6 steps to stripe it like 6-time Tour winner Max Homa

Six-time PGA Tour winner John Maxwell Homa was the individual champion at the 2013 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship while attending the University of California Berkeley. The 10th ranked player in the world has been ranked as high as fifth but had never cracked the top 70 until he started working with GOLF Top 100 Teacher Mark Blackburn in mid-2020. 

Homa, 33, finished T9 in his first PGA Tour event as a pro at the Frys.com Open and earned his first win at the Web.com Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am. He finished 17th on the Web.com money list to earn his PGA Tour card for the 2014–15 season. In 2019, Max won the Wells Fargo Championship for his first PGA Tour victory.

Since June 2020, Blackburn’s main focus has been reducing Homa’s arm lift in the backswing and tweaking his swing toward more of a fade. Max proceeded to win four times over the next three years and was selected to play on the 2022 U.S. Presidents Cup team. Following a win at the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open, Homa went 3–1–1 at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy.

In November 2023, he won the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, shooting 19-under par to claim his first victory outside the U.S. In January of this year, Homa hit a 477-yard drive during the third round of the Sentry, the longest drive in the PGA Tour’s ShotLink era. Talk about Maxed out!

Below we break down the six steps to striping it like Homa.

6 steps to swing like Max

1. Address

Homa sets up with little knee flex, a relatively tall posture and extended arms. All this helps him execute his rotary-focused swing. But even with all of these upright elements, he manages to round his upper back and shoulders in order to free up his arms.

2. Takeaway

Max’s “triangle” of arms and club stays mostly intact without much torso turn compared to his Tour peers. This move keeps the clubhead high and outside his hands and sets up his fade-centric swing.

3. Top

Max adds a ton of torso rotation late in the backswing while maintaining some flex in his right knee. His out-and-up early takeaway gets much flatter at the top, thanks to a lower arm angle.

4. Downswing

Because of his late, rounded-out backswing, Max starts down without getting too far outside-in. Look at the club shaft—it’s perfectly bisecting his right forearm, even as his hips open at breakneck speed.

5. Impact

If you want to hit straight balls and fades, this is your ideal impact position: hips and stomach facing toward the target, shoulders relatively level and right arm still under the left.

6. Release

Homa manages his left-to-right ballflight without a wipey, hold-off release. Notice how the butt of the club is pointing back at the camera — great. Both arms straight — even better. And the toe is up. As we often say on these pages, copy this!