Five years on from saving his career, Max Homa fires course record 62 to lead BMW Championship
He almost gave up on golf five years ago, and now Max Homa is right at the top once again…
Max Homa leads the BMW Championship at the halfway stage after firing in a new course record 62 at Olympia Fields.
It comes five years after he made four birdies in a row to make the cut at the Korn Ferry Regular Season Finale. That was what kept his golfing dream alive.
“[It] feels like forever ago but I think about it all the time,” Homa said.
“It’s just crazy sometimes walking up the 18th hole here today and just thinking about — I don’t know if that would have happened had it not been for those four holes in a row, so it was pretty cool to look back on it and reflect on it, and it gives me a lot of appreciation for what I’m doing.”
That was a life changing moment for Homa, and this week could be another…
The 32-year-old did not know about the course record until he saw something posted on one of the leaderboards.
At that point, Chris Kirk was playing well enough to threaten the previous course record of 63, and that got Homa’s attention.
“I did randomly because Kirk was playing good and the leaderboard said, Chris Kirk is challenging the course record of 63, so of course that’s — just randomly saw that today, and then I had to think about it,” Homa said after the round.
Amazingly, he still shot a course record despite making a couple of bogeys as well. With ten birdies on the round, he tied the high for a single round on the PGA Tour this season.
It has also led to his best 36-hole score on the PGA Tour, and he has a good record when being in a similar position previously.
He was 1st in Strokes Gained: Putting, making 4.31 shots on the rest of the field. He led the same category on the opening day at Olympia Fields.
“Obviously I holed a lot of putts, which you have to do to make 10 birdies, but I was very proud of how I drove it. I felt like I was able to attack kind of all day,” he added.
“Obviously the greens are still really soft, so being in the fairway as often as I was, it felt like I was able to be aggressive when I wanted to, and if I didn’t, I could just play to the middle of the green.
“I felt that the tee ball set up everything. It was a major bonus to make as many putts as I did, but it was all really good. I think that out here when you’re in the fairway, it becomes significantly easier, more so than other golf courses.”
As it stands, Homa would move to the top of the FedEx Cup standings with just the Tour Championship left to play.
It would also guarantee him a position on Zach Johnson’s Ryder Cup team, with the cut-off to earn points coming at the end of the BMW Championship.
“Yeah, I told Zach [Johnson] last year I was kissing up to him, but then he also said, ‘Well, I’d like to not have to pick you,’ and I said ‘All right, there’s my promise, I’ll try to get an automatic [spot]’,” Homa added.
“That would be really cool. That’s been kind of my goal since these Playoffs started, to get into that top six.
“Yeah, all that obviously takes some great golf. You’re playing against a lot of great players.
“It has been fun keeping that goal, though, in mind because you’re competing against the best Americans, which is a tall task.”
NOW READ: Prize money on offer at the BMW Championship
Can Max Homa go on and win the BMW Championship after his 62? Will he be in Zach Johnson’s Ryder Cup team? Let us know what you think with a Tweet!
Matt Coles
Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…
Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.
He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.
Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…
Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.
