Max Homa emerged from a tie for fourth to win the Farmers Insurance Open by two strokes on Saturday, Jan. 28, in San Diego, his sixth career PGA Tour victory.
Homa fired a 6–under-par 66 on the South Course at Torrey Pines to finish at 13–under 275.
Homa, born in Burbank and attended Valencia High School in Santa Clarita, won the individual 2013 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship while at UC Berkeley.
Keegan Bradley also closed with a 66 to wind up as runner-up at 277 after beginning the day in ninth.
Collin Morikawa took third place at 10 under after a 69. Third-round leader Sam Ryder carded a 75 on Saturday to drop into a tie for fourth at 9 under with Sahith Theegala and South Korea’s Sungjae Im, who both shot 70 in the fourth round.
Spain’s Jon Rahm, who earned victories in each of his past two starts on the PGA Tour and four of his past six worldwide, started Saturday two strokes behind Ryder, but he, too, tailed off. A final-round 74 left him at 8 under, tied for seventh place with Australia’s Jason Day, who closed with a 68.
Tony Finau (fourth-round 73) and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama (69) shared ninth place at 7 under.
Homa made four birdies on the front nine and was 5 under for the day before carding his lone bogey on the par-4 14th hole. He closed par-birdie-par-birdie for his second win of the 2022-23 campaign, following the season-opening Fortinet Championship at Napa, Calif., in September.
“It’s a ton of patience and a lot of confidence,” Homa said of his ability to come from behind. “Obviously there’s a ton of great players. That board was stacked. But I just had to know that it’s obviously a hard golf course, I just have to keep hitting good shots and keep hitting good putts. ...
“Winning takes a lot of luck, but it just takes, I think, a lot of patience and knowing that, especially on these final rounds, 18 holes is a marathon and a lot of stuff goes on.”
Bradley completed a bogey-free round with four birdies on the back nine, but it wasn’t enough to catch Homa.
“When I chipped in on 13, I was trying to not look at leaderboards because I figured I was too far back to really push,” Bradley said. “I mean, you can’t push on this course, so I didn’t want to feel like I had to push. Then when I chipped in there and I hit it to a couple feet on 14, I thought, ‘I’m ahead of these guys (physically on the golf course), I can post something and who knows.'”
Rahm started his round with a thud, bogeying the par-4 first hole, following with three pars and then making double bogey at the par-4 fifth hole, where he drove into a fairway bunker and then played his next two shots out of the rough. He followed immediately with a birdie and then a bogey, and he finished with two birdies and a bogey the rest of the way.
