Max Homa Wins Fortinet Championship

Max Homa captured his third PGA Tour title at the season-opening Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, CA.

Homa, who won earlier in 2021 at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, the event hosted by Tiger Woods and in Tiger-esque fashion, Homa holed out from the rough from 95 yards for eagle on the par-4 12th en route to a 7-under 65 final round and an eventual one stroke victory.

“It was awesome. You know, I’ve actually never had my wife at any of my wins before and I’ve been promising to play a little better when she was around,” Homa said. “So this morning, although we had a 2:00, 1:50 tee time, it was nice to have somebody else with me so I wasn’t just all in my thoughts, so I felt like emotionally to start the day I was in a good spot.”

“I was nervous but a good kind of nerves. I felt like I played really controlled golf, felt like I was confident out there and I have — I have what nobody else has, I have a Joe on my bag and Joe helps with everything.” Homa continued. “Joe helps me calm down, helps me slow down, helps me with the shots, helps me with the reads, and I felt like we were really in synch all week but especially today. Everything we were talking about just felt like was hitting home, so it was just a cool day all around.”

Homa’s latest win came a week after he ended the “Get A Grip” podcast he co-hosted for nearly two years.

“Time management. I feel like outside of my family, things that make me the happiest is this, is playing great golf, and I felt like if I was going to spill my guts as I enjoy doing to the small masses every week, I might be better off spending that time practicing or working out or working on my own head,” Homa said.

The popular podcast was co-hosted by Shane Bacon, well known to golf fans from “Golf Today” on Golf Channel and his work on the FOX Sports broadcast of the U.S. Open.

“I really enjoy doing it, I love Shane Bacon, I love working with him, he’s awesome and he made it so easy, but at some point I felt like it was not doing me any favors having to regurgitate all the bad things that happen because, you know, I could have a great year and win one time. So you lose the other 20–something odd times. I felt like it wasn’t healthy for me. I really think my game is getting to the point where it could be something really good and I want to push myself and see what that could be and I thought part of that was just making sure my time was always being managed toward exactly this moment.”

Homa takes home $1.26 million and 500 FedEx Cup points for his victory.

Maverick McNealy finished second, one shot behind Homa.

Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama was six shots back at 13-under.

PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson was on fire on Saturday with a third round 65 before a final round 75 dropped him into a tie for 36th in what will be his final PGA Tour event of 2021.

“So this will be my last regular Tour event this year and then I’ll play Timuquana and I may play a couple more and I may not, we’ll see how I feel,” Mickelson said. “I wanted to help out Jimmy and he’s got his first event this year and I just wanted to support him, he’s a good man.”

World No.1 Jon Rahm missed the cut and had the weekend off.

“It’s unfortunate to start the year with basically one of my worst TOUR rounds in a while,” Rahm said. “It’s what it is. Course was tough out there today and just need to be better.”

Next up is the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.