THE 154TH OPEN

July 18, 2026

Max Homa

Mixed Zone

Q. Good work today, 3-under. Happy?

MAX HOMA: Yeah. Still a lot to be desired, but I like how I'm playing. So it was nice to manage a score out there.

Q. How did it play today compared to the two previous days? It's a bit cooler today, isn't it.

MAX HOMA: Yeah, but it's as easy as it gets. The only thing that's remotely tricky is you do all this prep with one wind direction. I know my caddie knows what we're going to hit, but it still feels like you're learning as you go. I hit a beautiful 3-wood off 2, and I thought it was in the bunker, and it's a good 12 yards short of it. Just the uncertainty is the only hard part, but it's playing about as easy as you could ever ask for right now.

Q. Talk to me about the 17th hole. What do you make of that hole?

MAX HOMA: I've been working my driver a bit more right to left and getting comfortable with it, which has been very helpful on that hole because the wind has been off the left every day, yesterday down off the left, and if you hit that fairway with a driver and you have the wherewithal to try it and pull it off -- yesterday that's the best hole I ever played in my career, but I had an 8-iron in.

Today it wasn't as much help, and again, going back to I didn't know exactly what my land line was, and I was four yards left of it, which was a good 20 yards left of the fairway, and then I was in a bit of a pickle. But I hit a really good wedge shot.

The pin today is about as easy as you could ask for, so I think that helped. It's middle left. It almost sits on a bowl.

But it's one of those, you hit a good tee shot, and it predicates how that hole is going to probably seem to you. So it seemed easy to me because I've hit two great tee shots. I've watched some guys have to lay up on TV, and then it looks like quite a tricky hole. Just depends how greedy you want to get off the tee and if you can pull it off.

Q. I think as fans we enjoy seeing the baked fairways. How is that for a player?

MAX HOMA: It's great. It makes it tricky, especially with the wind. Yesterday, for instance, you just have to shape it or land it perfectly, but on 10 I thought I hit a really good 3-iron, I hit it right where I was looking because I had a little bit of left to right with a left-to-right land angle. It hit a hill and shot straight into the right rough. It's not the end of the world, but when you're trying to catch these guys at 8, it makes it hard.

The greens are very soft for links golf, so I do think that's made it remarkably easier. But yeah, the firm fairways just makes it really important to have a great prepared caddie, and I think that's what you see -- what's so funny about watching this tournament is the conversations and how specific they are and how helpful that can be.

Q. Obviously when you saw what happened with the Bryson ruling last night, do you think that was a fair ruling?

MAX HOMA: I'm not really, I guess, wanting to be able to decide on fair, because they're the rules officials. I only saw one angle, and in my opinion I didn't agree with the ruling. I know there's another angle that -- side on, it's always hard to tell if it improves anything.

All I know is I've known Bryson for a very long time, and he's an interesting human at times, but I know he would never cheat the game of golf. I don't really love how it happened. It's not that the R&A said that he did it intentionally, but that rule as a professional golfer feels like it's written inherently to protect against people trying to improve their lie. So I just hope that people don't have that -- that doesn't create a narrative because I don't believe that of him.

But again, I'm not going to sit here -- it's really hard to tell anything. So yeah, that one is not up for me to judge. But it's a shame how that ruling feels because it seems like -- we were talking about it this morning. It's like you would try to call somebody out in junior golf because you could tell they were stomping around the ball. It didn't look like that to me. But that's not up to me. I just don't think that's in his character, so it's a shame I think that's kind of how it's being portrayed to some.

Q. Is it maybe why he reacted the way he did? Shane Lowry hinted at that when he got his two-stroke penalty last year; he's like, I'm accepting it because I don't want things to happen around me because I know the connotations of it. Do you think that's maybe why Bryson reacted the way he did?

MAX HOMA: Yeah, obviously he's right to be frustrated. He was one back and now he's three. But yeah, too, like I said before, just the way I've heard that ruling, how I interpret that ruling, it feels very much like an intent-based thing, and if you're telling a player that they did it, it sounds like -- just from a player's perspective, you're telling me I intentionally tried to cheat the game. I agree with him for being frustrated, especially I'm assuming that was not his intent.

I understood the demonstrative nature and actions because it probably just feels a bit like an indictment. But the rules are complicated. It's crazy. We're hoping they made the right one. Again, I can't sit here and tell you if they did. But I'm sure he'll use it in the right way and put a chip on his shoulder because I don't think anybody thinks that he was trying to do that hopefully.