THE 151ST OPEN

July 20, 2023

Max Homa

Mixed Zone

Q. Talk a little bit about your round. It seemed a lot more difficult towards the end, especially with the weather and cooling off and everything. Not quite as easy as it might have been earlier in the day.

MAX HOMA: Yeah, the back nine is just a lot harder, and anytime it gets cold I think you stop moving so well. You just hit so many long irons into the back nine. You have 16 and 18, but where the pin was on 18, I saw some shots this morning, second shots stop on the back of the green, but I don't think we had much hope for that.

Even my chip -- although I wasn't trying to hit it too close, right when it landed, it just had that different noise. I definitely think it played maybe just a shade more difficult or more firm.

But I don't think you're playing many of those holes on the back trying to eat them up. Yeah, it was just a little tricky just because of the temperature change.

Q. What about your position; it's great to be only two back.

MAX HOMA: Yeah, I was really happy with the way I played. I hit it awesome. Only one mistake and just did a really good job. Holed a couple good short ones but didn't have too much stress and just hit -- that's as good as I remember hitting it in a major.

I felt like I had a lot of control of my golf ball, which was great in that wind.

Q. I saw you may have written something on your glove. What is that?

MAX HOMA: It's just kind of a mantra. It has a bad word in it, so I won't tell you what it is. It's just something I started doing in Detroit. Just stop caring so much and let myself just be myself.

Q. You started in Detroit, so you kind of see it every time you grip and it's like a little trigger?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, I guess. Sometimes you just need a reminder that it's going to be all right. Just go play golf.

Q. Did the U.S. Open trigger that, or was there some residual angst after the U.S. Open?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, the U.S. Open hurt me a lot. I played awesome. Had a three-hole stretch that was bad, and it just didn't feel like I deserved to miss that cut. Then I went to the next week in Connecticut and missed that one by one and played fine.

It's just one of those feels like I'm gripping the wheel real tight. Especially everybody knows my major record sucks. I think I'm not myself when I play them.

Then I go to regular tour events and I feel like I free up and I play great. I'm a lot more consistent. Crazy things don't seem to happen.

Today felt more like that. I felt like I was playing golf on a hard golf course and just hitting good 5-irons and good 3-woods and just moving along.

Q. On 16, the second shot felt like a pretty huge moment. Did it feel that way to you, as well?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, you know, I missed a short one on 15, which is always funny because I played so well and made so many good putts, and you miss one and it almost jars you, and that 16th tee shot is pretty awkward. Every club we have basically will go in a bunker.

Just didn't hit a good tee ball and got a great lie. Missed it right where all the people were. But I still had a 4-iron in. I was just really proud of that one because I felt like I didn't kind of judge what I had done off the tee.

Reminded myself that I've hit a lot of good shots and then I just striped a 4-iron. Those little things do feel good. Obviously fortunate with the lie, but yeah, just getting out of there with 4 and getting to move along, because you just don't want to -- as you start to maybe make one kind of hiccup, you don't want that to spiral, especially with how great that round was.

Q. Seems like missing in the right place is pretty key to this golf course, and it seems like 18 your second shot is maybe an example of that.

MAX HOMA: Yeah, except for the fact that there's those white stakes on the right, so I would argue that left is okay.

We were in between clubs. There was really not anything I could do there. I was kind of trying to hit it back where Collin did and maybe get lucky and spin one and get it on the green, but it just was really in between.

And plus, I don't know if anybody has mentioned this before, but you can hear the commentators on the broadcast from the big TV, and I was over the ball and one of them said, "this is too much club."

I did an absolutely awful job of not backing off because I knew it was too much club; that was the point. So that's a whole other thing. It does matter where you leave it. I've noticed that in links even last week, I've noticed when you're chipping into the wind and when you don't have a bunker in your way, you can do what you want to, which is nice, but the moment you have those things in your way, the golf course kind of dictates what you're going to do.

On 18 for us, it was just like get the ball on the green and let's go home.

Q. It was on the second shot you can overhear --

MAX HOMA: Yeah, I'm hoping they turn that down tomorrow because it is really distracting.