Tag: Max Homa

California boy Max Homa rallies to win Fortinet Championship in Napa

Max Homa wins for the third time on the PGA Tour and the second time in his home state of California.

Seven months after winning at Riviera, Max Homa went 5 under over his last seven holes to win for the third time on the PGA Tour and the second time in his home state of California.

Homa holed out from the fairway for eagle on the 12th to get to 16 under. He then birdied the 13th to tie Maverick McNealy for the lead. Earlier in the round, McNealy birdied the 9th hole to take a two-shot lead.

Homa then posted birdies on 16 and 17 to get to 19 under. Meanwhile, McNealy made a mess of the 17th hole, posting a crushing double bogey, giving Homa a three-shot lead.

Homa cruised into the winner’s circle from there. He posted a pair of 65s on the weekend. McNealy, who finished solo second after an eagle on 18, is now winless in 67 starts on Tour.

Silverado Resort & Spa’s North Course was the host of the kickoff event of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season. The Tour takes next week off for the Ryder Cup.

[vertical-gallery id=778158462]

Phil Mickelson, Max Homa ‘get on a little heater’ to close third round at Fortinet Championship

Phil Mickelson, 67, and Max Homa, 65, charged up the leaderboard with birdie binges.

NAPA, Calif. – Walking from the ninth tee to No. 10 at Silverado Resort & Spa’s North Course, Phil Mickelson wheeled toward fellow playing competitor Max Homa and said, “Let’s get on a little heater on the back.”

To that point, Homa had traded three birdies with two bogeys and Mickelson two birdies and a bogey as they both turned in pedestrian front-nine scores of 1-under 35. But the pep talk worked.

Mickelson strung together five birdies in a row after a sloppy bogey at No. 12 and Homa went one better with six birdies in all, including the final three holes. It added up to 67 for Mickelson and 65 for Homa as they charged up the leaderboard at the Fortinet Championship in the third round.

“Max, playing as well as he did shooting 6 under on the back, made my round feel not as great, but it was still fun,” Mickelson said.

Lefty was even for the day after blocking a 4-foot putt left of the hole. But it didn’t deter him. He capped his five-birdie stretch with a 24-foot birdie putt at No. 17.

[vertical-gallery id=778158462]

“I just felt like I had been putting really well all week and I just needed to settle down and let one go in, not force it,” said Mickelson, who improved to 10-under 206 through 54 holes. “I needed to get a couple of fairways hit because so much easier from the fairways getting to these pins. I just rolled a couple in, so it was nice.”

Mickelson has been using a longer arm-lock model this week and has found it mostly to his liking. He ranks fifth through three rounds in Strokes Gained: Putting.

“It’s how I putted as a kid. Like I always had a lot of forward press and all it’s doing now is getting in the same position as a kid, but it’s getting to that same position every time,” explained Mickelson. “I’m not overpressing, I’m not underpressing, so my launch characteristics when I get on the Quintic system is very consistent and that’s what I’m looking for.”

Mickelson’s hot run on the back nine lifted him into the top 10 (T-7) heading into the final round and lurking just three strokes behind leader Mito Pereira of Chile, who was still on the course at 13 under through 13 holes.

“I’m in a position where a good round tomorrow will do some good, and it’s fun to have a little later tee time and to feel some of the nerves and so forth,” Mickelson said. “I know I’m going to have to shoot probably 7, 8, 9 under par to have a chance, but either way it’s fun having that chance.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

PGA Tour says $40 million Player Impact Program ‘winners’ won’t be revealed. Twitter-verse expresses its dismay.

“We don’t have any intention on publicizing it,” said commissioner Jay Monahan.

We may never know if Jim Herman wins the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program, at least that’s the way the PGA Tour would like it.

During his State of the PGA Tour press conference in Atlanta ahead of the Tour Championship on Tuesday, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed that the Player Impact Program, which was approved this year and features a $40 million bonus pool for the most popular players, won’t conclude at the end of the FedEx Cup season on Sunday but rather run through the end of the year. Despite the program being designed to compensate players who are judged to drive fan and sponsor engagement, Monahan said, “we don’t have any intention on publicizing it.”

That seems counterintuitive but when asked for an explanation, Monahan said, “To us, it’s a program that we created, was created by our players, with our players, for our players, and that’s, that’s what we decided that we were going to do when we created it.”

The FedEx Cup, one could argue, also fits that description but the up-to-the-minute standings are recited by TV announcers almost as soon as each week’s winner holes the final putt.

Monahan noted that there are five different criteria, each weighted equally in calculating how the bonus money will be distributed among the top 10 players, with the player deemed most valuable receiving $8 million.

No player has shamelessly campaigned for a share of the $40 million quite like Herman, a 43-year-old journeyman pro who has built a Twitter following ever since he first tweeted about the PIP news a day after Golfweek broke the story on April 20: “My ship has come in!”

Twitter did not react well to the news that the megastars finishing in the money won’t be revealed.

Trevor Immelman

Colt Knost

Max Homa

Tour Championship: Who’s in and who’s out of the FedEx Cup Playoffs finale

Check out the notable players to play their way in and out of the Tour Championship, the FedEx Cup Playoffs finale in Atlanta.

After a wild season that’s featured countless playoffs, legendary wins and improbable comebacks, it all comes down to this.

The PGA Tour season will wrap this week with the Tour Championship, the final event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. After 69 of the season’s best players competed at the BMW Championship – won by Patrick Cantlay in a six-hole playoff over Bryson DeChambeau – each wound up finishing under par, the first time that’s happened in FedEx Cup history.

Two players made massive leaps and played their way into the final field of 30 at East Lake, while two players also played their way out. Check out the notable names to barely made, and miss, the FedEx Cup finale.

BMW Championship: Leaderboard | Prize money | Winner’s bag

Rocket Mortgage Classic: Tom Lewis and Joaquin Niemann are bogey-free and share 36-hole lead

No bogeys through 36 holes have Tom Lewis and Joaquin Niemann at the top of the leaderboard and feeling pretty good about it.

DETROIT – At a muddy, water-logged Detroit Golf Club, Joaquin Niemann and Tom Lewis have been Mr. Clean this week.

As in their cards, through two rounds of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, are spotless. No bogeys through 36 holes have the 22-year-old Chilean and the 30-year-old Englishman at the top of the leaderboard and feeling pretty good about it.

“Right now everything is pretty good,” Niemann said.

And why wouldn’t it be? Niemann, who fired a 65 on Thursday, was in one of the last groups to complete the first round before play was suspended due to darkness. He returned on Friday morning and kept away those pesky bogeys. He opened with seven pars before wedging inside 3 feet for his first birdie of the day at No. 8. He tacked on another at the par-5 14th, after hitting the green in 2 and two putting and took advantage of the par-5 17th for his final circle on the card.

Niemann’s second-round 3-under 69 boosted his 36-hole total to 10-under 134, same as Lewis, and one-stroke better than Troy Merritt, Max Homa and Chris Kirk at the midway point of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Niemann, who entered the week ranked No. 30 in the world, blamed a balky putter for his first missed cut of the season at the Memorial and for middling finishes at the U.S. Open and the Travelers Championship. But it’s come alive this week.

“I think that’s the best part of my game right now,” he said.

Indeed, it has. Niemann, who finished T-5 here in 2019, has gained more than five strokes on the green and he’s a perfect 9-for-9 in scrambling.

Lewis, 30, birdied two of his first four holes and canned a 9-foot par putt at the last hole to save par and keep the card spotless for the first 36 holes.

“I was saying to my caddie, John, it would be nice to go up and down and go bogey-free for two rounds. It’s always nice doing that,” Lewis said. “I’m just happy, even if I did miss that putt, to be in the position I am going into the weekend. I’m really pleased with the way I’ve been playing.”

[vertical-gallery id=778113800]

As he should given that he’s missed the cut in half of his 22 previous starts this season as well as four of his last six tournaments, and his only top-10 finish was at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a two-man team event. Lewis opened with a pair of 67s last week at the Travelers Championship to make the cut but stumbled to 74 on Saturday and tumbled to a T-47 finish.

“I think the toughest round for me is going to be tomorrow. If I can go out and shoot under par, whatever happens, I’ll be really happy with that,” he said.

Lewis and Niemann have plenty of company behind them. Merritt’s 4-under 68 was set up by hitting all 14 fairways on Friday.

“When it’s this soft out here, there’s pretty much one club you hit off of every tee box, don’t even have to think about it,” he said.

But the key has been the return of his putting form, he said.

“When it’s consistently the best part of your game and you struggle with it for more than half of the year, it makes it pretty tough,” Merritt said.

Max Homa can relate, although he only struggled to see putts fall for about 30 holes. But once he broke the seal with a 35-footer at the par-3 15th, he finished with a flurry of four birdies in a row to shoot 7-under 65.

“Joe said it best,” Homa said of caddie Joe Greiner. “When we made the putt on 16, he said, ‘It’s a messed up game we play because we’ve been feeling like the hole’s a thimble and you make one long one and it starts to feel like a bucket.’ ”

Homa’s round tied for the low round of the day with Russell Knox, who hit all 18 greens in regulation and didn’t mind the gusty conditions. Neither did Chris Kirk, who shot 68 and is chasing his first PGA Tour victory since 2015 at a tree-lined course that fits his eye.

“Yeah, it certainly favors the guys that are hitting it out of the middle of the face, that’s for sure,” he said.

Does he count himself among them?

“So far, so far, yeah. It’s been all right,” he said.

Among those who weren’t dialed in this week are Bryson DeChambeau, Gary Woodland and Webb Simpson, who missed the cut. Hideki Matsuyama is another big name who checked out early after testing positive for COVID-19.

[mm-video type=video id=01f9jwrz969f0bg8jnwf playlist_id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f9jwrz969f0bg8jnwf/01f9jwrz969f0bg8jnwf-b4a0a4d9698b038baace2732e8e56871.jpg]

[lawrence-related id=778113979,778113959,778113908]

Dustin Johnson leads list of big names who missed the cut at PGA Championship

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Is it time to worry? Dustin Johnson more than likely won’t spend any time fretting over his current state, but the world No. 1’s recent struggles continued as he shot 76-74 to miss the cut in the 103rd PGA Championship on The …

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Is it time to worry?

Dustin Johnson more than likely won’t spend any time fretting over his current state, but the world No. 1’s recent struggles continued as he shot 76-74 to miss the cut in the 103rd PGA Championship on The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.

The man with 24 PGA Tour titles, two majors and plenty of firepower collected just three birdies in 36 holes – a number matched by his double bogeys. A look at his stats shows he didn’t do anything well except for driving distance.

Johnson, who won four times in 2020, including his second major at the Masters, has now gone seven starts on the PGA Tour without a top 10, a stretch that includes two missed cuts and three finishes of 48th or worse. Last week, he withdrew from the AT&T Byron Nelson citing knee discomfort but said earlier this week he was fine and was playing well.

He is the first world No. 1 to miss consecutive cuts in majors since Greg Norman trunk slammed in the Masters and U.S. Open in 1997.

Others heading home include world No. 2 Justin Thomas, No. 4 Xander Schauffele and major champions Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott.

As the winds died down a bit late in the afternoon and into the evening, the cut number ticked lower, moving from 3 over to 4 over and settling on 5 over.

The top 70 and ties made it to the weekend. That means 81 of the 156 players who started on Thursday advance.

Among those making it on the number were 2015 PGA champ Jason Day, 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed and 2016 Open champion Henrik Stenson, who rolled in a 20-footer for birdie on his last to get to 5 over.

They have a chance to win the Wanamaker Trophy – however remote it may be.

Here are the notables who don’t.

Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay is back on the bag. See what pro he’s filling in for at the PGA Championship.

Is there a better replacement caddie than Bones?

The numbers were a little off. And that doesn’t happen with Joe Greiner too often.

The caddie for Max Homa asked his longtime buddy and employer how he’d feel about his attempting to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Chambers Bay.

Griener added that the event would be held during the week of the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas.

“I promised him, ‘If you qualify I’ll either take the week off or I’ll just find somebody else,’ ” Homa said on the Get a Grip podcast with his sidekick, Golf Channel’s Shane Bacon.

But Greiner’s math was off. Instead, the USGA event is smack dab in the middle of next week’s PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.

This left Homa in a tough spot — without a caddie for a major tournament.

But Griener had an alternate plan, offering up his friend Jim “Bones” Mackay as his interim replacement.

Homa was thrilled.

“I’m super, super fortunate. I’ve gotten to know Bones out at Whisper Rock in Arizona and he is truly one of the nicest, greatest people I’ve ever been around,” said Homa, who is currently No. 74 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and No. 39 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Of course, Mackay was an instant success upon joining NBC Sports and Golf Channel telecasts after a quarter-century on the bag for Phil Mickelson. The two mutually parted ways back in 2017 and he’s been dabbling ever since, showing up on the bag for Justin Thomas, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Jimmy Walker.

Matthew Fitzpatrick
Matthew Fitzpatrick and caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay look on from the second hole during the final round of the 2020 Memorial Tournament on July 19, 2020 at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Mackay was on Thomas’ bag during a win at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in 2020 and also worked the PGA Championship the following week. He helped Fitzpatrick to a third-place finish at the Memorial last year as well.

“I have the utmost respect for Joe’s caddying and I mean this is not a slight at all, so please believe me when I say that … but it’ll be really cool to be around someone like Bones,” Homa said. “Joe has learned his way into this. Not that Bones didn’t, but he’s been doing this forever.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Wells Fargo Championship live stream, Featured Groups, start time, tv coverage, leaderboard, how to watch

The 2021 Wells Fargo Championship, Round 3 will begin on Saturday afternoon from the Quail Hollow Club.

The 2021 Wells Fargo Championship, Round 3 will begin on Saturday afternoon from the Quail Hollow Club. Going into Saturday’s Third Round we have a three-way tie for first that includes Matt Wallace, Gary Woodland, and Patrick Rodgers all sitting at 6-under.

The featured groups on Saturday will include Bryson DeChambeau and Shane Lowry as well as Justin Thomas and Ted Potter Jr.

Check out the schedule below with everything you need to know to watch or stream the action online.

2021 Wells Fargo Championship, Third Round

  • When: Saturday, May 8
  • Live TV coverage: 1-3 p.m. on Golf Channel
  • Live stream online: 1-3 p.m. on fuboTV (watch for free)

Featured Groups

Bryson DeChambeau/Shane Lowry

Justin Thomas/Ted Potter Jr.

Wells Fargo Championship Odds and Betting Lines

PGA Tour odds courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook. Odds last updated Friday at 12:00 p.m. ET.

J. Thomas +650

B. DeChambeau +1000

R. McIlroy +1300

Want some action on the PGA Tour? Place your legal sports bets on this game or others in CO, IN, NJ, and WV at BetMGM.

We recommend interesting sports viewing/streaming and betting opportunities. If you sign up for a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

Jon Rahm sees end to PGA Tour-leading cuts made streak at Wells Fargo Championship

After Friday’s second round of the Wells Fargo Championship, the cut it landed on +2, and that meant some big names heading home.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Throughout the blustery afternoon at Quail Hollow in Friday’s second round of the Wells Fargo Championship, the projected cut hovered around 1 over.

As evening approached, the cut started to go back and forth between +1 and +2.

And then +2 and +3.

At day’s end, it landed on +2.

That meant some big names heading home, including world No. 3 Jon Rahm, who had made a PGA Tour-leading 22 consecutive cuts. The new leader is Joaquin Niemann with 18. Also among those missing the weekend are Masters runner-up Will Zalatoris, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau, defending champion Max Homa and Rickie Fowler.

Making the cut on the number were reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau and reigning Open champion Shane Lowry.

Seventy-seven players made the cut. Here are the notables who didn’t:

2021 Wells Fargo Championship live stream, start time, channel, live golf coverage, watch online

The 2021 Wells Fargo Championship, Second Round will begin on Friday of this week from Quail Hollow Club.

The 2021 Wells Fargo Championship will take place this week from Quail Hollow Club. The opening round will get underway on Thursday and will feature ten of the top 15 players in the world all vying for a chance to take home the trophy.

The featured groups are stacked with Rory McIlroy playing with Patrick Reed and Stewart Cink as well as Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland. Bryson will team up with Joaquin Niemann and Xander Schauffele.

Check out the schedule below with everything you need to know to watch or stream the action online.

2021 Wells Fargo Championship, Second Round

  • When: Friday, May 7
  • Live TV coverage: 2-6 p.m. on Golf Channel
  • Live stream online: 2-6 p.m. on fuboTV (watch for free)

Featured Groups

Max Homa/Jon Rahm/Tim Wilkinson

Justin Thomas/Viktor Hovland/Patrick Cantlay

Bryson DeChambeau/Joaquin Niemann/Xander Schauffele

Stewart Cink/Patrick Reed/Rory McIlroy

Wells Fargo Championship Odds and Betting Lines

PGA Tour odds courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook. Odds last updated Friday at 12:00 p.m. ET.

J. Thomas +650

B. DeChambeau +1000

R. McIlroy +1300

Want some action on the PGA Tour? Place your legal sports bets on this game or others in CO, IN, NJ, and WV at BetMGM.

We recommend interesting sports viewing/streaming and betting opportunities. If you sign up for a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.