Max Homa ties ShotLink record to contend at Valspar

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Max Homa has put a little more practice into his longer putts, and it’s paid off at the Valspar Championship.

Homa holed five putts from outside 25 feet in the first two rounds this week. That matches the mark for the most putts made from outside 25 feet in the first two rounds of an event in the ShotLink era (since 2003).

Homa made 202 feet, 3 inches of putts Thursday, making him just the second player in the ShotLink era to hole more than 200 feet of putts in a single round at Innisbrook.

Homa, who shot 66-68, is in third place, four shots behind co-leaders Keegan Bradley and Sam Burns. Homa, the winner of this season’s Genesis Invitational, started the week ranked 18th in the FedExCup With a win, he’d join Bryson DeChambeau and Stewart Cink as the only multiple winners this season.

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He has made five of the eight putts he’s faced from outside 25 feet this week. That’s a make percentage of 62.5%. The TOUR has made 5.4% of such putts this season.

“I typically putt it quite well, at least start it on my lines. I haven't made very much most of the season, really, or most of my career outside of like 10, 12 feet,” Homa said Friday. “My inside 6 feet stats are really good, so you would think I would make more from longer. So we have just been putting a little more attention to that, so maybe that's kind of where the boost has come in. Speed's been really good, we're seeing the lines, I feel like Joe (Greiner, his caddie) has been reading them really well and if you start the ball on line they got to go in eventually.”

Homa gained more than 5.6 strokes on the greens in the first two rounds at Innisbrook. It’s the second-most strokes he’s gained on the greens in the opening two rounds of a tournament. The only time he gained more? At the 2019 Wells Fargo Championship, which he won.

His 3-wood has been nearly as impressive this week.

On Monday, he made the first albatross of his career. He almost added another one Friday.

Homa hit his 261-yard second shot on the par-5 14th to 5 feet to set up an easy eagle.

Though his impressive shot didn’t match his feat from earlier in the week, it was still an exceptional strike. According to ShotLink, Homa has never hit a second shot of more than 250 yards on a par-5 closer to the hole. The TOUR’s measuring system has captured 531 such shots in Homa’s career. He’s hit the green with 39 of them (7.3%) and this was just the third time he hit one inside 10 feet (0.6%).

Homa was the first player since 2018 to eagle the Copperhead Course’s 14th with a putt inside 5 feet.

He hit a 3-wood into the hole, the same club he used to hole his second shot on the 11th hole of Greystone Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama, the home course of his instructor, Mark Blackburn.

“I've always hit my 3-wood quite well. It's typically one of my favorite clubs,” he said Friday. “I know every caddie that's ever worked for me has said it's their favorite club, which means it probably should be my favorite club.”

Homa couldn’t see his second shot on 14 but he got a thumbs up from the group ahead, so he figured he must have hit the green. He didn’t think it would be that close, however. Homa gained 1.3 strokes on the field with that stroke alone.

Now he is contending at Innisbrook after missing the cut in all three of his previous appearances here.

“I think I'm just better at golf now,” he said. It’s showing.