While Max Homa finished on the 9th hole in the Black Desert Resort on Friday, he shook hands with his caddy, handed over his putter and doubled over in pain.
It was the end of a confusing Friday in the Utah Bank Championship — a painful, arduous, ultimately successful Friday in what Homa expects to be his final tour of the year.
“I don’t know for sure, but I have a pretty good bone spur in the top of my ankle. I’ve had it for a while,” Homa said after limping in the second round. He had planned to take it off during his golf off-season. But his ankle seems especially eager to get going in that offseason. Homa was visibly uncomfortable for most of his second round.
“It almost never flares up, but I think this place is very hard to ride. Going down just a little hill on 12, I didn’t feel anything, but as we were going down the freeway on 12, I could feel it swelling. Then when we finished on 12, it was very, very soft,” he said. “Then I don’t know, it’s just not a good golf course to walk on. Walking uphill is really hard because I can’t bend it, so it’s absorbed.”
But there is a canyon between what Homa late and what he shot. By the end of the day there was still no blemish on his scorecard, but there were five birdies, including three in his last six holes as he climbed into the top 10.
Beware the injured golfer, they say. Homa has an idea why that is.
“In a way, I played so well yesterday and just got so much going my way,” he said, referring to Thursday’s 70, which included six birdies but also three bogeys and a double. “Honestly it helps me get hurt sometimes because I don’t remember thinking about my golf swing, I don’t remember thinking too much about anything. Just go through it. Take it home,” Homa said.
“If I hit a bad shot, but it was in the game, would I be happy with it? So, yeah, I think you learn a lot from that. Hopefully I can figure that out. It was just like I was walking not very fun.”
To be clear, Homa doesn’t care about your crush. But he realizes there may be lessons to be learned from the fact that he made limited mistakes despite — or thanks to — his pain.
“On the ball it’s good. The hitting is not good but it’s manageable,” he said. “I don’t know. I kept thinking that my wife had a terrible birth with our first son and she had a big, big operation and there’s no way I’m going to complain about a sore ankle while walking. She really—she puts me through a lot. She couldn’t look at me the same. Yeah, that’s nothing. It’s more pain.”
Had he considered retiring? The thought crossed his mind, Homa admitted. But still…
“I mean, for a moment, just because if it doesn’t get better, I just couldn’t see myself doing this for another two days,” he said. “But, yeah, maybe not. I just can’t. I don’t want to do that. I like 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 handle it.”
If this is indeed Homa’s last event in 2025, it’s a fitting conclusion: disappointing but full of promise. He has strung together some strong finishes in recent weeks — three top-20s in his last six starts, including a T5 at the John Deere Classic — but never quite found his form in a season that featured changes in his coach, his staff, his clubs. Unlike some of his peers, he doesn’t need to improve his standing this fall to maintain status for 2026; he has several years of exemption status left. Still…
“Yeah, it’s not, but it’s just nice to feel good about the game,” Homa said, when asked why this week is so important. “It’s been trending for sure the last couple of months. I came in here with a lot of confidence in what I was doing. You know, I had it going yesterday and I just noticed it, so it was good to come out today and play like I knew I could.”
The bone spur, he added, came out of nowhere.
“I never feel it. I just have a terrible dorsiflexion in my ankle. It never affects me at all,” he said. “This is like the second time in a year it’s shown, and never in a tournament.”
Overall, Homa raved about the venue — Black Desert Resort is playing host to the tournament for the second time — and the tournament.
The Black Desert is visually stunning.
Getty Images
“It’s a phenomenal golf course. The greens are great. I love how firm it’s getting,” he said. “Surprised I didn’t come here last year because of how cool this place is.”
And with the help of some KT Tape and some Advil, he’ll spend two more days fighting the frustrating pain in that beautiful setting.
“It was hard to tell if anything helped,” he concluded. “Birdies helped a little bit. Yeah, it’ll be OK. It’s not a big deal.
;)
