WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY

March 22, 2023

Max Homa

Austin Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. It seems like you are gaining sort of a match play reputation, mostly on the strength of the Presidents Cup, but now you've won this. Do you like the format? Do you feel that's true, that you're kind of starting to be a man to be feared a little bit?

MAX HOMA: I don't know -- I mean, I've been playing really good golf for the last -- since before the Presidents Cup and then thereafter.

But Presidents Cup I won three of the matches with a partner, so I'm not going to take all the credit for that one.

But yeah, I just think it's always difficult playing someone playing well who's confident, so I guess I would be -- if you're going to use the word "feared," I guess that would be something.

But when it's just one-on-one it helps if you're rolling because you probably don't get as far ahead of yourself. But I think I have a long way to go to be some kind of match play terror for the rest of the field.

Q. Do you like the personal nature of match play compared to stroke play?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, I think it's like the pure form of golf. I know back in the day majors were played like this and that's pretty much how golf was. I don't think that that is exactly the way things should be. It's nice to do it once in a while, at the team events, at this. I think that's pretty cool.

But yeah, I've heard stories, I think Mav McNealy was 16-under through three rounds and didn't get to continue playing. That's a shame, but I do think it's a cool event to have in the season. I don't think that it means the end of the world either way, whether you win a match or don't, but I think it's a cool thing that we have as golfers.

We play it all the time at home, so it's nice to do it competitively every once in a while.

Q. Is your attitude any different when you tee off in match play compared to stroke play?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, it is. I've shuffled around when I play singles, like with -- do I go play and just try to keep up with what score I'm at, or do I just play the hole for what it is? I bounce around back to like college when I played the U.S. Am.

I think now I just have had some success in match play back at the U.S. Am through college and now, just because it really helps, I think, to help you get one-shot-at-a-time minded, and I definitely think the stuff I've worked on with my head, a lot of it is just not being very present. Hitting a bad shot and thinking a few holes down the road I'm going to have to figure that out by then, and that's not very healthy.

So I think nowadays I wouldn't say it's drastically different, it just helps me get into that mode.

Q. Is there any sense when you win a match like this or when you play well at Presidents Cup -- we talk about reputation stacks in your favor of potentially getting picked for a Ryder Cup or something like that. Is there a benefit that way?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, I don't think it can hurt. I don't think you can come through here and have a bad record at this event and the captain look at you and be like, well, he's a great golfer but he just doesn't play well in match play.

This golf course is very quirky, so that definitely adds to it. But I think if you have a great match play record it can bolster your chances of getting a pick to one of the team events just because -- like Kisner, Kisner is really good at this.

I don't even know how you quantify that, but he's really good at match play. He's been great in Presidents Cups, Ryder Cups, and this event. There's something to it, but I don't think that if you had a poor record you could just look at them and be like, they can't play match play, because it is still just golf at the end of the day.

Q. What did you do well today?

MAX HOMA: I thought I drove it pretty well. Didn't really hole many putts and my distance control was pretty poor with my irons, but other than one drive on the 3rd hole, I felt like I was pretty under control off the tee, and then I did kind of -- I did a good job with my irons just always kind of keeping pressure on Justin and hitting greens when I was in the fairway or at the very least when I was off on distance I was leaving it in the right spot to have an easy up-and-down.

I just thought that I didn't score like anything crazy low, but I felt like I made it somewhat easy on myself today.