Homa is the social media gift that keeps on giving.
Max Homa is the social media gift that keeps on giving.
The best follow in golf was back at it on Monday, but not for his classic swing video roasts. Homa, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour who has self-admittedly struggled in the major championships, called out an internet troll from his wife Lacey’s TikTok page for blaming her and his son, Cam, for his major woes.
“That kid and wife are keeping from majors. I’d tell them everyday you’re giving up green jackets for them. Just so they know!” the commenter wrote.
Well, Homa wasn’t having any of that and called out the troll the only way he knew how: with self-deprecating humor.
Some clown commented on my wife’s tik tok that she and my son are holding me back from winning majors. I guess he hasn’t seen my record before having a kid. It’s even worse! Moral of the story, it’s all my wife’s fault she’s been here for all of them
Classic Max. Just for fun, though, let’s take a look at the stats.
Homa was married in November of 2019 and Lacey gave birth to their son in November of 2022. He made 11 major starts in his pre-child major era and missed the cut seven times. When Homa did make the cut, he finished T-40 (2021 Open), T-48 (2022 Masters), T-13 (2022 PGA) and T-47 (2022 U.S. Open).
In four major starts in 2023 since Cam’s birth, Max has missed just one cut at the U.S. Open and finished T-43 at the Masters, T-55 at the PGA and logged his best major finish with a T-10 at the Open.
Homa will get his next shot at major glory at the 2024 Masters, April 11-14.
The new exemption categories won’t open the door any wider for more LIV Golf players to compete in the Open.
The R&A has made a change to its exemption categories for future Open Championships starting with the 2024 tournament at Royal Troon, but it isn’t to include more LIV Golf players.
On Wednesday the governing body announced that past champions will only be exempt until the age of 55. The current age cap is 60. All golfers currently exempt as past champions will be grandfathered in and still be able to play the Open until 60.
In addition, a new exemption will be offered to players on the Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia and the Sunshine Tour to qualify through the International Federation Ranking list, where the top five players on the list will earn a spot in the Open. An exemption for the Africa Amateur Champion has also been added.
Solely for the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon, July 18-21, Michael Hendry has been granted a medical exemption after he was unable to play in last year’s Open due to serious illness.
LIV players have been clamoring for a special exemption category even before the league withdrew its application for Official World Golf Ranking points. As it stands now, the following 13 players will tee it up at Royal Troon this summer:
Dean Burmester, Bryson DeChambeau. Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Adrian Meronk, Phil Mickelson, Joaquin Niemann, Louis Oosthuizen, David Puig, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith and Henrik Stenson.
The U.S. Women’s Open is reaching parity with men’s majors when it comes to host courses.
This is a special year as elite women golfers have the chance to experience two great courses for major championships in the United States: Baltusrol’s Lower Course for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and Pebble Beach Golf Links for the U.S. Women’s Open.
That’s back-to-back majors on two major-worthy layouts over the span of three weeks in June and July, with the Women’s Open slated this week.
It wasn’t always this way. Women’s major championships have a checkered history of course selections.
The U.S. Women’s Open, for example, for decades was played for the most part on a slate of courses that in no way measured up to the layouts on which men’s majors were contested. In most years, with only a sprinkling of exceptions, the greatest women players in the game played less-than-stellar courses – many host sites were solid regional or local tracks, but world-beaters they were not.
Things began to change in the mid-1980s, as the Women’s Open moved with greater frequency to courses ranked among the top 200 in Golfweek’s Best rankings of either classic (built before 1960) or modern (built in or after 1960) layouts. Women’s Open course selection peaked in 1992 at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania, which hosted the event again in 2010.
As measured by average rating, course selection has continued to improve over the past 20 years. Golfweek’s Best utilizes more than 800 raters who evaluate courses according to 10 criteria and then offer an overall rating of 1 to 10. Their votes are averaged to compile various course rankings lists, including the modern and classic lists. In general, any course rated above 6 would be considered by most players to be a nice local or regional course, and in most cases a course rated above 7 would be worth traveling some distance to play. A layout scoring higher than 8 is among the top 60 or so courses in the world, and only seven courses in the world rank above 9 points – Oakmont is among those seven.
The average rating of the host courses for the U.S. Women’s Open has improved in each of the past three decades. For the period of 1993-2002, the average (using the 2022 Golfweek’s Best ratings for data) was 6.924. It improved to 7.100 in 2003-2012, and it climbed a bit more to 7.195 for the 10 Women’s Opens of 2013-2022. Compare that to the average of 6.277 from 1973-1982.
And course selection only continues to improve. Starting this year with Pebble Beach (using the 2023 Golfweek’s Best ratings for data), the lineup of announced sites for the U.S. Women’s Open scores an average rating of 8.36 among Golfweek’s Best raters. That’s in line with men’s championships and a far cry from the days when the Women’s Open might be played on a course that hardly anyone in the next state over had ever heard of.
Each of the sites announced to host future Women’s Opens is ranked inside the top 100 Golfweek’s Best modern or classic courses in the U.S. Three of the sites – Oakmont (No. 6 in the 2023 ranking of classic courses), Merion’s East Course (No. 7) and Pebble Beach Golf Links (No. 10) – rank among the top 10 classic courses in the United States. Another four – Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course (No. 14 in the 2023 rankings), Pinehurst No. 2 (No. 17), Riviera (No. 18) and Oakland Hills’ South Course (tied for No. 22) – rank among the top 25.
It’s been a long wait for course selection for the premium women’s golf event to catch up with that of the men, but things are certainly headed in the right direction.
“The story wrongfully expressed and misrepresented my views.”
The head of Golf Saudi walked back comments he made to a reporter that he would “celebrate” if the four majors restricted LIV Golf players from competing in those tournaments and he would go so far as to “create my own majors for my players.”
If it sounds outlandish to you, you weren’t alone. Majed Al Sorour, CEO of the Golf Saudi, comments that ran in a New Yorker story this week were widely panned. The whole story is worth reading but here’s the part pertaining to the majors.
There was speculation that the Masters might ban LIV players. “For now, the majors are siding with the Tour, and I don’t know why,” Sorour said. “If the majors decide not to have our players play? I will celebrate. I will create my own majors for my players.” He went on, “Honestly, I think all the tours are being run by guys who don’t understand business.”
On Thursday evening, Sorour released a statement on social media that neither denied the conversation happened nor that it was off the record.
“I had a casual conversation with a New Yorker reporter at LIV’s Boston event a few weeks ago, during which I expressed my frustration at the unfortunate blackballing of LIV Golf players by the PGA Tour,” his statement said. “When it comes to the majors, tournaments that stand alone and are independent of LIV, I have the utmost respect for the majors. The majors are about history, heritage, true competition and honor.
“The story wrongfully expressed and misrepresented my views. The majors are indeed the best platform where LIV golfers and other tour golfers can compete, despite the PGA Tour’s suspension of our players. As a LIV Golf board member and managing director, I am here to accomplish our LIV Golf investment chairman and the board’s strategic direction by building a team, growing the game and defending player rights. That is my only interest.’’
The upstart league that is at odds with the PGA Tour has long been criticized as a way for the Saudi government to “sportswash” its human rights record. The final of eight LIV Golf events, which are 54 holes with no cuts and guaranteed money for the 48-player fields, is scheduled for next week at Trump Doral in Miami.
Hataoka’s sixth LPGA win puts her in elite company.
Nasa Hataoka’s sixth career victory at the DIO Implant LA Open on Sunday puts her in elite company with Jessica Korda. Together they’re the winningest players on the LPGA without a major title.
Who are the best players without a major? Some on this list, like Hataoka and Korda, have won quite a bit already. Others, like rookie Atthaya Thitikul, make the list based on talent and potential.
Minjee Lee and Jennifer Kupcho are two players who played their way off of last year’s list. Lee won the 2021 Amundi Evian Championship, and Kupcho broke through with her first LPGA title at the Chevron Championship earlier this month.
Here’s a list of 10 players (with their Rolex Ranking) who are either primed to win a major or past due:
Rory McIlroy has put himself in position to chase his fifth major championship title on his first Father’s Day.
SAN DIEGO – Rory McIlroy racked his brain. He was trying to recall the last time he went to sleep in the thick of contention to win one of golf’s four majors.
“It feels like a while since I’ve had a chance,” he said.
Well, it’s been 2,505 days since McIlroy hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy as the winner of the 2014 PGA Championship, not that anyone was counting. That was 24 majors ago.
“I’m trying to think of the last time where I really felt like I had a chance. Carnoustie in ’18 felt like I maybe had half a chance, going into the final day at Pebble in 2019. But apart from that, there’s been some good finishes but never felt like I was in the thick of things,” he said. “I’m just excited for the opportunity to have a chance and be in one of the final groups.”
On the 10th anniversary of his U.S. Open victory at Congressional, his first of four major titles, McIlroy signed for a 4-under 67 at Torrey Pines’ South Course and a 54-hole aggregate of 3-under 210.
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McIlroy was pleased with his tee-to-green game and called his performance in the third round “the best he played all week.” After making a total of 10 bogeys during the first two rounds, McIlroy only made one on Saturday. The difference?
“You have to accept that middle of greens and pars are good, and I got into that mindset today,” he said. “Nothing flashy.”
That’s a formula that never goes out of style at the U.S. Open. McIlroy made a birdie at the second hole and reeled off seven straight pars to close the front nine. He made a short birdie at No. 10 and then holed a flop shot for birdie at No. 12, lifting his 60-degree wedge to the sky in celebration. One hole later, he smoked a fairway wood from 270 yards that caromed off the flagstick at the par 5 and made a two-putt birdie.
“It took a nick out of the flag,” McIlroy said. “(Caddie) Harry (Diamond) called it the best shot I hit all year.”
His lone hiccup happened at 15 when he pulled his tee dead left into the barranca, near a rattlesnake, and took a penalty stroke for an unplayable. He did yeoman’s work to salvage a bogey.
“This is the only tournament in the world where you fist pump a bogey. Only losing one there was a big deal, and getting it up-and-down out of the bunker on 16 and making that birdie on 18 just to get that shot back that I lost, really big.”
McIlroy twirled his club as his second shot to the par-5 18th settled on the dance floor, and a two-putt birdie closed out a sterling 67. McIlroy said he felt a pair of 68s on the weekend would serve him well.
Rory McIlroy reacts with caddie Harry Diamond after putting out on the 17th hole during the third round of the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
“I’ve done the first part of that job. Now it’s up to me tomorrow to go out and try to play a similar round of golf,” he said.
To do so, McIlroy will have to go toe-to-toe with defending U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau and chase down 54-hole leader Russell Henley and another upstart Mackenzie Hughes of Canada.
It’s been 24 majors since McIlroy’s come out on top at a major, but he’s the most experienced of the contenders in these situations. He’s proven before that he has the mental fortitude required to be a U.S. Open champion.
“It’s the most demanding golf tournament in the world, mentally, and you have to keep your wits about yourself and really stay present and stay in the moment,” McIlroy said. “Even when I was going well today I had to remind myself of that. Twenty-eleven felt like a walk in the park compared to this. You know, if I want to get another U.S. Open trophy, I’m going to have to fight for it a little more than I did 10 years ago.”
First, he was going to enjoy some family time on the eve of his first Father’s Day as a father. McIlroy and wife Erica and daughter Poppy are staying at the Torrey Pines Lodge overlooking the 18th green, where he has feasted on the same chicken sandwich five nights in a row from room service.
“So, I’ll probably make it six nights in a row,” he said. “It’s rotisserie chicken, avocado, sun dried tomatoes, some garlic aioli and some ‘holey’ bread. It’s really good.”
That’s not all that McIlroy is hungry for; he’s hungry for another major too, and he just might get the best Father’s Day present of all, major championship No. 5, on Sunday.
“Mother’s Day was pretty good to us a few weeks ago,” said McIlroy, referencing his victory last month at the Wells Fargo Championship. “So, hopefully we can have the same result on Father’s Day.”
Even the great Jack Nicklaus has had mental lapses in major championships. In fact, he’ll always remember one with a sippy cup.
DUBLIN, Ohio – Happened to the best of them.
On Wednesday ahead of the Memorial Tournament, Xander Schauffele admitted the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island got into his head leading into last month’s PGA Championship and he never recovered, thus missing the cut.
“I had somewhat of a bad attitude about the golf course. I just didn’t really like it,” Schauffele said. “I’m not saying I had enough game to win that week, but I definitely had enough game to compete, and for me to miss the cut was a bit reckless and kind of stupid. Just didn’t really like the course and moving forward even if I don’t like a course, I got to wash that out of my mind and move along.”
A few hours later, in his annual meeting with the media at the event he hosts played on a course he built, Jack Nicklaus, the greatest major champion in the game, admitted to the occasional mental lapse Schauffele talked about.
And one time it earned him a sippy glass.
“Are you kidding? Sure. Absolutely,” Nicklaus said when asked if a golf course ever got into his head. “Not very often. But you realized it when you did it. I can go back through the years and quickly pick out three or four sites that didn’t fit my eye or something I didn’t like or didn’t prepare for.”
Like Nicklaus said, not many golf courses threw him off his game – he won a record 18 majors, after all, and finished second a record 19 times in majors, and won 73 PGA Tour titles in all.
But Pecan Valley in San Antonio did get into his head in the 1968 PGA Championship won by Julius Boros. Nicklaus shot 71-79 to miss the cut.
“I just, I didn’t, I never got interested,” Nicklaus said. “I mean, it was ridiculous. You only got four majors a year. What in the world are you doing? I mean, that’s stupid. And you know, you’re not supposed to fit the golf course to your eye, you’re supposed to fit your eye to the golf course. In other words, you’re supposed to fit your game to the course. That’s why we play different courses. Otherwise, we play the same course every week. So that was my fault to do that.”
Twenty years later, at the PGA Championship at Oak Tree in Oklahoma, it happened again. While Jeff Sluman won the Wanamaker Trophy, Nicklaus shot 72-79 to miss the cut.
“I didn’t prepare properly for Oak Tree and then I had to stay over, after I missed the cut, I had to stay over to do television. And, you know, there’s nothing worse than staying over the weekend and talking about somebody else playing golf after you missed the cut. I promise you that. It’s not a lot of fun,” Nicklaus said.
On that Saturday, his wife, Barbara, went to McDonald’s.
Jack Nicklaus sippy cup (Photo submitted)
“She brought me back a little sippy cup that she got from McDonald’s. It said, ‘There is no excuse for not being properly prepared,’” Nicklaus said. “I still got that cup. But I mean, she’s absolutely dead right.”
Nicklaus brought up six-time major champion and former rival Lee Trevino and his dislike for Augusta National.
“He said he could never play at Augusta. He says, ‘I can’t play this golf course. The golf course doesn’t fit me.’ I said, ‘Lee, it’s not supposed to fit you, you’re supposed to fit your game to the golf course,’” Nicklaus said. Lee Trevino was as good a golfer as ever lived. This guy could really play golf. And he just got it in his head that he could not play that golf course.
“And we all get that occasionally. So I had weeks where I just didn’t either feel good or I wasn’t motivated. Why, I don’t know. Not too many, fortunately, because most of the time I was ready to play.”
(Editor’s note: This is Part II in a seven-part series on the life and career of reigning Masters champion Dustin Johnson. Check back to Golfweek.com each day for the next part of the story.)
As Dustin Johnson sauntered up the hill toward the 18th green on Masters Sunday last November, he turned to his brother and caddie, Austin, and asked him where he stood on the leaderboard.
“What do you mean where do you stand?”
Austin then told his older brother that he was five shots clear and just minutes away from polishing off a remarkable, record-setting romp to win the green jacket.
“I told him I could win the Masters from where he was,” Austin said. “And he did the same thing at Oakmont on the final hole on Sunday when he won the (2016) U.S. Open. That’s DJ.”
Yes, through and through, that’s DJ. As much as his video-game physical gifts separate him from most everyone on the planet, his uncanny knack for focusing on the matter at hand or escaping to another world where there is no noise and distraction is pure, enviable genius.
“I call it DJ Island,” Austin said. “I remember so many times that he’d be watching a TV show and I’m having a full-on conversation with him and then he’d just look at me and go ‘What?’ He just has this ability to check out and go to his own little island. It’s him there and no one else. He puts things in the rearview and just looks at the upcoming road. No matter what has happened.
“It’s unbelievable.”
And helpful in the world of golf.
His fleeting memory allows him to move on like no other golfer, no matter how tragic the result. And there have been many soul crushers, starting with the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where he blew a three-shot, 54-hole lead with a final-round 82. Two months later in the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, he grounded his club in a bunker he didn’t think was a bunker on the 72nd hole. The resulting two-shot penalty cost him a spot in a playoff.
In 2011, he was in contention deep into the final round of the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s before he hit a 2-iron out of bounds. In the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, he three-putted from 12 feet on the 72nd hole and finished one shot behind Jordan Spieth.
Losses like that leave scars and create demons who set up shop between the ears. But not for DJ. Without question, the losses hurt Johnson, some more than others, but they don’t remain haunting – and certainly not lasting – memories.
“I always jokingly use the phrase he was dipped in Teflon at birth,” said David Winkle, Johnson’s longtime agent. “At Chambers Bay, we get in a car to go up to the makeshift clubhouse area and it was about a minute and we get up and he gets out of the car and goes immediately to a place where kids are yelling for autographs and he signs all their stuff.
“We get in the car to leave. And it’s kind of quiet. And Dustin pulls the car over and says, ‘Guys, lighten up. It’s just golf.’ And I thought, good lord. Here we are trying to lift him up and he lifted us up. This guy is unbelievable.
“And I’ll never forget the 2011 British Open. I think he’s devastated. But he walks out of scoring and high-fives me and goes, ‘Best finish in a major, Winky.’”
But that’s the way Johnson has always been.
“Even as a kid or a junior golfer, I’ve always had the ability to get over things right away, especially with golf,” Johnson said. “I don’t know where exactly it comes from, but obviously it’s good for a golfer because there are so many things that happen, and weird things that happen, especially to me.
“At the end of the day, it’s still a game. I love the game. But there is zero I can do to change something that’s already happened. I just keep trying to push forward.”
That’s what he did in the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, which is an 18-hole migraine-level headache. Johnson, with all his immense talents, had yet to win a major, but he was well within reach of winning his first. And then chaos erupted.
On the fifth hole in the final round, Johnson had a 6-footer for par but his ball moved a hair at address. Johnson knew he didn’t cause the ball to move, the rules official agreed and no penalty was administered.
But as he walked to the 12th tee with a two-shot lead, he was met by USGA officials who told him the incident was being reviewed and he may be assessed a penalty. Thus, Johnson and others chasing the title didn’t know where everyone stood on the leaderboard because the governing body’s determination was on hold.
Dustin Johnson talks with USGA official Mark Newell after Johnson’s ball moved on a green at Oakmont in the 2016 U.S. Open. (Getty Images/David Cannon)
“I don’t think it could have happened to a better player out there. Maybe Adam Scott,” Austin Johnson said. “But Dustin just looked at me and said, ‘I guess we have to win by two,’ and ripped a drive 370 yards. Lee Westwood’s caddie, Billy Foster, had to calm me down. But Dustin just went about his business.
“I still get blown away by what he’s able to do sometimes in situations like that.”
Johnson played the last seven holes in even par, with his towering 6-iron from 191 yards to 4 feet for birdie on the 72nd hole cementing victory. The USGA decided to dock him one stroke, but it proved meaningless as he signed his corrected scorecard of 1-under 69 to finish three shots clear of Jim Furyk, Scott Piercy and Shane Lowry.
“Dustin was the class player of the day,” Foster said. “For the USGA to come out on the 12th tee and say you may or may not have a penalty, I thought was disgraceful. Respect to DJ. That’s why I bowed to him on the 18th hole.”
Paul Azinger, the victorious Ryder Cup captain in 2008 and the 1993 PGA Championship winner, was the lead analyst at the time and called Johnson’s triumph one of the greatest wins in the history of golf.
“When you consider having your gut ripped out the previous year in the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay and then the following year he has to deal with that ruling thing in the final round and he wins, that’s something next level,” Azinger said. “DJ has that intangible. That’s the way Tom Watson was. They put the past behind them and are always moving on. It’s extraordinary.”
