Steady Max Homa wins Wells Fargo Championship

POTOMAC, Md. – John Maxwell Homa was a student-athlete at Cal-Berkeley when he was asked to answer one of those boilerplate questions that make up a player bio.

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What was the best advice he had ever received?

“Take a deep breath,” Homa answered, “and slow down.”

If ever there were a week when that applied, it was at the Wells Fargo Championship at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, where umbrellas were tested, shoes wrecked, and teeth gnashed.

Heeding his favorite advice, and a tattoo on his arm inscribed “RELENTLESS,” Homa never flinched in the conditions and shot a final-round 68 for an 8-under total and his fourth PGA TOUR victory, by two over Keegan Bradley (72), Cameron Young (66) and Matt Fitzpatrick (67).

Homa moves to sixth in the FedExCup with his second win this season (Fortinet Championship).

Did he know to pack for a week that was more Iditarod than Ibiza?

“Yeah, I fortunately always pack my rain stuff,” said Homa, who began the day two behind Bradley but took control with a four-shot swing on the first four holes. “I very fortunately packed a good attitude, because I think that was almost more important than what I was wearing.

“Today, fortunately my wife texted my agent, Matt, that I'm a terrible packer,” he continued, “and he sent me a little care package of a beanie and some gloves and some hand warmers, which I didn't end up using too much, but it was nice to know I had that in my back pocket.”

The Nor’easter that defined this tournament finally began to break up late Sunday.

Homa made his own weather.

“Historically, when he gets in contention, I always say he’s quite stoic,” said Mark Blackburn, Homa’s coach and the Director of Instruction at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. “He’s ice-cold; you’d never know what’s going through his mind.”

Homa is admittedly a streaky putter, but with help from Blackburn and putting guru Phil Kenyon, as well as AimPoint green-reading, he was fourth in Strokes Gained: Putting at TPC Potomac.

The course was a fill-in for Quail Hollow, which will host the Presidents Cup in the fall.

“I care about nothing more than making that Presidents Cup team,” Homa said. “I'm really hoping Captain Davis Love III was watching today or at least somebody messaged him about it.”

If anything, Homa added, TPC Potomac fit his driving game even better than Quail Hollow.

“The golf course was great for him,” added Homa’s caddie Joe Greiner. “I knew it when we got here Monday. The harder it is, the better it is for him, and he played unreal.”

Bradley fought his game but hung tough, staying close until a bogey at the last.

“It was choppy,” he said after falling to 0-for-4 with the 54-hole lead/co-lead, finishing runner-up all four times. “And then I had a couple good stretches, but I had a chance there at the end, so I'm proud of that aspect of it. But I'm pretty bummed. I felt pretty good about this one.”

The winner of this tournament was always going to have a story to tell, given the horrendous conditions in the second and third rounds. Bradley shot 65-67 in those rounds, Homa 66-71.

Said Stewart Cink (65, T9), “It was nonstop rain for two straight days. Every shot. The umbrella was up for 27 of 36 holes, and the other nine it was just because we said, ‘Forget it, who cares? Let’s just get wet.’ It just became such an annoying part of our dance, we got rid of it.

“It was hard on the caddies,” Cink continued. “Hard on the players, hard on the volunteers, and the staff that kept this course going was just amazing. This thing held up.”

Homa was ready to shine even if the sun wasn’t. He went to Birmingham to see Blackburn last week. They worked on the short game, as well as data collection using 3D motion capture technology.

“He was swinging so well,” Blackburn said, “it was more giving him affirmation of just how good it was. It’s a situation now of him starting to fully believe in himself. I’ve been saying for a while now that he’s a top-10 player in the world. The tougher the conditions, the better he is.”

The next step for Homa is contending in majors, which he knows will require a new level of self-belief.

“All of a sudden last year I get in the top 50 in the world,” he said, “and you start looking around and it's a new crop of people and you start thinking to yourself, ‘Am I as good as these guys?’ And then I want to be top-10 in the world, play Presidents Cups, play Ryder Cups.

“Am I good enough to do that?” he continued. “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.”

Relentless, relentlessly upbeat, and on the upswing, Max Homa is now a Wells Fargo Championship winner two times over.

It looks like he’ll be making it back to Quail Hollow this season, after all.