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Max Homa splits with longtime coach after rough finish to PGA Tour season ahead of Presidents Cup

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2 months ago

September 26, 2024

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Max Homa splits with longtime coach after rough finish to PGA Tour season ahead of Presidents Cup

After a rough season on the PGA Tour, Max Homa is making a change.

Homa revealed on Wednesday ahead of the first day of the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal in Quebec that he split with his longtime coach Mark Blackburn earlier this fall.

“It’s just a tough year, time for a change,” Homa said. “It’s unfortunate. I love Mark, he’s basically a part of my family. … But at times, the communication gets hard. I think everyone in here has gone through that at some point. It’s one of those things, more for me I need a break and sometimes I don’t do a great job of taking ownership of my own golf swing, so kind of putting the ball in my court a bit and, you know, trying to figure it out myself.”

Homa, who has won six times on the PGA Tour in his career, started off the year strong. He even finished T3 at the Masters in April. But the back half of his season largely fell apart. After he missed the cut at the U.S. Open in June, Homa finished better than 61st just twice in his final six starts of the season. He made it to the BMW Championship, but failed to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship the following week. He then missed the cut at the Procore Championship earlier this month.

Homa, who was once as high as No. 7 in the Official World Golf Rankings in 2024, entered Royal Montreal this week at No. 25. It’s been a steady decline for months now.

“I wasn’t swinging the club well, and I just felt like I was throwing mud at the wall all year and could not find anything that would stick,” Homa said.

Homa made his way onto the U.S. Presidents Cup team this week as a captain’s pick, though he was not selected to participate in Thursday’s four-ball matches to open the event. He’s sure to get in on the action later this weekend ahead of Sunday’s singles matches.

While he’s been frustrated all year, Homa is trying to keep things in perspective. After all, a third place finish at Augusta National and a spot on the Presidents Cup team isn’t that bad.

“It’s just something that as you get older, you start to realize these things,” Homa said. “That if your bad is not awful, then you’re making playoffs and all those things, it’s an important thing to keep in the back of your mind. … I’m just trying to keep chugging. It’s not going to being a straight line up.”