Swagger? Max Homa would rather talk about his bad rounds

Rarely does it take four great rounds to win a golf tournament. Often, it takes three, maybe just two really great ones to be at the top of the leaderboard. But most importantly, it requires zero bad rounds, which Max Homa has come to understand quite well in recent years. 

The 34-year-old tallied up just 64 strokes Saturday — his best round in three months — vaulting him up the leaderboard at the Sanderson Farms Championship, even with a closing bogey, to sit just a few strokes back of the lead. It’s the kind of round that stands out much more to casual golf fans at home than to pros in the thick of it like Homa. It’s natural when you see “HOMA -8” like many people saw Saturday, you might wonder if Homa could be trending back into form.

We thought this during the PGA Championship in May, when Homa carded a second-round 64, only for golf to quickly punch back, humbling him to a T60. We thought it in July when Homa contended at the John Deere Classic, finishing T5. And we’ll think it now for the next 24 hours at least. Just don’t expect Homa to hold on to this one round for proof. It was his Friday 72 that stood out to him more. 

During a short interview following his third round, Homa was asked, “Do you feel like your swagger is maybe coming back to you a little bit?”

He’s been here before. 

“I don’t know about that,” Homa began. “I think I know — especially after that long layoff — I know that, if I don’t get in my own way, I’m one good round away from being in a golf tournament. On a week that’s good, maybe I play two [great rounds] and I’m ahead.

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“I just think I know what’s in there, and I know if I can stay out of my own way, I can turn — like yesterday mentally felt like I could have shot 2-, 3-over and turned it into even. I know those are little things that don’t seem great when you’re in 40th, but I never really felt like I was out of this golf tournament on a hard golf course where the game feels pretty solid.

“I don’t know if it’s swagger, but I just think like my patience seems to be better and I’m more tolerant of things that don’t go great, and I have a lot of confidence that I can put up a few good scores.”

Homa didn’t have his best stuff in that second round but grinded out a bunch of pars, getting up and down six times when he missed the green. That’s how you turn 75 into 72, which has been one of the most difficult — but also most validating — things for Homa recently. 

His good is still really good, which is part of what you hear in that answer. It’s just when he’s not great — keeping those days around par, maybe even one under, are how you make a bunch of cuts, how you hang around in tournaments, and how you simply survive until your best stuff comes back. 

Taking his calendar year into account, Homa has had almost exactly the same amount of above average rounds as below average. To no surprise then, his season has fluttered with plenty of missed cuts and a handful of moments in contention. DataGolf has him at a 0.15 Strokes Gained rating, just a notch above the PGA Tour standard, which puts him at 127th in the DataGolf ranking. 

That level of golf is still good, and totally sustainable, but it’s about as low as Homa has been in the last five years. The occasional 73, 74 or 75 has snuck in over the summer, but on a frequency of about once a month. Back in the spring and early summer, Homa was carding those rounds about once a tournament. All of which starts to look like he’s bottomed out. And is a reminder that it’s not always so much about your best rounds, but about limiting the damage of your worst rounds.