SAN DIEGO – Confidence means knowing that your best golf is yet to come.
Max Homa won Saturday’s Farmers Insurance Open to earn his second PGA Tour title in the young 2022-23 seasons. He attributed his recent success to his secret weapon, a sports psychologist.
Homa started working with Julie Elion late last year. She is most well-known in the golf industry for helping Jimmy Walker win majors and working with Phil Mickelson.
“The confidence is growing steadily. “I’ve been working alongside a sports psychologist, Julie. She has – I mean, the last two months had opened my eyes to many things,” he stated in his winner’s press conference. Mentally, it is important to have a plan for each day. I didn’t think about any technical or statistical goals this week. It was just I’m going learn something today and I’m going put into practice what I had been working on. It was a fantastic job.
What’s inside the bag? See Max Homa’s Golf Gear
Homa spoke on the No Laying Up podcast. He described how his caddie Joe Greiner had an issue on the 17th hole at Congaree, South Carolina, during the final round CJ Cup. Homa was advised to consult a sports psychologist.
Homa stated that he had previously tried it and didn’t like the results. He said, “I’m not tapping into any big aspect of the game.” We’ve been at this for so many years, and there’s only so much we can improve on, skill-wise or talent-wise.
Homa is open about his struggles with self-deprecating. After a round of 62, Homa said that he felt like he deserved to play well and that he wasn’t letting himself down in the first place. I get over it, hit a great drive, and a great 9 iron to 10 feet, and then think, “I must make this.” You did two amazing things. Let’s just wait and see what happens. We can trust that we’ve done the hard work.
“This is me, unfortunately. However, I believe that many of us are.
Greiner is a childhood friend of Homa and has been on Homa’s bag for six of his victories since 2018. He also won one with Kevin Chappell. This has seen Homa grow in confidence in himself.
Greiner stated, “It’s easy to pretend that you’re a great player. But now he walks around with the confidence that he knows that when he plays well, he’s going be able to contend. He should be one the top players in the world.” Greiner said, “He was always so hard to take care of himself. He realizes that his good is enough, and it’s much easier for him now to just walk the fairways knowing that he doesn’t have to be perfect.
Homa won Torrey Pines by two strokes after shooting a final-round score of 66. He also shot a round-of-66 in the final round. In the third round, he managed a 71. Although he played well, he couldn’t get any putts to drop. He was able to focus on the game and not lose his mind. Elion texted Homa to ask if he wanted a chat. Homa replied that he was fine.
He said, “Trust in your game.” Friday was a better day than today because I had it. I had my game, played great, swung it well, but didn’t make any progress. He said that he held his nerve and shot 1 under.
Homa’s work with Elion is only the beginning. Could this be the last piece of the puzzle that Homa needs to win his first major award?
Homa stated that “I believe it will be an important part of my journey through this game.” “Joe was talking about my mental game and I had never worked on it.” He stated, “I’m not telling this to you because I think that you are broken. I’m telling this because it can help us really high in this game.
