MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2023

Max Homa

Quick Quotes

Q. The birdie on 18, how does that prepare you for tomorrow?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, that was -- worked so hard to get back to under par and then gave one back on 17 after a bad drive. So it was nice to -- I would have taken the par. 18's a difficult hole. But it sure does feel a lot better just considering how well we played kind of all day and got on a little run to make up some lost ground.

So ending on a high around here feels good. It makes dinner taste a lot better, as they say. So, yeah, that felt really nice.

Q. You seemed to really enjoy the mic'd up thing. Why do that here?

MAX HOMA: If Augusta National wants to do something for the Masters, I think you --

Q. Who approached you about it?

MAX HOMA: CBS, yeah. I was one of the people early on talking about doing it and kind of helped in a way form the idea. Then the actual smart people took over. So I'm just a fan of it, and I think it's good for -- it's good for golf. It's good for the fans. I think it makes coverage more interesting.

Yeah, if you're at the Masters and anyone -- if they just say that's okay to do, I feel like you should do it and just help kind of push -- I think that term grow the game gets thrown around a lot. At times we don't know what it means, but it does feel like that's a good way to maybe gain some perspective for the fans to enjoy golf a little bit easier.

Q. When did you get the green light to do that?

MAX HOMA: I think they asked me yesterday. So I was pretty surprised. I think they were pretty surprised. So, yeah, it's a good opportunity.

Q. Were you distracted by it?

MAX HOMA: I mean, it's like being on a phone call for ten minutes. It's not the end of the world. It might be a shade distracting, but I think if it's 5 percent distracting and it's 95 percent something positive for golf, I can get past that.

Yeah, I don't even think -- it was a little more distracting the first time I did it because we didn't know exactly how it was going to go. Today it went really well and it was easy. So that was quite nice.

Q. Given the tradition of a major at this place, are you surprised it's happening here?

MAX HOMA: If you only looked on the surface, I would say, yeah, I am surprised. Augusta National has done a good job pushing the envelope on golf. They are traditional, take our hats off inside type of place, but at the same time, they have the Drive, Chip and Putt here. They have the ANWA here. They've done a lot of things behind the scenes to push golf forward.

So I guess right away I thought that sounds not like them, but when you actually break it down, it's quite on par with what they've been doing.

Q. Under these circumstances, how impressive was the round that Sam Bennett played?

MAX HOMA: He did great. He hit the ball really well. Made two really nice par putts, played really solid golf. That was awesome. I can't imagine coming here as an am and what that must feel like. Then to come out with birdie, eagle, that was awesome. He played some great golf and should have a very bright future.

Q. What hole did you do the walk and talk on?

MAX HOMA: 14.

Q. Is there a hole you'd rather not -- I know you're not going to say no, but is there a hole where you would say pick somewhere else?

MAX HOMA: No, just par-3 seems like a poor idea. There's so little time to talk. So you like par-4s or 5s because we have before we hit the shot and just to walk to the green and you can't talk on the green. So I guess there wouldn't really be a hole.

I guess 18, maybe getting down to the nitty gritty when you're getting a little tired and want to up the focus maybe. But I think we treat each hole as similarly as we can to the next one, so I guess there wouldn't really be a bad hole to do it on.

Q. Any thoughts on the changes to the 5th hole?

MAX HOMA: Guess I didn't notice, so no.

Q. Nothing changed your strategy on the hole or anything?

MAX HOMA: No, it's very long, and you need to hit three great shots to make a 4. It's the hardest hole out here, I think.

Q. So you didn't have that in when you were just off the green here?

MAX HOMA: I had it in, but they went quiet. I can't talk at that point. You can hear me read my putt, but it's too close quarters. At least when they're hitting, you can walk to the other side of the fairway. These are big greens on Augusta, but I'm not going to walk all the way to the other side of the green on 14.

Q. Do you hear talking while you're playing?

MAX HOMA: Not when I'm getting in to do it. If I start to hear anything, I take it out. You don't really hear a whole lot. I heard Tom Kim made eagle on 13. I hear little things like that, but not much.