Max Homa has a not-so-secret message written on his glove

HOYLAKE, England — Max Homa continues to be looking for his main magic.

However he’s additionally making an attempt to not strive fairly so onerous.

The final time we noticed the World No. 8 at a significant, Homa was lacking the reduce in heartbreaking style at his hometown U.S. Open, bombing out pre-weekend at Los Angeles Nation Membership with three double bogeys in his second spherical to overlook the weekend by two.

It didn’t really feel good.

“Yeah, the U.S. Open damage me lots,” he mentioned. “I performed superior. Had a three-hole stretch that was dangerous and it simply didn’t really feel like I deserved to overlook the reduce. Then I went to [the Travelers Championship] the following week in Connecticut and missed that one after the other — and performed fantastic.

“It’s simply a kind of seems like I’m gripping the wheel actual tight. Particularly everyone is aware of my main document sucks. I feel I’m not myself once I play them.”

These final three strains had been notably revealing. “Gripping the wheel actual tight” is a phrase so expressive I want I’d considered it. Acknowledging his main document “sucks” means he’s pre-empting any exterior criticism. And the concept he’s not himself when he performs them is definitely fairly empowering, as a result of it means that if he was himself in majors, he’d be doing a lot better.

“I am going to common Tour occasions and I really feel like I liberate and I play nice. I’m much more constant. Loopy issues don’t appear to occur,” he mentioned.

Homa has been engaged on that, which is difficult given the truth that engaged on being pure is considerably counterintuitive. However one technique he’s employed is a bit message he’s written on his golf glove, three letters simply seen when he grips his membership and simply seen to TV cameras, too: NFG.

So what does it stand for?

“It’s simply form of a mantra,” Homa mentioned. “It has a foul phrase in it, so I gained’t inform you what it’s. It’s simply one thing I began doing in Detroit. Simply cease caring a lot and let myself simply be myself.”

We’ll allow you to decipher that for yourselves, including solely a private guess that the phrase would possibly rhyme with “no vehicles pushed” however, once more, who may say?

Homa is one thing of a mantra man. He has all the time leaned on the Stonecutter’s Creedone thing he acquired from Kobe Bryant. And different messages, like “forgive quickly,” have peppered his greatest performances.

“Typically you simply want a reminder that it’s going to be all proper. Simply go play golf,” he defined.

He had a stable week in Detroit, ending T21 on the Rocket Mortgage Traditional. And he adopted that with a T12 finally week’s Genesis Scottish Open.

As for this week? Up to now, so good. He’s now enjoying the seventeenth main of his profession and has only one outcome higher than T40. However the three-under 68 Homa posted within the first spherical marked his greatest profession spherical to par in a significant. It was notably spectacular given he was enjoying in probably the most tough circumstances of the day, battling afternoon wind and chill at Royal Liverpool and holding his personal.

“That’s nearly as good as I keep in mind hitting it in a significant,” he mentioned. “I felt like I had plenty of management of my golf ball, which was nice in that wind.”

Homa confronted one notably humorous (although little doubt irritating) problem as he completed his first spherical. As he pulled fairway wooden for his second shot on the par-5 18th, he heard some commentary from the close by TV.

“I don’t know if anyone has talked about this, however you possibly can hear the commentators on the printed from the massive TV, and I used to be over the ball and one among them mentioned, ‘that is an excessive amount of membership,’” he mentioned.

“I did a completely terrible job of not backing off,” he added with a smile. He yanked his second shot effectively left of the inexperienced and into the grandstand beside it. From there it was only a matter of creating par.

“It was identical to get the ball on the inexperienced and let’s go house.”

Stay to combat one other day. Simply not combat too onerous.

Dylan Dethier

Golf.com Editor

Dylan Dethier is a senior author for GOLF Journal/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams Faculty, the place he majored in English, and he’s the creator of 18 in Americawhich particulars the yr he spent as an 18-year-old dwelling from his automobile and enjoying a spherical of golf in each state.