Why Max Homa can make a major breakthrough at Masters after rising into world’s top 5

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Improvement around the greens gives Max Homa confidence his major championship record will also continue trending upward.

Homa played the weekend in the Masters Tournament last year for the first time in three appearances, making the cut in three of the four majors. He won for the third time in the last 11 months in January at Torrey Pines to ascend to fifth in the world rankings.

The ability to make momentum-saving pars is crucial anywhere, but especially on a strenuous major championship venue like Augusta National, where birdie opportunities can be scarce outside the course’s four par 5s.

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“I wasn’t incredibly well-rounded, I would say, up until last year,” Homa said. “I found something in my short game. I’ve struggled here because I haven’t chipped the ball well. Even if it’s soft, it’s hard to chip around here. It’s obviously a bit easier. But it’s hard. You have to use imagination.”

Homa enters the Masters ranked 36th in Strokes Gained: Around the Green, a 20-spot jump since last season and 121 spots better than his 2020-21 ranking.

He’s also fifth in scrambling after ranking 82nd each of the two previous seasons.

Playing practice rounds with short game wizards and accomplished Masters competitors Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas the last two days also helped Homa learn more of the nuance around the undulating Augusta National greens.

“You see these great chips. The chip Tiger hit in 2005 that everyone has seen a trillion times, it looks like it’s just a feeder chip, right. But if you don’t spin that, it runs up the hill and, you know, it’s very specific,” Homa said. “So you can make a shot look easy around here, and then you can watch somebody, how I used to chip, and you would think it was the hardest shot you’ve ever seen.”

The roster of Masters champions is loaded with elite chippers and pitchers: Woods, Phil Mickelson, Seve Ballesteros, Spieth and Patrick Reed claimed a dozen green jackets between them, in large part due to their excellence around the green.

Homa’s resume includes victories at Riviera, Torrey Pines and Quail Hollow, former major championship hosts, and three of the most difficult courses on the PGA Tour.

Disastrous holes have thwarted his recent attempts to climb the leaderboard in Augusta. But armed with more confidence in his game and a better understanding of balancing conservative and aggressive plays, Homa sounds ready to be a threat on the weekend.

“But obviously I’m getting a little bit better every year at all facets. But between my putting and my chipping, I just feel like it had been streaky and been on the right grass, this, that, or whatever, and I feel like this year and last year it’s starting to all kind of become more predictable in a way.”

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