What Happened To Max Homa?

There are few golfers I enjoy watching more than Max Homa.

One of the reasons is that Homa’s golf swing is a first-class ticket to Tempo Town. It feels like he swings a driver with the control of a flighted wedge. It’s such a professional move at the ball.

The second (and more important) reason is that Homa is a seemingly awesome dude with an interesting story.

He was a top amateur on a historically good Cal Golden Bears college team but went on to struggle mightily with professional golf, falling into the depths of the Korn Ferry Tour underbelly. Then he somehow emerged from that darkness with some outstanding golf the past handful of years, firmly establishing himself as one of the best players in the game.

Homa won once in 2019, twice in 2021, twice in 2022 and again in 2023. You don’t run into six Tour victories on accident. That is Rickie Fowler’s entire career.

By January 2024, Homa ranked No. 8 in the Data Golf standings. A few months prior, Homa had made the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup team and went 3-1-1 in Rome, making him the top American performer.

In April of 2024, Homa finished third in the Masters. That answered the question of whether Homa could truly compete in a major.

But following that run of great play, Homa slowly faded.

His ranking fell with each passing week. By the time I looked it up this week, I was stunned.

The 34-year-old Homa is now No. 149 in Data Golf and No. 117 in the Official World Golf Ranking. That’s behind Branden Grace, someone who was relegated on LIV. That’s behind fellow funnyman Joel Dahmen, who has one top-10 finish since the beginning of 2024 (it was a T10 at the Canadian Open).

His play has been so abysmal that Homa did not even qualify for the U.S. Open and Open Championship. Since May 2024, Homa has one top-10 finish. It came at the John Deere Classic, a lower-tier event with no stars.

You, the recreational golfer, know how brutal golf can be. This is a hard game, man. It’s so fickle.

Sometimes, great golfers wake up one day and just don’t have it anymore. It happens. And Homa would know that getting out of golf’s abyss is among the most arduous tasks any athlete can complete.

It just saddens me to see Homa struggle to this level. He was a very good Tour player, bordering on the game’s elite. And I love hearing him talk about the game (or just about anything). He is high on the “golfer you want to get a beer with” ranking.

Seeing him in this state is tough.

I get that it’s only been about 15 months of bad golf (relative to his standards), so Homa could turn this all around soon.

And I get that there is a lot more to life than golf. He is a human being. Homa and his wife just had their second child a few weeks ago. When there is a lot happening in a golfer’s personal life, sometimes maintaining a certain level of golf is hard.

When you’ve got this little guy rooting for you, birdies and bogeys don’t matter too much.

You may have noticed that Homa, once considered “Mr. Golf Twitter” based on his prolific social media activity, hasn’t tweeted since Feb. 3. Last month, he called Twitter an “awful, awful place” that is a “safe haven for assholes.”

He’s been trying to get out of the spotlight in general, but that’s a tough challenge given his profile.

“I thought about skipping a bunch of events in the beginning of the summer but I just don’t think I have that in me. I’m looking forward to whenever I’m done this year and just trying to get away from it,” Homa said. “Someone asked me the other day the difference between this and when I played poorly in 2017. One is the golf is a lot closer than it was then. The lack of anonymity is a bit hard. Everywhere I go someone is talking to me about golf.”

And here we are talking about him. I’m sorry, Max.

Having said that, Homa is a professional golfer. A part of that is being open to criticism about performance. And he’s been very open about his struggles.

So what exactly happened here? Is it just life changes or something else?

Is the move to COBRA to blame?

At the beginning of this year, Homa announced he was parting ways with Titleist in favor of a deal with COBRA (he also signed a deal with Lululemon for apparel).

Homa was one of Titleist’s biggest assets so this was a big get for COBRA. The brand was lacking star players since Bryson DeChambeau left in 2022.

And this was reportedly a nice payday for Homa. Big gear moves are rare these days but it made sense for COBRA to find a premier player.

Aside from his Scotty Cameron T5.5 Prototype putter, Homa’s whole bag is COBRA.

• Driver: COBRA DS-ADAPT LS driver (9.4°) with a Fujikura Ventus VeloCore+ Blue 7 X shaft
• 3-Wood: COBRA DS-Adapt LS (14.5°) with a Fujikura Ventus Blue VeloCore+ 8 X shaft
• 4-Iron: COBRA LIMIT3D with a KBS C-Taper 130 X HT Black shaft
• 5-Iron: COBRA King CB with a KBS C-Taper 130 X HT Black shaft
• 6-PW: COBRA King MB irons (6-PW) with KBS C-Taper 130 X HT Black shafts
• Wedges: COBRA Snakebite wedges (50°, 56°) with KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 135 X shafts and a COBRA King 60° 7T wedge with KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 125 S shaft

It should be noted that Homa was not playing well prior to the switch. He was struggling in the summer of 2024 while playing Titleist clubs.

Still, he dropped even further after the switch. Look at Homa’s Strokes Gained rankings in 2025 compared to 2024. Aside from his driving, Homa’s game deteriorated.

For reference, Homa’s 2023 season included being 15th in tee-to-green, 41st in off-the-tee, 26th in approach, 33rd around the green and sixth in putting.

Then look what happened. A few areas got significantly worse, so it’s hard to place blame on any one element.

The massive drops in approach play and scrambling are worrisome.

Homa’s putting also went from among the game’s best to below Tour average. He’s still using the same putter so equipment isn’t that much of a factor there.

Is this just a case of someone losing their game? Or is the gear a big factor? Both?

It’s expected for players to have an adjustment period after such wholesale changes. It’s entirely possible that Homa will get used to his clubs over time.

But, for the following reasons, I think Homa’s problems are deeper than an equipment change.

Swing and caddie changes play a role

It’s hard to put all of the blame on his switch to COBRA because Homa has admitted he is in the trenches with a swing adjustment that pre-dates the gear move.

In October 2024, Homa split with his coach Mark Blackburn and started working with John Scott. Homa said he was “throwing mud at the wall” and nothing would stick, so that prompted the change.

He has since been trying to get back to a prior swing feel. This breakdown shows Homa has perhaps made progress technically but doesn’t have the confidence yet.

Back in February at the Phoenix Open, Homa said he was swinging it the best he ever has in his career. He missed the cut by five shots that week but liked how it felt.

It’s been a battle throughout the year to recapture his feel. Homa is ultra-transparent with the moribund state of his game.

“You probably have some kind of like panic meter of trying to get better,” Homa said about the urgency to regain his form. “I guess the balance is trying to recognize progress even if it’s not as fast as you would want it to be. So [you’re] kind of trying to look at little wins here and there, whether it’s a good driving week, good driving day, good round, something like that, and looking at that as progress, instead of being so anal that you get to get back to winning and top 10-ing every week that you used to.

“It’s a tough balance. I don’t think anybody out here is struggling and thinking ‘it’s a fickle game, I’ll have it soon.’ It seems to go a lot faster than it comes back.”

Homa also split with his longtime caddie, Joe Greiner, back in April (Greiner then went to caddie for Collin Morikawa, although that relationship ended after just five events).

Homa and Greiner had been together professionally for more than a decade.

“It was not my choice, so it sucked,” Homa said at the Masters. “But we always had a deal that we were friends first and friendship mattered more than the work thing.”

After hiring veteran caddie Bill Harke as a replacement, those two parted ways after only a couple of months. That led to Homa hiring Lance Bennett, a former looper for Tiger Woods.

Where Homa stands in terms of having a long-term caddie is still uncertain.

In the end, it’s hard to give one reason for Homa’s struggles.

Everyone will want to point to the COBRA switch, but it’s clear Homa has been wandering for longer than that.

No matter what, I am rooting hard for him to get back.

Screw the haters, including me (not a hater but I’ll happily serve as motivation for him if it works).

Do you think Homa will regain his form? What’s the biggest reason for his downturn?

Let me know below in the comments.

Top Photo Caption: Max Homa has been struggling the past two seasons. (GETTY IMAGES/Jared C. Tilton)

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