golf that I miss, but I want to keep getting better at something and this is the thing I’m the best at, so this is what I’m going to work at.”
Homa wasn’t executed.
“I love that golf gives me an avenue to be obsessive over something and dedicate myself towards something. I would say now that back when I was a kid I loved golf because it was a way to hang out with my friends and try to make an eagle or a birdie and then wig out for a few weeks. Now we’ve done so much in the game that sadly an amazing 7-iron doesn’t make me as happy as it used to, which is sad. But I don’t know, I would be obsessed with something else if I didn’t have this. And I’m thankful I have this because I have direction, so I do love that about what golf is giving me at the moment.”
What a solution. Wittingly or not, Homa had delivered a snapshot of his life in 255 phrases. Like a superb nation tune, it had a little bit of all the pieces: reflection, honesty, heartbreak. (That 7-iron line acquired me.) Most essential, the query extracted from Homa one thing golf followers had by no means heard him say. It helped us higher perceive him and his relationship with the sport.
Later in his presser, Homa was requested whether or not he nonetheless feels “a sense romance” in regards to the sport. He does, he mentioned — continuously. As an instance, he cited the feelings he felt as he walked up the 18th fairway within the remaining spherical of the Wells Fargo in 2019, simply moments earlier than he closed out his first Tour victory.
Of course, romance and true love aren’t the identical factor.
“Yeah, it’s not that I don’t love golf at all,” Homa mentioned. “But, you know, it’s not an unconditional love.”
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