TROON, Scotland — It was a primal scream usually released on Sunday afternoons, when the crowds are 15 deep and the field has been whittled to a chosen few. But this was only Friday evening at the British Open, in front of a half-empty grandstand, a man trying to cut his deficit from 14 to a baker’s dozen. Yet there was nothing performative about Max Homa’s yell. It was cathartic and visceral, and underlined there was something more on the line than a claret jug.
Moments after his 30-footer at his 36th hole disappeared, after he shouted “Let’s go!” so loud it could be heard from the Scottish Highlands, Homa tried to articulate why his birdie meant what it did, conceding that something that has felt so foreign to him as of late finally—if only for a moment—felt instinctual once more.
“I don't know, just been really not playing very well and golf has not been very fun,” Homa said back of the 18th green at Royal Troon. “I've been doing a poor job mentally. I just felt like today for one of the first times maybe ever I just never really flinched, never blinked. I played 16 really good holes and just made two really bad swings.
“I don't know, maybe I'm just proud of myself. This is my favorite tournament in the world. So to have the chance to potentially play two more days, I don't know, I had an out-of-body experience. I didn't really expect to yell like I won a golf tournament. It just felt really good. I felt like I fought all day.”
In one sense the display wasn’t surprising. Homa’s online persona often belies the fire that lies within. He’s a guy who tears his glove off with his teeth, who stares a hole through the ground as he walks with a hurried soberness. He is always a man at work. Making the cut may seem like a low bar for a player of his stature, yet the weekend offers 36 more holes for Homa to compete, and that’s all a competitor can want.
Conversely, it’s been a rough few months inside the ropes. Since contending at the Masters in April, Homa has posted just one top-20 finish. He was a non-factor at the PGA Championship in May and missed the cut at the U.S. Open in June. His growing star has now reached the echelon where his blessing is a curse, his increasingly impressive résumé not judged in its totality but instead surgically dissected by what he does in the four weeks that matter the most.
“It's just the golf game hasn't been great,” Homa admitted. “Expectation is a hell of a drug, and it's just been getting to me. If I wasn't going to win the ball striking battle, I was at least going to try to win that battle inside.”
That battle began on the Open’s opening hole, which Homa doubled en route to a five-over 76 on Thursday. Friday’s round was better, making the turn in even par, but a triple at the 12th put him two back of the projected cut. As he later acknowledged, Homa had already committed to missing the weekend. But instead of checking out, Homa dug in.
“I don't know why, I was just in a good state of mind,” Homa said after the 12th. “I just had a feeling that, if I kept plugging along, maybe something good would happen. We turn to play a lot of easier holes, 13 through 18, so you can make two or three birdies.”
He played the next five holes in one under, needing another red figure at the last to be playing on Saturday. That’s what his 30-footer did.
“I don't know if I've been that happy,” Homa said. “It's more like inward. Just sometimes you just win like a battle within. It's a lot more—you get a lot more proud than even beating all these guys sometimes.”
Homa has work to do to become the player he thinks he can ultimately be. If he has any hopes of making the U.S. Presidents Cup team playing in September he’ll need to make a run or two in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. But Friday wasn’t about his golf. Homa’s popularity is correlated to his social-media presence in his sharp wit, yet makes him special is his relatability, giving the sport a window into the depths of a struggle others try to keep unseen. On Friday evening at Troon, after coming out on the wrong end of that struggle, Homa was able to fight back. It doesn’t mean the struggle is over, just that it continues for two more rounds. It was something worth yelling about.
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Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.
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