Max Homa entered Sunday’s final round of the 88th Masters Tournament two strokes behind leader Scottie Scheffler.
Homa continued to hit great iron shots. Unfortunately, his putter let him down by missing a number of winnable birdie putts on the front nine.
Nevertheless, the Burbank, Calif., native found himself at the top of the leaderboard as he stood on the 12th tee.
Homa then one-hopped the green with his tee shot, but the ball went deep into the bushes, leaving an unplayable lie. He made double bogey on that hole and never recovered.
“I wish the number 12 ball hadn’t hit the base of the ivy,” Homa said after his round.
“The 12 is just so difficult. The wind isn’t where it feels or where it should be. I hit it 1 to 3 feet to the left of where I was aiming, but I wasn’t aiming for perfection, I was trying to hit it to the left center of the green. I kept that in mind.”
Meanwhile, Scheffler reminded everyone why he is currently the best player in the world. Scheffler made a difficult course look easy with birdie after birdie at Augusta National.
After the round, Homa was asked if it would have been easier to accept the loss knowing it was against the world No. 1.
Homa answered in a way that only Homa could answer.
“I can swallow properly. I’m fine.”
That kind of cynicism has made the 33-year-old a fan favorite on the PGA Tour.
This is the closest Homa has ever come to winning a major. He has won six times on the PGA Tour. Player ranked 11th In the world.
However, the reputation that followed Homa was that he was someone who would struggle in the majors.
“The rhetoric against me, and this is from myself, is that I’m not appearing in these things.” [majors], I appeared on the show for four days. I didn’t just throw a 65 in there and sneak in. I had to sleep on this every day, this feeling and like a monkey on my back. ”
Indeed, Homa played very well all week. This was despite the conditions being almost unplayable, with wind gusts exceeding 60 mph.
He hopes to build on this experience at next month’s PGA Championship at Valhalla.
Kendall Capps is the senior editor of SB Nation’s Playing Through.For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough On all major social media platforms.
