2025 John Deere Classic Max Homa Friday Flash Interview
Thanks, Maxi. You’re going to repeat yourself a lot. Um, what was working there today? You talked about the driver’s swing, getting off the tea. Well, what was what do you feel good about today? Yeah, I thought everything was good. I rolled it well. Um, hit the iron’s awesome. Wedged it well. Uh, drove it well. So, I didn’t like again, similar to yesterday, just nothing sticks out. Just was really good golf. U kind of through the bag. So, uh, yeah, those are the my favorite kind of days. You’ve been looking for this. How good is has these first two days felt for you? Yeah, I mean it’s still a bit of a grind, but uh it’s just nice to There’s just certain t- shots that are awkward out here for me. I think everybody has certain ones that just look funky. Uh the golf course isn’t super hard, but there’s just super some some shots, but uh they’re just having a plan, I guess, helps a lot because before I was just kind of hitting hope. So, it’s nice to look up and a lot of time the ball’s going somewhat near where I’m looking. What’s the mentality heading into tomorrow now? You’re, you know, one off the lead. Uh you you’ve been in these positions obviously a lot of times you’ve won. What’s your mentality here heading into the weekend? Uh, I don’t think really much changes. I mean, just play the golf course. You’re going to have to shoot really low. If you went out there and tried to, you know, do something specific. I’m not so sure that would uh that’s going to work. Somebody can go out there and shoot 1100 tomorrow and uh, you know, jump everybody. So, I just think you go do what we did today and just play another round of golf and uh, you just keep waiting till the back nine on Sunday, basically. Was it gratifying to get through the afternoon round? um still near the top of the lead particularly since the afternoon seemed to have been particularly hard here this week. Yeah, it was just nice to play good. We got really windy. The greens got pretty crusty. Uh so it was just nice to keep playing well. I got off to a good start. Everything felt nice and then it continued to feel nice. So it’s just it was good to have kind of 18 holes again like yesterday where nothing really changed. I mean there’s some eb and flow out there with your golf swing or whatever. Uh but for the most part just felt kind of relatively basic from 1 to 18. So that was nice. Did it feel like the the the adjustment you made um with your legs on the driving um stayed? I mean, does it feel like that’s in place now? Uh well, yeah, I drove it well today. Uh I got off the tea, I thought pretty pretty well. Uh it was a lot harder today with the the wind, especially especially the back nine. A couple of those T- shots play pretty tricky as opposed to yesterday when we played it with no wind. So, it was nice to continue to drive it well, especially on that back nine. Um, so yeah, that was definitely it helps just because I I iron the I iron it really well and uh you know I’m putting it nice. So, uh it’s just you want to just keep feeling like you’re being uh the aggressor. So, it’s nice when you can drive it like that and and you can keep you know whether it’s a birdie look from close or just kind of making routine pars. It’s just a easy rhythm to get into. And what you said over here about whatever the weekend brings, you feel like you’ve made a big step. Yeah, just uh yeah, I see some I have a plan. I see this is the um it’s only been, you know, two and a half days or so, but it really feels like this is uh a nice step for me uh with the long game. Um it’s definitely the best 36 holes off the tea I’ve had in a while uh consecutively. So, that’s nice. But, yeah, I’m just going to I’m just trying to keep getting better every day. I don’t particularly worry about what place I’m in on the leaderboard. I will, you know, if I’m up near it on Sunday, you know, that’s when you start to think in a little bit and and game plan. But for the most part, I just try to get out there every day and uh, you know, kind of take what I have and shoot the low score I can. So, I just think I have a little bit more right now. And it’s a lot more fun to strategize and play with um a more complete golf game. And you say Ricky gave your your wife rides home from high school. Yeah, they used to live by each other. So, uh they’ve known each other forever. He’s in uh he’s in her older brother’s yearbook, so it’s kind of funny. Small world. Max, is that drive is the drive on 17 tricky or how does that look to your eye? You had 354 today seems to be your best drive of the day. How does that set up? Uh, yeah, it’s definitely awkward. I like to cut the ball in that hole, you know, sets up for a bit of a draw. But what’s nice is I think with the way I was swinging it, it didn’t have a ton of curve on it the last two days. So, I’m able to hit like a very small cut and if I just get some air under it. So, it’s definitely an uncomfortable T- shot, but um, you know, I like the way I wedge it. So, it’s kind of feels like a free ball. If I if I miss the fairway, I lay up and I get to hit a wedge in there 10 feet. So, uh you know that that’s kind of the benefit of some of these holes out here is uh it’s not mass amount of penalty on a few holes. Some you do, but a lot of those they look okay to my eye. So, that’s uh 17 kind of gives you a free uh free swing at it. And just try to hit like kind of a a high cut. Thank you.
