pga tour
Max Homa on opening 63 at John Deere: ‘I didn’t hit one crazy shot today, so that was cool’
David Berding
Max Homa is happy. And even a little surprised. The six-time PGA Tour winner shot an opening eight-under 63 Thursday at the John Deere Classic, the lowest first-round score of his career. He’s tied for second place, one shot behind Doug Ghim.
Yes, that score pleases him. The surprising part?
“I didn’t hit one crazy shot today,” he said. “So that was cool.”
Crazy, as in wild. He hit plenty of crazy shots that were good.
Playing with buddies Rickie Fowler and Jake Knapp, Homa started on the 10th hole at TPC Deere Run and promptly ran off four consecutive birdies on Nos. 11-14. Another on the par-4 18th had him turn at 31. Homa made four more birdies on his closing stretch, but his lone bogey came at the last, the par-4 ninth hole when he drove it right, left his approach on the front, left greenside bunker and failed to get up and down.
Eight of Homa’s birdies came from inside 12 feet. The longest came from 22 feet on the par-3 12th hole.
“I just did everything really solid,” Homa said. “I made a ton of putts. Kept the driver in good spots. Got to take advantage of my iron play, my wedge play.
“So just always for me this season started from the tee, and it was plenty good enough today. The rest of my game I think got to show how it's felt the last few months without any good results. Always feels good to get off to a good start when you're struggling, that's for sure.”
This new mark of 63 topped the 64 he shot in the opening round of the 2023 Genesis Invitational, where he finished second, two shots behind Jon Rahm.
“My sequencing has been off,” Homa said. “Found something to hopefully slow down my legs.
“It's always just been off all season. Hopefully this little change is going to kind of continue to work. But didn't find it until late yesterday afternoon, so I'm in the early days of it. I think I'm in the honeymoon phase for a little while.”
Homa has talked plenty this year about his struggles. His best finish is a 12th-place tie at the Masters but nothing else has been inside the top 25. He’s missed seven cuts, including last week at the Rocket Classic. Homa has dropped from 41st to 99th in the world ranking and is 122nd in FedEx Cup points right now, nowhere close to qualifying for the playoffs.
Earlier this week Homa also discussed in detail about how he doesn’t plan to ever return to Twitter. Once a fan favorite on the platform, for his wit and hilariously roasting bad golf swings, the 34-year-old said that it turned into “a safe haven for a—holes.”
“You get people telling you you should die on the internet,” he said. “It has nothing to do with not connecting. I’d love to keep connecting with people, but I try to do it in person a bit more.”