Max Homa leans off ‘divisive’ Twitter, into his game

Max Homa, owner of golf’s preeminent swashbuckling, swing-roasting social media account, appears to be stepping away from Twitter.

Weeks after tweeting his plans to sound more like “other professional golfers’ agents” to his 150,000-plus followers, Homa told reporters Saturday that he’s stopped using the social media platform altogether.

“I couldn’t tell you, I don’t go on it anymore,” Homa said. “Yeah, hopefully — I couldn’t really care.”

Homa’s response might sound surprising, especially after a third-round 64 at the 3M Open put him just three strokes off the lead. But ardent Twitter followers likely noticed a shift in tone tracing back to the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic in early July.

“I’m gunna tweet like the other professional golfers’ agents tweet (for them) for a while,” Homa said. “See if it’s less mind-numbing and divisive lol reading some responses can’t be good for winning tournaments and I wanna win tournaments. On to Muirfield Village”

Homa’s tweet came after several particularly vitriolic responses to his take on Bryson DeChambeau’s dominant victory at the Rocket Mortgage — responses he linked to explain his decision.

It’s also likely that performance played a factor. Heading into the week of the Rocket Mortgage, the one-time PGA Tour winner had missed cuts in two of three events since the restart and looked a long way from the player who’d finished top-20 in four straight events at the beginning of the year.

In the three weeks since his original announcement, Homa has largely stuck to his word (and to ‘#golf’) — tweeting what could best be described as agentspeak after the completion of each round.

Given what has come from Homa’s camp over the last several weeks, it appears he might not have been kidding about taking a break from Twitter to refind his golf game. And given his performance at the 3M Open this week, it appears his social media hiatus might have had its intended effect.

Homa heads into Sunday alone in 5th at 12 under, three strokes back of the lead. Just don’t expect to see any of his trademark Twitter humor discussing the performance.

It remains to be seen when (if ever) Homa’s absence will end, but for the time being, it appears as though one of golf’s most unique voices is joining the likes of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and others in welcoming a dose of Twitter silence.