Cal Sports Report

Max Homa Wins Farmers Insurance Open

Former Cal standout started final round 5 strokes off the lead, but rallied for his sixth PGA Tour victory. Collin Morikawa finishes third

Jake Curtis

Max Homa started Saturday’s final round five strokes off the lead, but the former Cal standout fired a 6-under-par 66 at the Torrey Pines course to win the Farmers Insurance Open by two strokes for his sixth PGA Tour victory.

Another former Cal golfer, Collin Morikawa, was also in contention throughout the day, and he ended up in third place, three shots off the lead after firing a 3-under 69 on Saturday and winding up 10-under for the tournament.

But the day belonged to Homa, who birdied the final hole to finish at 13 under par and probably improved his world ranking, which stood at No. 16 entering the weekend. His wife, Lacey, and infant son, Cam, who is nearly 3 months old, were also present to see Homa play a strong final round and wind up two strokes ahead of Keegan Bradley, who made a late charge and also shot a 6-under 66 for the day and 11-under for the tournament.

Here is the final putt with a shot of his wife an infant son.

Homa also won the first event of the 2022-23 season, the Fortinet Championship, and joins Jon Rahm as the the only players to have won two events this season.

Homa's sixth career PGA Tour victory was worth $1,566,000. Morikawa  pocketed $600,300.

Sam Ryder, who held a two-shot lead on the field entering the final round, struggled midway through Saturday’s round and had a double-bogey on the 15th hole that doomed his chances. He finished tied for fourth at 9-under after shooting a 3-over-par 75 on Saturday.

The turning point came on the 16th hole for Homa while Ryder was playing the 15th.  Homa knocked in a birdie putt on the 16th to tie Ryder for the lead, and seconds later Ryder made double-bogey 6 one hole behind to put Homa alone in the lead. 

It was a series of oustanding shots that led Homa to the title, as we see in the following videos:

Homa on No. 3

Homa had an impressive up and down for par on No. 8:

Homa tied for lead with a birdie on No. 9

Homa took the lead alone for about a minute with birdie on No. 11, before Ryder matched him with a birdie on No. 10.

Somewhat overlooked in Homa's winning performance was the strong showing by Morikawa, who has put together three consecutive good performances.

He finished sixth at the Hero World Challenge in early December, second at the Sentry Tournament of Champions earlier this month and now this third-place finish.

Here is Morikawa's birdie putt on the fifth hole Saturday:

Collin Morikawa
Collin Moroikawa / Photo by Ray Acevedo, USA Today

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Cover photo of Max Homa by Ray Acevedo, USA Today

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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