“Having a plan each day mentally” - Max Homa's sports psychologist has a role in his win

Max Homa disclosed a new secret to his success after winning the Farmers Insurance Open on Saturday. The American golfer has registered his second victory of the 2022–23 PGA Tour season.

Homa, who has struggled with performances, is now back in his form. He has won six PGA Tour championships and four in the last two years. He missed the cut in 15 of 17 tournaments and lost his PGA Tour card in 2017.

Fortunately, he regained his card in 2018 after the Web.com Tour season. He won his first PGA Tour event in 2019 at the Wells Fargo Championship, and within a few years, Max Homa clinched six championships.

His recent victory at the Farmers Insurance Open is pretty important for him as it was his first championship as a father. The California native thanked his wife Lacey for his success and recently unveiled a new secret to his latest achievement.

Max Homa has been working with Julie Elion (sports psychologist) for a while and revealed that she helped him with his game.

“The confidence is becoming more steady. I’ve been working with a sports psychologist, Julie, who has – I mean the last two months have opened my eyes to a lot of things."

He added:

"Having a plan each day mentally. I didn’t go into a single round this week thinking about a technical goal or a statistical goal, it was I’m going to learn something today, I’m going to put in place what I’ve been working on, and today that’s what I did. I did a great job of it.”

Homa successfully defended his title at the Fortinet Championship in September 2022 and won the second PGA Tour title of the season at Torrey Pines.

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"I had never worked on my ....." - Max Homa opens up about his mental health

The key to his victory at Torrey Pines has been his hard work and mental peace. Besides working on his shot, Max Homa dedicated an ample amount of time to his mental health.

His caddie, Joe Greiner, suggested to see a sports psychologist, and luckily, it worked in his favor.

Max Homa confessed that he didn't like it in the past.

“I had tried that in the past and I didn’t like it. The way he put it was I’m not tapping into a big facet of the game. Skill-wise, talent-wise, myself included, we’ve been working at this for so long there’s only so much I can better at incrementally I can get better at in this game.”

However, Elion helped him a lot. Homa also thanked his caddie and his childhood friend, Joe, for his help. He said:

"I think it will be a momentous part of my journey in this game. I had never worked on my mental game the way (Joe) was talking about it. He said, ‘I’m not telling you this because I think you’re broken, I’m telling you this because I think it can boost us real high in this game of golf.”

Having turned professional in 2013, Max Homa has won eight professional events in his career. He has competed in all four major tournaments, with the lowest finish of T48 at the Masters in 2022.