By Dave Shedloski
Max Homa was looking to have what he called “a Tiger Woods moment.” Yeah, well, so does most of the known world—and certainly, all of the known golf world. Do you know how many people try to have a Tiger Woods moment, try to wish for one, try to force one, and end up requiring CPR for their egos?

What makes Max Homa so special that he thinks he deserves one?

Welp, it turns out that it’s not a thing that you do but a feeling that you have, and what a feeling that is to know that you don’t need to rummage through the attic of your psyche but simply let it flow from somewhere a little farther south. From the heart. Go with the flow. Do what you know how to do.

And if you do that, then, yeah, you do kind of deserve it.

So there was Homa on the 12th hole of the North Course at Silverado Resort and Spa Sunday, trailing Maverick McNealy by three strokes and sizing up a wedge from 94 yards. He didn’t try to stick it close. He simply took the advice of his caddie Joe Greiner, made a swing he’d been making for the better part of the weekend—easy and pure and relaxed—and watched his ball land short of the hole, veer left, break back to the right and roll perfectly into the cup.

Homa hole-out! ?@MaxHoma23 eagles to get within 1 of the lead. ? pic.twitter.com/drfVOIsaE0

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 19, 2021

The eagle propelled Homa to a five-under surge in his final seven holes and a one-stroke victory over McNealy in the Fortinet Championship in Napa, Calif.

With a second consecutive seven-under 65, Homa won his third PGA Tour title and his second in his last 18 starts, both coming in his native California. He finished at 19-under 269 and with the satisfaction of winning for the first time with his wife Lacey in the gallery, hugely meaningful because, as he revealed later, “I don’t need to explain what happened after you win and what happened on the holes.”

That’s OK. We’ll explain. After the eagle, Homa birdied the 13th from 21 feet, two-putted the par-5 16th for the lead and added one more dagger at the par-4 17th with an 18-foot downhiller that curled more than the corners of his bushy mustache that seems to be growing as much as his confidence.

It helped that McNealy, the third-round co-leader who was seeking his first tour title, got a case of the putter-cover blues on the inward nine after seemingly taking control of the tournament through the opening nine holes. As in, he looked like he’d forgotten to take the cover off. Also hailing from the Golden State, McNealy started having trouble getting the ball to the cup, opening the door for someone to rush past him.

An excuse-me 30-footer at the last for eagle with issue settled—after he chopped up the 17th for double bogey that featured a 166-yard drive off a tree limb and two poor chip shots—gave McNealy a 68 and allowed him to grab a solo second at 270. Not a bad finish. Not quite what he wanted, either.

“I expanded my comfort zone a lot,” said McNealy, whose second-round lead was the first on the PGA Tour. “I had two rounds where I teed off in the final group and that was one of my goals for this Q-3 2021 is to play in the final group and get that experience and just make that something that I’m comfortable with, something that I’ve experienced before.”

Homa, 30, can relate. He needed 110 starts for his first tour title. Then he beat Tony Finau in a playoff at the Genesis Open at Riviera in February. Still, he hadn’t posted a top-10 finish in more than three months, since a T-6 at the Memorial Tournament. He cited a bit of fatigue, but that looooong offseason did wonders for the Burbank native.

“I was awful the back end of this season,” Homa said. “I thought I was doing a good job of being myself. I got maybe a little burnt out by the end of last season. I know we only had two weeks off, but I really believed I learned a lot from those weeks and kind of put that to use in the two weeks I had to kind of prep for this season.”

Meg Oliphant
This was the first time Max Homa’s wife, Lacey, was at a PGA Tour tournament in which he won.

What did he learn? Don’t try to be Tiger but be more like Patrick Cantlay tries to be. Genuine. Be yourself. “I saw a press conference he [Cantlay] did [at the Tour Championship] where he kind of said that he just tries to be himself at all times,” Homa explained. “And I try to kind of be introspective and think, ‘Well, who am I?’ And I’m someone when I play at home, I talk a lot and I wouldn’t say goofy, I’m still stoic, but I talk a lot. So, I tried this week to talk a lot and be me and not feel like I was being any different than who I am.”

No, not goofy. When you gain 8.3 strokes tee to green on the weekend, that is definitely not goofy. That is, well, a lot like something a certain 15-time major winner from California would do. And the hole out at 12, with his ball-striking purring along, had an air of inevitability to it. At least in Homa’s mind.

“I think to myself a lot when I’m playing—I think a lot of us probably do when we’re in the heat of battle on a Sunday—you want to have a Tiger moment,” he said. “You know, he’s made it from everywhere to win. It’s just he does the impossible. So sometimes when you put yourself in that state of mind, great things happen.

“So, all day today I felt like I was going to have a cool moment, and I end up having a couple, but the one on 12 was especially good.”

Bet that’s one he won’t mind explaining to Lacey.

The post Max Homa makes the most of ‘Tiger moment,’ grabbing a third career PGA Tour win appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
Cameron Champ’s emotional victory celebration with his father and terminally ill grandfather via phone was one of the most moving sports scenes in recent memory. But how the 24-year-old moved his golf ball around Silverado Resort and Spa to earn his second PGA Tour title was pretty special as well.

Champ led the Safeway Open field in both driving distance (337.1 yards) and scrambling (84.21 percent), quite the effective combination of power and finesse. It’s also a rare statistical feat as pointed out by PGATour.com’s Sean Martin:

In the last 20 years, eight players have won while leading the field in driving distance and scrambling:

Cameron Champ
Justin Thomas
Rory McIlroy
Jason Day
Dustin Johnson
Bubba Watson
Harrison Frazar
Tiger Woods

— Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) September 30, 2019

Martin also noted there have now been 12 such instances of a player pulling this off in the past 20 years. Tiger Woods has done it four times, Rory McIlroy twice, and six players, including Champ, once. Pretty good company.

Both of these parts of Champ’s game were on full display on the 72nd hole. Needing a birdie to beat Adam Hadwin, Champ bombed this 369(!)-yard drive down the fairway:

Nerves of steel.@Cameron__Champ launches a 369-yard drive on 18. ? pic.twitter.com/DYtijQuUjf

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 30, 2019

Then after an 8-iron missed the green on his approach to the par 5, Champ hit a beautiful chip to set up his winning putt from four feet.

All the emotions.

The winning moment for @Cameron__Champ and his family @SafewayOpen. pic.twitter.com/FzM6nqokVK

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 30, 2019

He also chipped in for par on No. 11:

What. A. Recovery.

Cameron Champ saves par to maintain a three-shot lead.pic.twitter.com/DMSo28CxD8

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) September 29, 2019

Champ called the win, “the greatest moment in my golfing career.” But while his touching tribute to PaPa Champ will be tough to top, that kind of touch around the greens to go with the fastest swing on tour all but guarantee more future titles.

The post Cameron Champ accomplishes rare statistical feat in Safeway Open victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
For the second straight year, Brendan Steele entered the final round of the Safeway Open lurking a few shots off the lead, needing a low round to contend. Last season, he delivered with a seven-under 65 that erased a four-shot deficit for his second PGA Tour victory.

On Sunday at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, Calif., he didn’t need a 65, but his final-round three-under 69 was good enough to come back from two shots and defend his title with a 72-hole total of 15-under 273 to begin the 2017-’18 PGA Tour season.

Steele, 34, cruised on the front nine, going out in three-under 33. After dropping shots at the 12th and 14th, his lead shrunk to just one shot, with Phil Mickelson and Tony Finau making a charge. But Steele finished strong, making birdies at the par-5 16th and par-5 18th to win by two shots for the third victory of his career. He’s the first player in the Safeway Open’s 11-year history to win back-to-back.

After making eagle at the par-5 fifth and birdies at the ninth and 13th, Finau found himself just one off Steele’s lead. But his drive at the 14th was way off line, leading to a double-bogey 6. His final-round three-under 69 earned him a solo second finish at 13-under 275.

Mickelson, 47, also got within a shot of the lead after making birdie at the par-5 16th, and hilariously mocking himself in the process. But he made his third bogey of the day at the following hole, and finished with a two-under 70 to tie for third at 12-under 276.

Also finishing at 12 under was Chesson Hadley, who carded a final round one-over 73. It’s his fourth top-five finish in 46 starts on the PGA Tour.

Graham DeLaet and PGA Tour rookie Tyler Duncan, the leader after 54 holes, finished in a tie for fifth at 11-under 277.

The post Brendan Steele shoots final round 69 to defend title at the Safeway Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.