Max Homa had a profession season at the PGA Tour in 2023. Winning two times in the state of California, claiming his first primary height 10 and starring at the U.S. Ryder Cup crew, the fun-loving American has the arena of golfing at his disposal. This week on the DP World Tour’s Nedbank Challenge, the 32-year-old shot out to a share of the first-round lead with a gap 6-under 66.
“I watched tons of the then European Tour, now DP World Tour events, that I always wanted to play in,” Homa stated Wednesday. “The way the schedule was previously on the PGA Tour, to come do this would be wild. You would have to battle jet lag to go play tournament to tournament.
“So, after I noticed that there was once an actual offseason for us, I made it some extent to play a minimum of one over right here,” he continued. “So, so that you could get a place right here [through an invitation] and give you the chance to play has been a dream. I simply suppose now going ahead, having the ability to do extra of this could be a concern simply because we need to revel in what golfing at huge has to provide. And this has been a sexy particular week up to now.”
Homa sits atop the leaderboard after his bogey-free effort along fellow Ryder Cup player Nicolai Hojgaard, PGA Tour winner and up to date Irish Open winner Vincent Norrman, and Dan Bradbury. The global No. 8 is the transparent elegance of the bunch, however Homa’s high quality must persist if he’s to transform an 18-hole lead into his 5th victory in his remaining 51 begins international.
There isn’t any reason why on paper to indicate it would possibly not differently. Homa entered his debut in Africa’s primary driving a wave of shape. He has no longer completed out of doors the highest 21 on a leaderboard since June and claimed 5 directly top-10 finishes at the PGA Tour. He was once additionally the lone shiny spot for the shedding American aspect on the 2023 Ryder Cup, the place he garnered a 3-1-1 report.
Despite this, there was once nonetheless one query mark in Homa’s thoughts: Rust. Nearly two months got rid of from his remaining stroke-play match, Homa has taken complete merit of his offseason along with his commute to Rome, his first Halloween as a father and a safari expedition with Justin Thomas in the lead as much as this event.
“The game is not exactly the most dialed it’s ever been,” Homa stated previous in the week. “This has been the longest break I think I’ve ever taken from golf. I’ve played a few rounds. It was nice to get out there today and play a full 18 holes, I haven’t walked and played a full 18 in a while. But I’m excited to play. You miss the competitive feel, you miss those juices, so to get to go feel that again will be great. Even though I haven’t been playing tons of golf, right, when you get back to an event and you get the week started, it feels normal.”
The extracurriculars have not begun to take anything else clear of Homa’s shape in the early phases in Sun City. The iron play was once sharp, the putter swung with self assurance, and the person who wielded the golf equipment appeared like he hadn’t ignored a beat.
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