By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Max Homa stood out more than usual on Monday in a U.S. Open qualifier filled with PGA Tour players. He was the only one carrying his own bag.
Homa didn’t have a caddie and didn’t feel like talking about it, regardless of how much attention it was getting on social media.
He and his caddie of two months, Bill Harke, are no longer together, according to a person informed of the split who said only that Harke “lost his job.” The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because word of the separation needed to come from Homa. And Homa didn’t offer much insight.
“I’m much rather talk about the golf instead of all the questions about the caddie,” said Homa, who starred at Valencia High. “I’m good. Just hoofed it 36.”
As for the golf?
“It’s going to probably be heartbreaking, but it’s all right,” Homa said. “I haven’t carried my bag 36 holes in a while so I’m a little tired.”
He wound up hoofing it 38 holes. Homa’s three-putt for par on his 36th hole at Kinsale put him in a five-man playoff for the final spot to get to the U.S. Open. Cameron Young won it with a 12-foot birdie. Homa then lost a playoff for an alternate spot on the next hole.
When asked about his attitude, Homa dropped one clue about the split.
“It seems to be better than when someone is standing next to me for some reason,” he said. “I might need to walk by myself more. Maybe I just looked at it as a nice, peaceful walk. Probably got to battle some demons and have no one to lean on. Maybe that helps a little bit. There’s no one … everything is me. The battle helped that a little bit.”
The qualifier at Kinsale offered six spots to the U.S. Open at Oakmont next week. Homa was around the bubble most of the day. He left a chip in the rough on his ninth hole of the second round and made double bogey, followed that with a bogey and then responded with two straight birdies.
He looked to be safe with a second shot into 25 feet on the par-5 ninth hole, his last one. But the uphill putt turned around the hole and came back some 6 feet, and he three-putted for par to finish at 5-under 139.
Homa didn’t imagine being in this position a year ago when he was No. 10 in the world. But he has changed equipment and changed coaches. He split with his caddie of six years right before the Masters. And then he had no caddie at all.
Homa said he never felt the fatigue because he was around the cutoff line all day, pushing forward. After he three-putted his final hole was when it started to hit him.
He said not having anyone to consult over a shot led him to be a little more conservative, not a bad tactic on a course he doesn’t know all too well.
Asked one last time about the caddie situation, Homa whispered, “I wanted to carry for 36 holes. Everyone is going to ask me that.”
Homa is not entirely out of the U.S. Open. He is playing the Canadian Open this week, though he likely would have to win to get into the top 60 and qualify.
YOUNG PREVAILS
On a long day when it felt everything was going wrong, Young birdied three of his last four holes to get into the 5-for-1 playoff and then made a 12-foot birdie to earn his spot in the U.S. Open in two weeks at Oakmont.
The drama went coast-to-coast, and even north of the border into Canada, with 47 places available at 10 qualifying sites to fill the field for the major regarded the toughest test in golf.
Young advanced with his clutch play, while Murrieta’s Rickie Fowler was eliminated with a bogey.
Young, already enduring a tough year that forced him to do a 36-hole qualifier, hit 9-iron to 8 feet for birdie on the 15th, birdied the par-5 16th and then hit wedge to 18 inches on the final hole to earn a spot in the 5-for-1 playoff.
“I feel like I showed myself something today,” he said. “For so long today I saw nothing go in.”
The playoff began on the 10th hole, and Young hit driver into the left rough and judged his wedge perfectly to 12 feet below the hole.
“I started my day here 12 hours ago and made a 3, so I tried to do it again,” he said.
Erik van Rooyen opened with a 64 at Kinsale and had no trouble getting to Oakmont for the U.S. Open on June 12-15. He wound up six shots ahead of the field. Other qualifiers were Bud Cauley, Lanto Griffin, Justin Lower and Harrison Ott, at No. 2,651 in the world ranking.
Cauley is No. 56 in the world, and is likely to stay in the top 60 after the Canadian Open and get in through that category. If that happens, Chase Johnson would get to his first U.S. Open. He won the playoff for the two alternate spots with Eric Cole.
In the other Ohio qualifier in Springfield, Zac Blair won a 4-for-1 playoff for the last spot by outlasting John Peterson, a former PGA Tour player who retired and then asked to be reinstated as an amateur.
The four spots from the Florida qualifier did not finish because of a rain delay.
Three of the five spots from the Atlanta qualifier went to amateurs, with 17-year-old Mason Howell leading the way. The high school junior played bogey-free for an 18-under 126. Also qualifying was Jackson Koivun of Auburn, who already has locked up a PGA Tour card, and Florida State sophomore Tyler Weaver.
Qualifiers in Toronto and North Carolina each offered seven spots – the PGA Tour is in Canada this week and the Korn Ferry Tour is in its Carolinas swing.
Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark and Emiliano Grillo of Argentina were among the seven qualifiers in Canada, where Kevin Velo led the field. Florida State junior Luke Clanton was in the U.S. Open as No. 1 in the amateur world ranking. He gave up that spot to make his pro debut in the Canadian Open, and failed to get through U.S. Open qualifying.
In North Carolina, Zach Bauchou led the seven players who got into Oakmont. Bauchou was in the Ohio qualifier two years ago when he had his college roommate – Viktor Hovland – caddie for him a day after Hovland won the Memorial.
Most of the LIV Golf players who tried to qualify – or thought about it, anyway – were competing for four spots in Maryland. Marc Leishman of Australia, who has not qualified for a major the last two years since joining LIV, beat out fellow LIV player Sebastian Munoz to earn one of the four spots.
Fifteen players from LIV originally were in the Maryland field. Five did not turn in cards when it was clear they wouldn’t make it – not unusual for tour players – while five withdrew before it began, including Bubba Watson and Lee Westwood.
Matt Vogt led the two qualifiers in Walla Walla, Washington, and secured a homecoming of sorts. He was a caddie at Oakmont and now is a dentist in Indiana.
Originally Published:
