​Following a solo second-place finish at the John Deere Classic, Max Homa rocketed to No. 73 in the Official World Golf Ranking, securing his place in the field for The 154th Open Championship. While many of golf’s biggest names are spending this week at the Genesis Scottish Open in preparation for the season’s final major, Homa is taking a different path en route to Royal Birkdale. Rather than making a last-minute trip to North Berwick, he is competing at the ISCO Championship, where he sits T38 as the tournament heads into the weekend.
The six-time PGA Tour winner explained that he didn’t realize he had qualified for The Open until June 6. “Got a call Monday. We asked about it Sunday night. I think back in the day or at least how I remembered it at the Deere, the highest finisher not in got a spot. They don’t have that anymore, but I guess the World Ranking got me in or something like that,” he said Wednesday. “So I got a call Monday. I had a bit of a panic. We had obviously zero thought of going over there. I won’t see my family now for a few weeks, but that was a bit of a scramble, and my wife’s a superstar and told me to head on over.”
Homa acknowledged that, had he known sooner, he would have preferred to compete at the Genesis Scottish Open. Yet he felt compelled to honor his commitment to the ISCO Championship. “Full transparency, if I knew I was in the Open, I would have played in Scotland,” Homa said. “I did feel a bit of an obligation in a good way to play this. As everyone knows, that is an opposite-field event. They don’t get as much notoriety, but this one, especially being co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour, has a pretty awesome field.” He added, “I don’t know, I would be kicking myself if I left an event high and dry. Not that I think I’m the hottest thing in town or anything, but I’ve spoken with a bunch of the people who put this event on, and I’ve been reached out to by a lot of people who are very excited I was coming, so it would have felt not so good skipping.”
Meanwhile, the Genesis Scottish Open is in full swing as of Friday, July 10, and already has produced plenty of storylines. The leaderboard features several big names, including Tom Kim, Rory McIlroy, Min Woo Lee, Chris Gotterup, and Matt Fitzpatrick. With stars like these near the top, anything can happen as the tournament heads into weekend play.
One of the biggest surprises came when World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler missed the cut, marking the first time he has failed to advance to weekend play in 78 consecutive PGA Tour starts. The last cut he missed was the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, 1,428 days ago. With unexpected twists already in play, anything can happen next week at the final major championship of the year.