As Max Homa finished the 9th hole at 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 at the Bank of Utah Championship – a painful, difficult and ultimately successful Friday in what Homa expects will be his last tournament of the year.
“I’m not sure, but I have a pretty big bone spur on the top of my ankle. It’s been bothering me for a while,” Homa said after limping through his second round. He planned to have it removed during his off-season golf season. But his ankle seems especially eager to accomplish that this offseason. Homa was in visible discomfort for much of his second round.
“It almost never gets inflamed, but I think it’s pretty hard to walk in this spot. When I was walking down a little hill on the 12, I felt like I didn’t feel anything, but when we were walking down the fairway on the 12, I felt it swell. When we finished on the 12, it was very, very tender,” 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 that sucked.”
But there is a gap between what Homa felt and what he shot. There was still no blemish on his scorecard at the end of the day, but there were five birdies, including three in his last six holes as he worked his way into the top 10.
Beware of the injured golfer, they say. Homa has an idea why that is.
“Somehow I played so well yesterday and got in my own way so much,” he said, referring to Thursday’s 70, which featured six birdies but also three bogeys and a double. “It really helps to get hurt sometimes because I don’t remember thinking about my golf swing, I don’t remember really thinking about anything. Just make sure you get it. Bring it home,” Homa said.
“If I hit a bad shot, but it was in play, was I happy with it? So yeah, I think you learn a lot from that. Hopefully I can figure this thing out. It just wasn’t very fun to run.”
To be clear: Homa is not interested in your sympathy. But he does acknowledge that there are lessons to be learned from the fact that he has made limited mistakes despite – or because of – his pain.
“Over the ball it’s fine. Through the hit it’s not great, but it’s manageable,” he said. “I don’t know. I kept thinking about the fact that my wife had a horrible birth with our first son and had major, major surgery, and I just can’t complain about a sore ankle while I was walking. That really put me through a lot. She couldn’t look at me the same way anymore. Yeah, this is nothing. It’s just more pain.”
Had he considered withdrawing? The thought occurred to him, Homa admitted. But still…
“I mean, for a little while, just because if it doesn’t get better, I couldn’t see myself doing this again for another two days,” he said. “But yeah, probably not. I just can’t do that. I don’t want to do that. I love being here. I really like how my golf game feels. It’s my last event of the year and it’s just a pain to run, so I can deal with that.”
If this is indeed Homa’s last event of 2025, it’s a fitting ending: frustrating, but with a lot of promise. He has strung together several strong finishes in recent weeks – three top-20s in his last six starts, including a T5 at the John Deere Classic – but has never quite found his form in a season that has seen changes in his coach, his caddy and his clubs. Unlike some of his colleagues, he does not need to improve his status this fall to maintain status for 2026; he will have exempt status for a number of years. Still…
“Yeah, it’s not, but it’s just nice to feel good about the game,” Homa said, asking why it was so important this week. “It’s definitely been trending the last few months. I came in here with a lot of confidence in what I was doing. You know, yesterday it was going and I just did that, so it was nice to come out today and play the way I knew I could.”
The bone spur, he added, came out of nowhere.
“I never feel this. I just have terrible dorsiflexion in my ankle. This doesn’t affect me at all,” he said. “This is the second time in a year that it has appeared, and never in a tournament.”
All in all, Homa was delighted with the event location – Black Desert Resort is hosting the Tour for the second time – and the tournament.
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“It’s a phenomenal golf course. The greens are great. I love how firm the course is getting,” he said. “Surprised I didn’t come here last year considering how cool this place is.”
And with the help of some KT Tape and some Advil, he’ll spend another two days fighting frustrating pain in that beautiful environment.
“It was hard to say if anything helped,” he concluded. “Birds helped a bit. Yes, it will all be fine. It’s not that big of a problem.”
“People are dealing with much worse.”
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