For multiple reasons, The Los Angeles Country Club is a special venue for Max Homa.
The 32-year-old has risen into the ranks of golf’s elite—he’s ranked No. 7 in the world—but in his home area of Los Angeles.
“I’ve just been thinking about how—I don’t know, when you grow up and we all have that cliche joke, putt to win the U.S. Open, putt to win the Masters, you don’t picture the golf course except for if it’s at Augusta,” Homa said Tuesday.
“To have a major in my hometown, 18-ish miles from where I grew up, I think that’s a dream come true.”
Homa has played his best golf in the familiar confines of California. Of his six PGA Tour wins, four have come in the state, including the 2021 Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles and the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year in San Diego.
He has history at LACC, too, even though it isn’t a regular PGA Tour venue and is set to host major golf for the first time.
When Homa was a student-athlete at Cal, he shot a course-record 61 during the 2013 Pac-12 Championship.
“I do look at that (course knowledge) as a bit of a boost,” Homa said. “All the guys who played the Pac-12s here, anybody who played here prior, it’s definitely a bit of an advantage.”
The devil’s advocate might ask whether such a home-course advantage actually could create distractions for Homa. He joked that if friends have texted him this week looking for U.S. Open tickets, they shouldn’t expect a reply.
“I did try and at least plan a month or two ago like how I go about it,” Homa said. “If I didn’t respond to you this week and you’re somehow watching this, I’m sorry, but it’s a lot.”
Homa was also asked if there’s a danger he might “try too hard” this week.
“You just look at how I played every other major trying way too hard, so I’m quite good at that,” he cracked. “... In an odd way, it’s almost worked its way out positively because I’ve been thinking about this event for like a year, about how I can’t try too hard, can’t try too hard.”
A T13 at the 2022 PGA Championship is his only top-30 result. Last year he made the weekend at the U.S. Open for the first time, tying for 47th.
As for what he’s doing to try to improve that major record, Homa offered a typically humorous, self-effacing answer.
“Play better,” he said.
“I really do believe that my golf game is plenty good enough to contend in these things. I think I’ve shown that in other PGA Tour events. I’ve won six times, a lot of them recently. I’ve done it on some pretty great golf courses, some hard golf courses. I just think I get here and I try too hard. ... I think I’ve been waiting for the weeks to click with my golf game and realizing that it’s not the golf game. This week will be a mental test for me, which is good.”
