Cal Sports Report

Max Homa’s Torrid Front Nine Gets Him Close at PGA Event

Former Cal golfer is less successful on back nine in third round of Rocket Mortgage Classic

Jake Curtis

Former Cal golfer Max Homa began Saturday's third round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic by charging up the leaderboard  He wound up with an admirable round of 5-under-par 67 at the Detroit Golf Club, but his start suggested he could have done better.

Homa fired a 6-under-par 30 over the front nine. That put him at 10-under for the event and lifted him to fourth place temporarily. But when everybody had finished the third round, Homa was 12 strokes off the pace heading into Sunday's final round

Homa started his day at 4-under, and began his third round by rolling in a long birdie put on the first hole, as seen here:

After getting a par on the second hole, he holed a long pitch for an eagle on the third hole that put him at 3-under for the round after three holes.

Homa added birdies on the seventh and ninth holes to complete the front nine at 6-under 30, leaving him at 10-under for the event, five strokes off the lead at the time.

It appeared Homa was on the way to a round that would put him in contention for his third PGA Tour victory of the season and fifth of his career.  But his magic touch did not continue on back nine. 

Homa, who ranked 20th in the world, did not have any birdies on the back nine and he bogeyed the 14th hole to finish the final nine holes at 1-over-par 37. 

His 9-under for three rounds leaves him 12 strokes behind go-leaders Tony Finau and Taylor Pendrith, who are tied atop the field at 21 under, four strokes ahead of third-place Cameron Young.

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Cover photo of Max Homa by Junfu Han, USA TODAY Sports

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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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