Max Homa was trailing by a shot when he stepped to the tee Saturday afternoon at the 227-yard par-3 16th, the most difficult hole of the final round which was playing almost a half-stroke over par. There had been just one birdie made there the entire day.
Max pulled his T100•S 4-iron. He took aim, then watched his 2023 Pro V1 fly toward the flagstick, stopping just 15 feet from the cup. It was the closest approach of the day on No. 16. He made the putt to get to 12 under, securing what would prove to be the clinching birdie.
The shot highlighted a ballstriking week for the books on Torrey Pines’ South Course, with Max gaining more than 10 strokes (+10.620) on the field tee to green and more than eight shots (+8.387) on the field on approach shots, leading the field in both categories on his way to the sixth win of his PGA TOUR career.
Here are the backstories on the equipment Max used to hit the shot of the week at the Farmers Insurance Open:
HOMA’S NEW PRO V1
Max put the NEW Titleist Pro V1 golf ball in play for the first time on Thursday at Torrey Pines, making the switch to 2023 Pro V1 following a visit last weekend to the Titleist Performance Institute. Last Sunday at TPI, Homa worked with his coach Mark Blackburn and J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s Director of Player Promotions, testing the performance of the new model through the bag.
Six days later, in Saturday’s final round, Max rolled his NEW Pro V1 in for birdie on the 18th, playing his final three holes in 2 under to win by two shots. He gained 4.595 shots on the field tee to green while closing in 6-under 66.
Said Van Wezenbeeck: “With ’23 Pro V1 we saw Max’s ball speed jump a little bit off the driver with lower spin. It was flying great. He was even more consistent with his irons and the short game performance was as good as ever. It was a no brainer.”
HOMA’S T100•S 4-IRON
Having traditionally carried a full set of blade irons, Max exchanged his 620 MB 4 and 5 irons last season for a T100•S 4-ironand T100 5-iron. The T100•S went in the bag for the first time a year earlier at the 2022 Farmers following a session at TPI. He added the T100 5-iron at The Genesis Invitational, two starts later.
“I was down in San Diego with J.J., who was fitting me at TPI. And he said, ‘Hey, you should try this 4-iron. It’s a T100•S. It’ll be a lot easier to hit. It will launch a lot higher. So it’ll come down a lot softer. It’ll go a little bit farther in the air, but then shorter once it hits the ground. So I tried it and it was super easy to hit, especially if the lie’s not perfect. I think with the blades, if it’s sitting on a little downslope or sitting a little bit down, you’re not going to get any lift out of it. And it becomes just a club that you are hoping to hit near or maybe on the green. Now with this 4-iron, because of how much easier it is to hit, the forgiveness of it, it’s become a weapon, especially on par 5s.
“And then, like two weeks later, we’re sitting around, my caddie and I, Joe, thinking about how a 5-iron has started feeling similar to how that blade 4-iron felt. So we put a T100 in. It feels very, very easy to hit. I can work it a little bit, but it just comes down a lot softer. So those long par 3s, especially that 5-iron, has become a big deal to us.”
Check out Max's full setup here: