WM PHOENIX OPEN

February 10, 2023

Max Homa

TPC Scottsdale

Quick Quotes

Q. When you were standing on 13 tee you were sitting at plus 1. What changed over the last few holes?

MAX HOMA: Not much. I hadn't really made too many bad swings to start. I thought I hit a pretty good drive on 11. The wind just got it. It ran forever.

Then I had a really long 2-putt and hit a good second putt and horseshooed it.

Then 12, I mean, that was just playing really firm. Hit a beautiful 8-iron, almost hits the pin, and then it goes in the water. So I guess I had to remind myself of that, I was pretty frustrated. Fortunately I let some frustration out with a bad drive on 13, which is kind of a waste.

But I kind of settled myself down and just went back to hitting good shots and just taking what I could get. Fortunately things started to go my way.

Q. Just how good was the putter on the day? Stats say 168 feet made of putts?

MAX HOMA: I missed a lot of putts inside of about eight feet. But I made a bunch outside. So I don't know, such is golf.

Q. While you were on the course Tiger announced he's playing next week. Just want to get your reaction to that?

MAX HOMA: That's awesome. I imagine we'll be carrying him down the hill on 1 and up it on 18. Which no one would mind. But it's awesome. I'm really glad he's back. I think we're privileged any time he plays now. Obviously we don't know his schedule. Seems like he's going to try to play the majors. So it's really awesome he's playing a TOUR event. Especially his event. One of my favorites. So I'm stoked to see him back out there. Yeah, he's always remarkable. You never know what he's going to do. So it will be fun to watch him play some golf.

Q. Are you guys marvelling at how firm the greens are this week?

MAX HOMA: They're always very firm, but we just never have wind in Scottsdale. So that's what's made it really tricky.

The shot on 12 is always really firm. That back pin's scary, but blowing down wind, 20 miles an hour, whatever we had, 15, 20, it made it just bounce like crazy.

This place does an amazing job of getting firm and fast. But mixing the wind in is what's making it really hard.

Jon's played two pretty incredible rounds with very few mistakes. And even then there's some shots he hits that look okay and they will bounce in funny spots. But he's done a good job of minimizing damage and that's why he's up near the lead. So that's what people are going to have to do if it continues to be like this.

Q. Good experience playing with him the last two days? Just how well he's hitting it and being front row seat to that?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, Jon's a tremendous golfer. Statistically speaking over his career he seems like he's second to Tiger in just top-10 percentage. That kind of stuff is most impressive. He's obviously won a lot too. But just the mere fact that I think he top 10s one every two events. I think it's just him and Tiger that have done that.

So he's just has no weaknesses. His strength is I guess hard to find because he just has so many of 'em. But he drives the ball so well and so far. When he's doing that I feel like golf courses are playgrounds for him. I don't know. I've played quite a bit of golf with him. He never ceases to impress me. So it's fun being around him for a couple days.

Q. Playing with an ear piece, with being mic'ed up, you seem to think it's important as an opportunity for growth. But not everybody's sold on it. So I'm curious why you think it's important and then what you say to players who are completely uninterested in it?

MAX HOMA: I don't think that the ear piece is necessarily important, but I do think that the concept of us giving and entertaining is important. Our average age demographic on TOUR is I think the highest of all major sports. We need to let people in a little bit if we want to grow. If we don't then that's fine too. It does not need to be an ear piece. It doesn't need to be everybody. I know Patrick said he wouldn't want to do it. That's completely fine. This is not like a mandatory-type thing. This isn't the maybe the best idea. But it's something I worked on with past. I think it's a good idea and hopefully it gets tweaked and hopefully gets better. Maybe something completely different. I've been known not to have the best ideas.

So, yeah, but I just think that the idea of us as players giving a little to entertain goes a long way.