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.
βItβs just a tough year, time for a change,β Homa said. βItβs unfortunate. I love Mark, heβs basically a part of my family. β¦ But at times, the communication gets hard. I think everyone in here has gone through that at some point. Itβs one of those things, more for me I need a break and sometimes I donβt 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.β
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 playoff event, 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. Itβs been a steady decline for months now.
βI wasnβt 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,β Homa said.
Homa made his way onto the U.S. Presidents Cup team this week as a captainβs pick, though he was not selected to participate in Thursdayβs four-ball matches to open the event. Heβs sure to get in on the action later this weekend ahead of Sundayβs singles matches.
While heβs 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 isnβt that bad.
βIt’s just something that as you get older, you start to realize these things,β Homa said. βThat 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. β¦ I’m just trying to keep chugging. It’s not going to be a straight line up.β