Max Homa reveals the best advice Tiger Woods ever gave him that he still thinks about today
· Yahoo Sports
Tiger Woods has transformed into golf’s wise sage in the latter stages of his career.
Visit chinesewhispers.club for more information.
The once unstoppable force in the sport, who was famed for his inability to work with any other players in the Ryder Cup, is now the man that the new generation turns to for advice.
He’s been a fount of knowledge for the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and all of the game’s greats over the past decade.
And since he’s taken the role of captain of his TGL team, Jupiter Golf Links, his teammates have had direct access to his thoughts and opinions on the game.
One of those teammates is Max Homa, but he recently revealed that the best advice he ever received from Woods came when he least expected it.
Photo by James Gilbert/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty ImagesTiger Woods told Max Homa that he should be winning more
Homa has a close relationship with Woods, which has thrived over the years. Speaking on the Rich Eisen before his TGL final with Jupiter Golf Links, he revealed the piece of advice which the 15-time major winner gave him that he still uses to this day.
The six-time PGA Tour winner said, “He’s been great, but it’s interesting, at the beginning of our relationship, I used to pick his brain a lot more. And as it’s gone on, I just enjoy talking to him like a normal person, just as a friend.
“I think when you’re first getting into it, you’re nervous, and you just want to get everything out of his brain that you can, and then over time you realise there are some things that he’s just got magic with. You can’t really teach it, you can’t learn it.
“It’s cooler at times just talking about the Dodgers and football or family life and all that. But he’s been great.
“The best advice he’s given me wasn’t really anything I asked, but we were playing The Open Championship at St. Andrews, we had a long wait, and he came up behind me and asked me, ‘How many times have you won out here?’
“And I made a bit of a joke about how I was catching up with him, but at the time, it was three. And he very seriously looked at me and said, ‘It should be a lot more’ and just kept walking. And I was like, alright, I’m going to remember that one. Because if he thinks I should be winning more, I should probably also believe that.
“So it was a very cool thing, but also in a very Tiger way. Very sincerely and aggressively told me I’m underachieving. And I’ve dealt with it since then.
“Once he said it, I was like, you know what, I’m going to keep that. If I start to feel bad about myself, Tiger thinks I should have won more, so maybe that’s possible.”
How Max Homa played after Tiger Woods’ advice
Woods gave Homa this advice at the 2022 Open Championship, and while he missed the cut at that event, he went on to have the best run of his career shortly afterwards.
He won the Wells Fargo Championship and the Fortinet Championship that year, and the following year took three victories on the PGA Tour, which included a defence of his Fortinet title and a win at Torrey Pines.
These performances in 2023 saw him qualify for the Ryder Cup in Rome, where he was Team USA’s highest points scorer with a 3-1-1 performance.
But since that year, Homa hasn’t been able to recapture that magic. He’s winless since the Ryder Cup, and has had just one top 10 finish in 2025. Maybe he needs to lean back on the confidence Woods instilled in him to get back to winning ways.