Dodgers, Lakers, Max Homa!
On the City of Champions spectrum, Max is a distant third. Heck, Collin Morikawa should be in there too after winning a major last August.
But who cares? Local boy makes good. Local boy saves writers from having to write a Sam Burns story. That alone is a World Golf Hall of Fame stuff. And then Homa goes and gives great quotes!
The cheery ending, coupled with Tony Finau posting 64 ahead of Homa and leading to a 10th hole playoff, almost help make up for the lack of fans. Naturally the rain dance this event normally provides for the region was played under spectacularly sunny skies and a (most days) playable golf course.
Homa’s win is particularly sweet given the Genesis Invitational’s grand history, longevity and relatively small number of local winners. He joins southern Californians Corey Pavin (1994, 1995) and John Merrick (2013) as recent winners with ties to the region.
The winner has been coming to the event since he was two, was there for the bizarre 2005 playoff, cited this event as one of his inspirations to purse pro golf, and, best of all, Homa worshipped host Tiger Woods growing up. Woods subsequently handed him the Genesis trophy. Woods has never won the tournament he hosts.
Homa explained where an LA Open win ranks on his tournament bucket list.
“1-A, 1-B, 1-C,” he said. “I don't know if I could ever do anything cooler in golf than this. Just for me, for my caddie Joe, we were raised 25miles north of here. I mean, Tiger Woods is handing us a trophy, that's a pretty crazy thought. We grew up idolizing him, idolizing Riviera Country Club, idolizing the golf tournament. To get it done, it's almost shocking, but it just feels--it feels like it just can't be topped just for me.”
Homa missed a short but tricky downhiller at the 18th to prevent a playoff. Instead, he posted a bogey-free 66 and headed to the 10th hole with Finau. The famous short par-4 was playing just 282 yards and was getting the first playoff hole nod over the 18th hole due to the lack of fans on site.
Hitting second, the 30-year-old slightly pulled his tee shot and was up against one of the Bottlebrush let to defend the hole because the USGA and R&A chose to take the last decade off.
“Ten's a crazy hole. Talor Gooch and I were talking about it on 11 today during the regulation round. A lot of people don't like it, I love it. I think golf could use a little chaos at times.”
Chaos he got, at least upon finding his tee shot at the brush base.
“You kind of aim at these trees and kind of see what happens,” he continued. “I hit a good tee ball, I pulled it probably five yards left of where Tony was, which is kind of where you wanted to hit it. Yeah, what are you going to be mad about when you make a good swing when you're nervous. Obviously had a weird looking shot but I had a shot, which is cool.”
After a few practice tries, Homa hooded his 50-degree wedge to get some “tumble spin” into the kikuyu fringe. He got up and down. Finau missed his first putt under 10 feet in his last 30 or so tries and they were off to the 14th. There Homa hit a beautiful tee shot and Finau could not get up and down for par.
A new member of the City of Champions has been born and at the place that gave birth to his golf career.
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Here’s a roundup of 2021 Genesis moments. For Quadrilateral subscribers my write-up on the week and players I saw a decent amount of (with majors in mind).
Sam Farmer’s L.A. Times game story seized on the tip Homa’s wife provided and another tough loss for Finau.
“This morning, my wife gave me a piece of advice,” he said. “There were a few bullet points, [but] one of them was `forgive quickly.’ She called me after, told me to do that, and it was kind of perfect because I had played a pretty perfect round of golf, very flawless. So what was there to be too mad about? I was about to be in a playoff at the place I first fell in love with golf.”
GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard led with Homa overcoming a miss on a 99.57% putt (yeah about that data forecasting…).
Statistically Max Homa had a 99.57% chance of converting the 3-footer for birdie on the 72nd hole of the Genesis Invitational, but then there is no room for statistics in the chambers of the human heart.
In 11 events this season on the PGA Tour Homa, who is as L.A. as palm trees and Dodger dogs, had been predictably automatic, like most Tour types, from that distance. But not all 3-footers are created equal and the slider for birdie and victory at the event that means more to him than any other might as well have been 30 feet.
Homa, who grew up 30 minutes north of Riviera, admitted he was “shaking like a leaf” over the game-winner on the iconic 18th hole and the only saving grace was that the empty pandemic gallery wasn’t there for a collective gasp.
A few more fun items including Homa’s emotional post-round interview with CBS:
