CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Max Homa was a rock star on Tuesday at Quail Hollow.
OK, that might be a tad generous, but his popularity underscores the United States team’s distinct advantage at the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow this week.
Homa, who has campaigned as hard as anyone in the past year to be on this team, arrived at the practice range early Tuesday morning with a wide smile.
“Hey, champ!” some onlookers called. “Congratulations” was a popular refrain.
Homa earned his fifth PGA Tour win this past weekend at the Fortinet Championship, the first event on the 2022-23 PGA Tour calendar. Four of his five wins have come in the past two-plus years, and showcases the depth of this year’s U.S. team. Sure, he’s a rookie at the Presidents Cup, but he’s playing about as well as anyone in the world at just the right time.
“Yeah, he’ll get a chance to play,” U.S. captain Davis Love III deadpanned. “I think we have a rule that everybody has to play once before Sunday, so we’ll have to put him in there.
“No, I’d say there’s a lot of highlights already for me, and we haven’t played yet. But one of the highlights was Mack Horton from our team took luggage carts and went and met Max and his entourage about 2 in the morning to get him to the hotel. So that was really cool.”
Homa admitted the gesture was much appreciated.
“That was really super nice of them. They did not have to do that,” Homa said. “It was like, 2, 2:30 in the morning. He helped us with all our bags, showed us to our room. … It just goes to show what type of guy he is, obviously an amazing golfer, great captain, but very, very great human being.”
Homa was among the 12 U.S. players who took to the range, practice green and surrounding areas early Tuesday before finding his way to the course at Quail Hollow. Heavily favored, the team isn’t practicing like it.
“We’re used to being called the favorite,” Love said. “Even when we lose three Ryder Cups in a row, they tell us, ‘Oh, but they’re the favorite.’ The other captain or the other team or you guys remind us that we’re the favorite. So we’re used to that. That’s on paper, and a lot of great coaches will tell you the games are not played on paper. They’re played out there on the golf course.”
On the golf course is where the U.S. team has shown a distinct advantage. Six team members have played in a Presidents Cup prior to this season, five are currently ranked in the Top 10 of the official world golf rankings and all 12 members are in the Top 25.
Still, six of the U.S. team players have never played in a Presidents Cup, an event that can be a completely different experience.
“I know how fun they are,” U.S. Presidents Cup veteran Jordan Spieth said, cracking a smile. “And I think the first-tee jitters are something you enjoy. We just don’t get that scene very often. We get it at the team events. That’s the only time we get a first tee that looks anything like this. This one’s even bigger.
“I can settle in a little bit easier just because I know how I’m feeling, how I’m supposed to be feeling, versus it being a new thing like my first one.”
And that first one for Spieth? That was a doozie.
“I had a really hard time the first few holes of my Presidents Cup career,” Spieth said. “I had Steve Stricker on my side that was carrying me, but I had a really hard time. I was out of three or four of the first five holes at Muirfield, and then I made a putt, and Strick was like, ‘I got your back until — you just keep on hitting shots, keep giving yourself chances.’
“Sometimes people just need that kind of pat on the back, and I’ll never forget that. He’s such a calming presence. I just try to, when I start, let me be like Strick that first round that I ever played. That’s really how I feel.”
Now, Spieth is Stricker in a sense. Tuesday, Love lauded Spieth as a focused, team-oriented player, recalling a moment from the 2017 event early in tournament week.
“In 2017, Steve Stricker had a little team meeting every night, and Jordan jumped up — I think it was either Tuesday or Wednesday — and he said, ‘Hey, hey, this has been real fun celebrating,’ “ Love recalled. “I think Justin had just won the FedEx Cup, and we had a big time riding the boats in New York. And (Spieth) goes, ‘Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. It’s going to be windy tomorrow. We’ve got to get ready. This is going to be a tough match.’
“From then on, guys have seen him kind of as a leader. We had some little meetings last night. He’s a very smart guy. He’s a very confident guy. And that’s what we need is guys to step up.”
Perhaps Spieth will be captain in future Presidents Cups. Love, a Charlotte native, is firmly entrenched in that spot for now, and not just for his obvious golf prowess or ability to assemble an international team or the pairings within the tournament, as he showed late Sunday night into Monday morning.
Homa — the rock star, you’ll recall — spent his Sunday working his way back into — and winning — the first PGA Tour event of the 2022-23 season, defending his 2021 win at the Fortinet Championship in California. After briefly celebrating there, Homa hopped that flight to Charlotte, to be greeted by Love and company.
“It was a pretty crazy Sunday night, got in super late,” Homa said. “But it was ideal in the sense that I wanted to make sure I came in here with my game feeling good and some confidence, and I do have that going for me. If I was going to play the week prior to the Presidents Cup, I’d like to win it.”
Now, he said, it’s all about rebounding quickly and playing to the best of his ability in a format — match play with alternating shots — that no one is all that used to.
And if he can win a few matches here this week? That, he said, will unlock total rock star status.
“It’s awesome,” Homa said. “Awesome thing to have them before coming to do this. It’s just been — whether I won or lost, I was going to be really happy to be here. It’s been a great week already.”
