THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 12, 2023

Max Homa

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. Do you change the way you approach this golf course compared to Friday when it was hard before the winds came today?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, I mean, just the greens were softer, so you could be quite a bit more aggressive. It's so hard when the greens are firm anywhere just because your land numbers are so specific. But out here, as hard as this golf course is, there are little tiny bowls, and when the ball's just kind of landing and releasing like two paces or one pace you can be a bit more aggressive.

I'm a good iron player, so when I'm in the fairway, I feel like there's a lot of shots I can go at. But little things, like 15 today was way off the left and I started it way left and just let it cut in, whereas if it was firm, that ball lands and just sprints off the back of the green.

I would say that if it was a firm day, I would have had to maybe play something that held the wind a bit to help it stop. So that's the only thing we really did differently.

Other than that, obviously the winds were similar so you still got to hit great shots, but I just think you get rewarded a bit more for being aggressive now, whereas it was the opposite on Friday; it was kind of play away from it a little bit and make your pars.

Q. How would you assess the break on 12, good or bad?

MAX HOMA: Oh, fine. I mean, it was cool as hell; I've never hit a pin from 307. So that was sweet. I mean, it would have been nice if it went in but, I mean, I didn't really look at it as a bad break.

Q. What was your feeling on 17?

MAX HOMA: I don't know if the wind switched -- it's such a weird hole in that it is kind of a guess. All the stands, you can't really feel the wind. We had played the last hole slightly down out of the right, so we were playing that one slightly in out of the left.

I thought I hit the shot. I mean, it's possible adrenaline got me. I flighted it really well. I hit a really good shot, maybe a couple paces left of where I was looking. Never thought that was going to go over the green.

But that's kind of the hole. It just felt like by the time we got to the drop zone, it felt like we were going straight downwind all of a sudden. So I don't know, that is frustrating because I thought I executed, but that is 17 at THE PLAYERS Championship, I guess.

Q. When you're chasing with those final three holes coming up, do they allow you to be aggressive or is that not a great strategy even though you know that you've got to make up some ground?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, I just think it all depends on your tee ball. 18, again with it being soft, if you are in the fairway, I feel you can be aggressive. 17's obviously always going to be -- if you hit the perfect shot and you get the number right, you're going to look like a genius, and if you don't, it's going to look like you hit a bad golf shot.

Then 16, yeah, if you hit the fairway, it just depends on your number. I was trying to be aggressive on 16, and I just pulled it a little. The ball was above my feet a little bit, so it was a little tricky with the wind off the right. But I think you just always kind of play like that. You just kind of decide after your tee ball what you can do and then you work your way back from there.

Q. Scottie is doing pretty well today. He's chipped in yesterday, chipped in today. Would you kind of tell us about what makes guys short games so good?

MAX HOMA: Look, it's just by eye, but it looks just kind of homegrown, which I always feel like works pretty well. Jordan's kind of similar. Obviously they have great mechanics, but it feels like they do it a different way, which means they typically own it a bit more. So I feel like he just knows what he's going to do. He has this stabbing spinner. He's got the really good kind of soft one out of the rough. I feel like he's just very artistic in that way.

So that would be kind of -- I feel like he sees them going into the hole. I've played a lot more with Jordan, and you can just kind of see him painting that picture and making them, and they make a lot of them. So that would be my guess. But he's obviously just really good at pretty much every aspect of golf.