Max Homa is Playing While HURT!?

Welcome to your daily dose of what’s going on in pro golf! Today we recap round 3 of the Bank of Utah Championship in Ivins Utah.

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Today was moving day and it held true to its name. A lot of movement on the leaderboard at Black Desert Resort in southern Utah. But the most interesting thing that I didn’t even talk about yesterday was the fact that Max home was playing hurt. Had no idea. We’ll talk about it more here on Golf with Mitch. All right, welcome to Golf with Mitch. We’re talking about the pros playing in Southern Utah right now at the Bank of Utah Championship and there was a lot of action going on on the leaderboard. First two people that stuck out to me uh that I want to talk about were the leaders going into today’s round. We got Michael Brennan and uh Michael Brennan and let me pull it up, David Ford. So, two young guys. Uh Michael Brennan had a killer day. He went in leading after round two and now leads the tournament by two shots. He’s 17 under. He fired off a seven under today. And it’s fun to see because I look at his details. This is only his third ever PGA Tour event ever played in. He recently graduated from college. He played golf at UNC and that stuck out to me being here in North Carolina. We got a UNCC boy. But David Ford as well, also recent college grad, playing at uh Wake Forest, also here in North Carolina. So, those two guys had killer round twos. Went in as the last group for today’s round. David didn’t play as good today with uh shot a two under, so he’s still hanging in there. He’s tied for eighth uh for a total of 12 under for the tournament, but man, Michael Brennan is on a tear. fired a 64 today, 17 under, two-stroke lead going into the final round. So, two guys to look out for. Um, obviously being young, uh, super fun to see some of these new names coming in, especially here in the fall season. This is what fall PJ Tour is all about, finding this young talent and giving them an opportunity to earn points and earn their way into some of these other events for the uh, following season. So, we’ll see what Michael Brennan does. Um, but we got to uh we got to talk about Matt McCarti, returning champion. He loves this place. Shot another seven under. So, he’s only two strokes back behind Michael Brennan. And he’s won here before. So, 64 today. Uh, two bogeies and nine birdies, which is pretty dang good round. On his back nine, he had one par and one bogey. birdied the other seven holes. So, pretty wild. Uh, super super good day for Matt McCarti. He’s got this place figured out. We’ll see what he does tomorrow. But, uh, one shot that I want to talk about from Matt McCarti from Thursday’s round, excuse me, Friday’s round, round two, uh, on the third hole of Black Desert. It’s, some people may think it’s gimmicky. I think it’s pretty sweet. It’s one of the the rare situations where you have a bunker in the middle of the green. So, it’s totally it’s an island bunker in surrounded completely by the green and he was in a position that the bunker and the way the green was undulating was kind of making a near impossible putt. So he it was a par three as well and so he ends up chipping off the green up and over some of these hills and the edge of the bunker and chips it close and ends up saving par with the chip from the green. So I thought that was super cool. Fun to see on some of these other courses some of these unique features. I know there’s a couple other of those on tour as well but thought that was a cool highlight for Matt McCarti. Um, but want to talk about them, obviously highlight them playing good. Uh, but there are a lot of other guys who really had a great Saturday in Southern Utah. We have, um, Rico Hoey, Hoie, not sure how you say your last name, Rico. If, uh, the slim chance you happen to see this, I apologize, but shot eight under today. Uh Kevin U also shot 8 under. The uh winner of the day was Hayden Springer shooting a nine under 62. One bogey, one eagle. Um crazy good round. Um that is a lot of birdies. Just anyone who plays golf, it’s like crazy to think you get that many birdies in one round. But yeah, a lot of lot of good golf. And then let’s see. I think there’s one more eight under. Yeah, Sebastian Moss, who’s tied for 11th at 11 under for the tournament. So, moving day was was great for him. It put him right in the hunt to be in the top 10. Um, so he had a great moving day as well. But the thing that I want to talk about is Max Homa playing hurt crazy. Had no idea anything was going on. I don’t think anyone did up until yesterday, Friday’s round. He was through six holes and called in medical assistance to help look at his ankle. Um, he apparently has a bone spur. Now, I’m no medical expert, so thanks to the help of Google, learned what a bone spur is. He said it was on his ankle. Uh, but bone spurs, also known as osteopittes, are small bony growths that can form on the edges of joints or where tendons or ligaments attach to bones. It can be caused from bone to bone friction or inflammation and stress from an injury. So, don’t know exactly what caused it, if he’s had past injuries. He says that it’s something that’s kind of been lingering and ongoing, but walking this course was a little tricky and it ended up getting inflamed to the point where he needed to call in medical staff. But the craziest part about this is that he went bogeyree yesterday. He had no bogeies. Shot uh let’s see, for round two, bogey free. Shot a 66 uh five underpar. And today he shot five under again. He had more bogeies today, but still was able to get a five under pared for Saturday. Tied for 11th. Also very much in the hunt for at least the top 10 for Max Homa. And playing hurt is is crazy. And he had some interesting comments about it. Um in his press conference after the uh after round two, he said he’s had it for a while. I’ve planned on getting it taken out when we have a little bit of time off. So, it was just kind of ironic. It almost never gets inflamed, but I think this place is uh pretty hard to walk. Um, and then talking about how it affects his game, I thought was also interesting, and I’ll tell you why. But first off, his comments, he said, “I just get in my way so much. It honestly helps to get hurt at times because I don’t remember thinking about my golf swing.” Um, I thought that was one of the best swing tips you can have when talking about uh getting out of your own head with golf. It seems like we get in our way so much. Um, I made this comment a few days ago on the pod about putting strokes and switching your grip or doing something to the to the point that feels uncomfortable so that you can get into more of uh a focused situation and and a less comfortable situation where you’re maybe making mistakes you don’t even realize. But when I was in college, I fractured my wrist rollerblading cuz yeah, I’m hardcore. I was bombing down a hill, took a tumble, very minor fracture. Didn’t even know it was it was fractured at the time until several days later. It was uncomfortable, but also because I’m a man and I’m tough and I didn’t want to go to the doctor. I’m like, “Ah, I’m fine. I can shake it off. I actually played golf a few days later with my dad and my uncle and I beat my uncle and didn’t play terrible to be honest with a slight fracture of my wrist.” And I think it’s probably similar situation to Max where I was just trying to swing easy. I wasn’t thinking much. It was definitely painful, but I was playing just very conservative and I ended up being way better. It’s one of those things where it’s like, man, just play conservative, boring golf. And that’s usually what gets you the best score when you’re playing golf anyway. So, playing injured max, I totally get it. Not really. very different stakes compared to playing on the PG tour than when you’re just playing with your dad and your uncle, but with a a little bit of a fractured wrist. I can understand playing injured. Um, no, I’m all jokes aside, walking on an ankle injury definitely has to be rough. So, very impressed that he’s been able to go 666 over the last two days. Um, really excited to see how he does on Sunday when you’re watching this. Uh, who knows? He could uh have a great turnaround and and make it top five or even be in contention depending on what some of these leaders do. Uh, I have a hard time believing that he can make it all the way back since the leader, Michael Brennan’s at 17 under. Um, and then Matt Mccardi is 15 under. I think if it were me, I would say it’s probably one of those two that it’s going to come down to because they’re both playing great. Honestly, a two-stroke lead doesn’t seem big enough for someone who has already won at that course before and is consistently posting good scores. So, my money would be on uh on Matt McCarti, but we’ll see. We got UNCC grad, North Carolina boy. Looks like he’s actually from Virginia, Michael Brennan, but he played college golf in North Carolina, so we’ll root him on. Um, but yeah, interesting to see how Max does. Another one of the story lines that been following a little bit is uh Jason Day playing with new equipment uh with some of those more unique irons that Bryson Dashambo’s using with the curved faces. He’s kind of been subpar. He made the cut, but is lower on the leaderboard for those who made the cut. So, he’s playing the weekend still. is going to get paid, but uh probably not the last couple rounds that he wanted. But still interesting to see him put some of these new new clubs in his bag. He’s definitely tinkerer, so he’s making some of those changes, so we’ll see how that goes. But other than that, we should be uh should have a good Sunday to look forward to as far as golf goes. Um a lot of people within a few strokes, but I think there’s going to be some good golf. I wouldn’t be surprised if the winning score beats what last year was at minus 23. I think Matt Mccardi or Michael Brandon could go super low again tomorrow. So, we’ll see how it turns out. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll chat more tomorrow.