For the first time in a long time, Max Homa heads to the final round solidly in contention for a PGA Tour title. The John Deere Classic has a jam-packed leaderboard, so it’s somewhat silly to single out one guy and wonder what the ramifications would be if he were to win. But we’re here to exactly that, because the golfer in question is Max Homa, who stacked up wins, fans and U.S. match-play points for several years before entering more turbulent waters this last year and a half. So we’re here to dream alongside his fans and ask this of a potential victory:
What would it mean?
Let’s start with Homa. What does he think a victory would mean, should he chase down 54-hole leader Davis Thompson and hold off the rest of the Midwest?
“It would be awesome,” he said post-round on Saturday. But he quickly added this: “I don’t really use results to determine how I look at my progress … I know I’m doing a lot of great stuff. My whole team — JSR, Jason, Lance, everybody — has been putting in tireless effort for it.”
That is a nice thing to say about results. It’s also surely wildly overstated. Everybody uses results to measure progress, especially somebody like Homa who has admitted he thinks about golf basically all the time. But pro golfers don’t (and shouldn’t!) spend much time on winning hypotheticals; that’s better left for this space. So what else would a Homa victory mean?
Max Homa’s Rd. 3 John Deere press conference
1. He’d earn a playoff spot
It’s jarring to see Homa currently No. 122 in the FedEx Cup — particularly given just 70 make the playoffs. While Homa isn’t going to lose his job for 2026 if he misses (he still has carryover status secure from recent victories) climbing that ladder would mean better status, plus the chance to play his way back into golf’s upper echelon with a strong postseason run and even an opportunity to crack the top 50 for 2026 SIgnature Event status. But more immediately…
2. He’d likely earn a major berth
It had been a half-decade since Homa missed his last major until he came up just short of qualifying for Oakmont last month. Now he’s expected to miss the Open Championship, too — unless he wins on Sunday.
The John Deere used to be part of the Open’s qualifying circuit with spots specifically earmarked for Open qualification. That’s no longer the case, but the R&A is expected to fill its field with the next players off the OWGR list, which means it could still be responsible for a Royal Portrush tee time. Homa winning would boost him from No. 99 to somewhere close to 50, per Nosferatu, which would very likely be inside the number for the Open, per the AP. Which would give another chance to…
3. Keep his Ryder Cup dream alive
Ridiculous? Sure! DataGolf logs his chances of cracking the top 12 at roughly…zero. But to that I’d add: For now. Sure, even a John Deere win wouldn’t get him much closer. But because it would earn him more starts, more looks, more opportunities to show that he’s found that elusive something and he’s ready for war.
Again, this is probably silly, as Homa’s currently No. 39 in the U.S. team standings. But because it’s Homa, arguably the U.S. team’s top performer across the 2022-23 Presidents and Ryder Cups, and because the final third of the team seems up for grabs to the hottest player, it’s not absurd to ask the question.
4. (Bonus) Something far more important
What would Homa winning mean? I’m guessing here, but I’d suspect it would mean everything to him, to his team, to his process. It would be validation after a year of turmoil that has seen him change coaches, clubs, caddies, golf swings. It would be big for confidence, big for opportunities, big because every PGA Tour win is big.
Two final words from Homa, then:
On his Sunday mindset: “Yeah, just fun. Golf has just been very boring for me this year. I haven’t had a whole lot of stress, and you want to be stressed out. So I look forward to the butterflies in the morning; I look forward to the first tee shot.”
On how he processes being in contention: “I let you guys process it. I’m just going to eat, sleep, wake up, and get ready to play a good round of golf.”
His competition will, too. We’ll see who does it best.
Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he’s the author of 18 in America, which details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living from his car and playing a round of golf in every state.
