Max Homa’s 5-under 66 Friday at the Bank of Utah Championship has Homa eyeing his first PGA Tour victory since the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open.
Homa can also barely walk.
It’s an issue, Homa says, that has only popped up a couple times this year, but this was one of those occasions, as Homa needed in-round treatment on his right ankle that is suffering from a “pretty good-sized bone spur on the top.”
“I’ve had it for a little while,” Homa said. “I had 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 pretty hard to walk.”
Homa said he first noticed pain in the ankle while walking down the 12th fairway, his third hole of the day. By the time he finished the hole with par, the ankle was swollen and “very, very tender.”
Despite the injury, Homa carded a bogey-free round with five birdies. He’ll enter the weekend at 6 under, four shots off the lead held by Michael Brennan.
“Walking uphill is really hard because I can’t flex it, so that sucked,” Homa said. “But in some way like, I mean, yesterday I played so well, and I just get in my own way so much. It honestly helps to get hurt at times because I don’t remember thinking about my golf swing, I don’t remember thinking about really anything much. Just get it through. Get it to the house. If I hit a bad shot, but it was in play, I was happy with it. So, yeah, I think you learn a lot from that. Hopefully I can get this thing figured out. Just was like not very fun walking. Over the ball it’s fine. Through the hit is not great, but it’s manageable.
“I don’t know. I kept thinking about my wife had a horrendous birth with our first son, and she had major, major surgery, and there is just no way I could complain about a hurt ankle while I walked. She gets me through a lot. She couldn’t look at me the same.”
Homa, who entered the week No. 100 in FedExCup points, noted that this will be his final start of the fall; he’s already exempt for next season courtesy of his multiple-win exemption. That’s part of the reason he didn’t want to withdraw.
“I mean, for a moment,” Homa said when asked if he thought about calling it quits. “Only just because if it doesn’t get better, I just couldn’t see myself doing this for two more days. But, yeah, probably not. I just can’t. I don’t want to do that. I love being here. I really like how my golf game feels. It’s my last event of the year and it’s just annoying to walk, so I can deal with that.”