Max Homa switches into prototype 2-wood ahead of PGA Championship

Max Homa is a six-time career winner on the PGA TOUR, but he’s still searching for his first major championship victory as he heads into the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club at Louisville, Kentucky.

Maybe adding a new weapon off the tee is exactly what he needs to break through.

So far in 2024, Homa has logged three top-10 finishes, with two of his top-10s coming at the Masters (T3) and the Wells Fargo Championship (T8).

His game is trending upwards, and he also added a new Titleist TSR 2-wood prototype club to his bag at the Wells Fargo Championship, which is helping him shape the ball off the tee better than ever.

Titleist’s new 2-wood prototype first popped up on the TOUR at the 2024 PLAYERS Championship, in the bag of Cameron Young, who had been working with Titleist on the design since 2023.

Here's what Titleist Tour fitter J.J. Van Wezenbeeck had to say about the design back at THE PLAYERS Championship:

“(Young) was looking for a certain ball speed and yardage gap from his driver," Van Wezenbeeck said. "One of the things for him with the 3-wood is he wanted something with a little more volume that he felt more confident off the tee with, so he was looking for a little bigger footprint and something that was a little bit more penetrating than some of the 3-woods he’s played in the past. This will be a club he’ll hit 90 percent off the tee, versus the ground, so for the golf courses that set up for that, that’s what he’s looking for … this may or may not ever come to retail. It’s a chance for us to learn and put it in future products that may not be exactly this.”

Since the initial unveiling of the product at THE PLAYERS Championship, fellow PGA TOUR players such as Homa, Webb Simpson and Justin Thomas have also taken notice.

Simpson elaborated on the 2-wood design while speaking with GolfWRX.com at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship: “It has grooves like a 3-wood, spin is perfect, and it’s honestly, like, everything is in the middle of a 3-wood and driver number. Trajectory, spin, carry, all of it.”

“[The new 2-wood) helps me draw it a little bit better,” Homa told GolfWRX.com on Monday at the 2024 PGA Championship. “I don’t draw the ball well, so left-to-right winds it’s quite helpful.”

Now, according to Van Wezenbeeck, Homa has two different options off the tee: A flat-trajectory cut shot with his TSR3 driver, and a “spinny draw” with his new TSR 2-wood, which flies farther than his former 3-wood.

Heading into the 2024 PGA Championship, Homa is ranked just 106th on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, and 88th in Driving Accuracy percentage.

At the 7,609-yard, par-71 Valhalla layout, where driving the ball long and straight is essential, the 2-wood is a welcome addition, and just might be his major answer.