At the 2024 Masters, Max Homa was in the world’s top 10 when he arrived at Augusta National, and by the end of the tournament, he had come closer than ever to his maiden Major title with a T3.
A year on, and the American is now ranked 81st in the world and with a new caddie alongside him after his barren spell led to splitting with Joe Greiner.
Homa last dropped out of the world’s top 10 with a missed cut at the 2024 US Open, and it’s been largely a similar story since, with his few bright spots coming in no-cut events, the best of which was a T14 at the Nedbank Golf Challenge on the DP World Tour.
Incredibly, Homa hadn’t made a cut since last July’s Open before he finally broke that unwanted run after his second round at Augusta National this week.
A two-under on Friday left Homa even for the tournament, meaning he will be involved at the weekend. Afterwards, Homa explained that inconsistencies with his swing had been at the heart of his issues, and they haven’t necessarily been solved just because he has made the cut.
He said: "Yeah, it's awesome. This has been just not fun at all. Yeah, I don't know. It's been decent. Like I think today and yesterday were similar to how it's been. Like make a lot of really good swings in a row and one weird one. I was mostly just proud of - yesterday played a brilliant first 12 holes and lost my swing, and I feel like I did a better job of like playing the game and fixing it when I'm done.
“And today was a bit similar. I got off to a really good start with the swing; wasn't holing putts. Stayed patient. Made one loose swing on 9 and didn't let it freak me out. So you're always trying to learn and evolve.”
Homa also admitted that making the cut was on his mind in the second round. He explained: “Yeah, it was a real battle in between my ears with that,” before adding: “So it is a fight trying not to think about it because it does you no good. I guess every time I thought about it just tried to get back to where are you right now and just hit this putt.”
While Homa, who hit over 200 balls at the range on Tuesday, isn’t kidding himself that his game is fully back on track yet, he had some words of comfort for Nick Dunlap, who carded the worst Masters round in a decade on Thursday with an 18-over 90.
He added: “I mean, just the old adage, tough times don't last; tough people do. At the end of the day if you get out of your own head it's just one event.
“You can miss the cut by one and feel like garbage. It sucks. But always closer than you think type thing. I mean, it sucks, but I think we all go through it. It's tough, but at the end of the day we play again next week. Be back to even.”
