Homa trying to dig himself out of another hole

SAN DIEGO — On the list of U.S. Open final qualifying sites announced this week is Valencia Country Club in the Southern California city where Max Homa was raised.

That might be an option for him, which would have seemed absurd a year ago.

Homa had a brush with a Masters green jacket last April until fading with a double bogey on the par-3 12th hole. He tied for third, moving him to No. 9 in the world. He was coming off his first Ryder Cup, leading the U.S. team with a 3-1-1 record in a loss to Europe.

For Homa, that can seem like long ago.

“Golf does not like me at the moment,” Homa said. “I’ve noticed that.”

He comes into the Genesis Invitational having not registered a top-10 finish in nine months. His world ranking has plunged to No. 60 — the top 60 are exempt for the U.S. Open, and Homa isn’t exactly trending.

He has a new coach. He has changed equipment. What hasn’t changed is an honest outlook about his form and this maddening game. And he hasn’t lost faith in his ability to bring it back.

“I think I, for one, know what I’m capable of,” he said Tuesday at Torrey Pines. “Secondly, I know that I am quite tough when it comes to this stuff. I’ve gone through this much worse before when the results weren’t coming. I definitely have my low days. I’ve been incredibly frustrated since April.

“But I also find pride in waking up after a hard day and having the energy to go get better.”

The frustration dates to that Sunday at Augusta National when Homa had a close call at the Masters. Yes, he had another top 10 a month later at Quail Hollow (13 shots behind Rory McIlroy), but he said he was hitting the ball poorly. That might date back further than Augusta.

There have been spells of good play. They just don’t last very long.

Homa, of course, knows better than most how maddening the game can be. His low point was in 2017, when he made two cuts in 17 tournaments and only once played on a Sunday. He climbed out of a dark place to win six times on the PGA Tour, on courses like Riviera and Torrey Pines and Quail Hollow. He has played in the Ryder Cup, and twice in the Presidents Cup.

He is rebuilding his swing and believes it is getting close. There was a moment last Tuesday at the WM Phoenix Open when he said he gave everyone on his team a hug because he finally felt he was making progress after months of going backward.

Three days later, he missed the cut by five shots.

He burned the edges of cups with his putts. He was posing over shots into the green only to see them come up a fraction short and into a bunker. It was like that for two days. It’s been like that for months.

“My coach astutely said afterwards, ‘I think you were 6 combined feet away from being like 2 or 3 under,’” Homa said. “It’s a hard game, man. And when it doesn’t like you back, it gets very difficult.”

The Genesis Invitational is likely to be every bit of hard now that it has relocated this year to Torrey Pines because of the LA wildfires that destroyed so much of Pacific Palisades. Harris English won the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey three weeks ago at 8-under par. Every other PGA Tour event this year has been won at 16 under or lower.

The rough is so juicy that Scottie Scheffler nearly lost a ball during a nine-hole practice round. It will be longer than ever in soft conditions, especially with rain in the forecast.

There is no faking it around this San Diego public course along the Pacific bluffs. Homa opened with a 77 three weeks ago and withdrew.

“If you don’t drive it well on the South course, you could manage, but it’s very uncommon someone can go win swinging it like I did a couple weeks ago,” he said. “But I’m not swinging it like that anymore, so I look forward to play this.

“I hate playing golf courses that I love poorly, so it’s actually quite nice for me to be here only a few weeks later and kind of wipe the stink off a little bit.”

Homa is great at social media without trying. He has been great at golf by trying extremely hard. He considers his willingness to work to be his strongest trait. He spent a long Saturday of practice after missing the cut in Phoenix — he lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, now — and had such a productive day that it led to a moment of reflection.

“I was really tired and really frustrated just with everything going on with my own golf game,” he said. “On the drive back I just had a nice moment where I just thought to myself how much better the next win’s going to feel than any win has felt.

“So I’m just trying to hold onto that as my motivating factor at the moment.”