There was no need to roast this swing, although Max Homa admitted he didn’t even see the result.
Homa picked a fine time to sink his first ace on the PGA Tour. After a turbulent stretch that saw him post a double bogey, then a birdie, then a bogey, the three-time PGA Tour winner rolled in his tee shot on the 14th hole during Saturday’s third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club and Lodge.
With a stiff breeze at his back, Homa stepped to the tee box with the stick 163 yards away and hit a perfect pitching wedge. The ball landed softly on the front of the green, rolled toward the flag and nestled into the cup.
The California native followed with a little dance and a smile before his caddie, Joe Greiner, came in for a chest bump.
Homa appeared to be looking away when the ball dropped, and he told media members after his round that he waits for reaction on his shots to know the result.
“I can barely see a 30-footer go in I’ve got such bad eyes. I don’t usually watch. I just listen,” he said. “I hit a really nice shot. It started to fall a little bit right. I was trying to hit like a little cut and just put it high up in the air. And I hit it well, and it started to drift right. So I wasn’t sure it was going to be all right.
“Then when it landed, I heard somebody clap, so I knew it was good. I turned around to get a water from some friends I have out here, and then it went crazy.”
His playing partner, Scottie Scheffler, said the golf karma gods were simply repaying Homa after his bogey on No. 13.
“It took a little while to go in. Ted (Scott, his caddie) and I were just talking,” Scheffler said of the ace. “The pin on 13 was a bad pin, and Max, it was a really good putt. It ended up 12 feet by the hole. He hit four good shots on that hole and made 5, which he didn’t deserve. So it was kind of a little bit of a makeup seeing that ball go in.”
But the wild ride continued after 14 – Homa birdied No. 16 then posted bogeys on 17 and 18 to finish the day with a 73. He sits at 1 over for the tournament.
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In honor of the ace, Mastercard will donate $200,000 to the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation. Also, those who were watching in the Palmer Patio certainly were happy to see the ball roll in. The tournament’s chief sponsor will provide tournament fans who purchased tickets to that area on the 14th hole for Saturday’s round with two grounds passes to the 2023 event.
Although it’s Homa’s first hole-in-one on Tour, it was the sixth ace on No. 14 in tournament history, including two last season — one from Kris Ventura and another from Jazz Janewattananond. Interestingly enough, Homa was Janewattananond’s playing partner a year ago when he turned the same trick.
Homa said he thinks this was his eighth hole-in-one, with his first coming when he was either 9 or 10 years old and playing his home course, the Chica at Vista Valencia in Valencia, California.
“I got a trophy because I snuck into third. I got a great picture of my buddy who’s five years older than me, Eric,” Homa said. “At the time, he was like three feet taller than me. I’m so happy with this trophy, and he’s so mad he tied a 9-year-old. I have that picture somewhere, or my mom does.
“I still talk to him. He knows exactly which picture because I bring it up every time I see him.”
Here’s a look at the hole via drone from our videographer, Gabe Gudgel: