A look at Max Homa’s #dadlife wedge stampings

The Farmers Insurance Open was Max Homa’s sixth PGA TOUR victory. And his first as a father.

The change in a player’s outlook after the birth of his first child is such a common storyline that it also has become fodder for jokes on social media. Homa has joined in the fun by adding #perspective to some of his posts about fatherhood.

Jokes aside, the presence of his wife and son made Saturday’s victory at Torrey Pines an emotional one for Homa. He spoke after the win about his wife’s difficult labor, his gratitude for her hard work as a mother and his enjoyment of even the dirty side of parenting (aka diapers). Homa also has his son’s name stamped on all four of his Vokey wedges. Homa may be one of the most popular players in the game, the FedExCup leader and the 13th-ranked player in the world, but he’s also known as “Cam’s dad,” which is stamped on all four of his wedges.

“I work hard at two things now, so it feels a little bit more difficult but it's a million times more rewarding,” Homa said Saturday evening. “To see them behind the 18th green knowing I was probably about to win a golf tournament was cool. … This will be my corny dad story that I will tell every Thanksgiving or something.”

Wedges are an important part of any TOUR player’s bag, and have to be personalized to match the player’s preferences and swing, as well as the conditions he faces. Homa uses four Vokey Design SM9 wedges: the 46.10F, 50.12F, 56.14F and 60.04L models. The numbers to the left of the decimal point are the loft, while the numbers to the right represent the bounce. The letter represents the grind. Vokey’s Tour Rep, Aaron Dill, added the “Cam’s Dad” stamping before delivering the fresh set of wedges to Homa at Torrey Pines.

Dill explained how Homa landed on his current wedge configuration, including a high-bounce sand wedge and low-bounce lob wedge:

“When you ask guys the question, ‘Why do you have this grind and this much bounce?’ a lot of times they’ll say, ‘I don’t know. It’s just kind of what I’ve always played.’ So spending some time with him, and digging a little deeper into how to build his set makeup, we realized that he was a little limited in the types of shots he could hit, especially greenside,” Dill said. “I gave him an option that was a little bit less bounce, and he began to realize that ‘Oh my gosh, some of the shots that I was afraid to hit, I can hit those again.’ By taking some of that bounce away and giving him the thinner sole of the L grind, he can now fearlessly go to any shot that he’s facing and obviously pull off some miraculous ones.

“Max has a high bounce sand wedge (56.14F) and low bounce lob wedge (60.04L), and that combination gives him the ability to hit anything he wants. He was playing an M grind in the 60 before and he just had a little too much width. … When you have a lot of sole width, it can be tricky to (open the face). So by giving him a little bit thinner sole, he can open it up. It sits nice and close, and he can just freely do the things that he needs to do.

“I think when you look at the correlation between the types of players who use an M Grind on the PGA TOUR, they’re a little steeper. Max is a very shallow player. He’s very good at hitting low and high shots. But I think for him being a shallow guy, he doesn’t have to be too fearful about sticking into the ground. So he and (his coach) Mark Blackburn have done a terrific job of dialing in his short game and keeping him out of that style of shot so he can play a low bounce wedge and not have any discomfort with it.”

Having the correct wedge setup helped Cameron’s dad win another PGA TOUR title, and change diapers with an even bigger smile on his face.

“These tournaments are hard, man, but it puts you in the best mood ever when you come out on top,” he said. “He can poop away and I'll just be here for him.”

Perspective, indeed.