After PGA Tour Yields to Player’s Protest, Max Homa Weighs In on Controversial Rule

The Tour Championship format has changed again! This is the second time in Jay Monahan’s term that the format of the regular season-ending has been modified. In 2019, the PGA Tour commissioner and his team introduced the stroke advantage format that gave the best golfer of the season a 10-stroke advantage. For the likes of Scottie Scheffler, it might have been a boon. But for Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Max Homa, & Co., despite delivering the best performances in the big-money event, they ended up on the losing side.

Schauffele might have had the worst luck in the event. He has finished as a runner-up twice, even after registering the lowest gross score in the event. But there have been others who have risen to the occasion and triumphed in the end. The likes of Rory McIlroy (twice) and Viktor Hovland have won the Tour Championship despite starting the event with a stroke deficit. Three out of the six editions of the stroke advantage format have produced such outstanding results. But on other occasions, the golfer with the biggest advantage ends up winning.

All that changes in 2025. This year, the Tour Championship will not give a stroke advantage to the FedEx Cup leader. That means, even if Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, or anyone else tops the leaderboard before the event, they will still start on par against the remaining 29 on the field. This worked out well for the players, as they had been demanding the change for a while now. And one of them expressed their joy over the big change.

Sitting down for a Press Conference preceding the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, Max Homa was asked about his views on the format change of the Tour Championship. Glad that the strokeplay format had now seen its end, he said, “I like it. There’s a ton of things you could do to it. I have hated for a while how so much of it is tied into the money, and I mean that for on the fans’ side. Like it’s just, I just don’t know why you would care. So, to make it about the competition and to make it about winning something and not cultivating it, to like make sure that the guy who had the best year is going to probably win.”

Homa confirmed that he wasn’t a fan of the entire handicap advantage for the best player of the season. He believed that the Tour Championship should have given everyone the same opportunity to win the event rather than pushing the FedEx Cup leader to bag another huge paycheck. Speaking of paychecks, the 6-time PGA Tour winner also mentioned that he prefers the tournament not only to be about the $25 million prize money. Along with the format change, the purse distribution for the event has also been modified. The specifics of the same will be revealed by the PGA Tour in the coming weeks.

Coming back to the interview, Homa also added, “I’m a fan of so many other sports, and I know we’re not exactly like them, but the story lines that come with the Warriors losing after having the best season of all time. The history of the Patriots losing to the Giants after being undefeated. Like those are things that we tie, like we hold on to. And it’s not to take away from their season, it’s you just got to keep earning it. So I really like everyone starting at even. It’s still incredibly hard to make it to that final 30. It is the sign of an amazing year. So if you’re there, you know you should have a chance at the title, in my opinion.”

Just like many sports enthusiasts, Max Homa also seems to be a fan of the David vs. Goliath dynamic. And he clearly roots for David in most scenarios. Homa seems to have fond memories of the Super Bowl XLII in 2008, where the undefeated New England Patriots lost on Game Day against the New York Giants 14-17. Up until the fourth quarter, the Patriots were leading by 4 at 14-10. However, the last 15 minutes saw the Giants cover the mammoth deficit and add 3 more points to end up at 17. That’s what Homa hopes to see in the Tour Championship as well, instead of the PGA Tour trying to push the best golfer of the season for the win. Starting at even points will give everyone a shot to win the event.

Finally, to conclude his response, the Burbank local added, “I like what they have done. Again, there’s a million different things you could do, but just starting at zero is easier to digest. I don’t know, it just felt like before if you got to the TOUR Championship at even or 1-under — one year I played great all year and I think I started like six back of Scottie — and it’s like it just is not a, didn’t feel hyper competitive, and it just feels like every year you would end up with two or three people on the weekend that had a chance, and that’s not exciting. So I’m just glad we’re back to golf as we kind of know it, and I think that it will produce a lot more excitement at what should be our most exciting event.”

Recollecting the outstanding season he had in 2023, Max Homa finished in 6th in the rankings after the playoffs. He started the Tour Championship with a -4 on the leaderboard. While he ended up losing the event by 17 strokes against Hovland, he was still placed at T9 on the leaderboard. Those 4 strokes would have bumped him up to 4th, tied with Rory McIlroy. This just shows how unfair and demotivating it was for golfers who didn’t finish high after the playoffs to win the Tour Championship.

JUST IN: A new format for the Tour Championship has been announced with the elimination of starting strokes and the switch to traditional stroke play. There will still be a 30-man field with changes being made to the prize money allocation. It appears there’s also a chance… pic.twitter.com/xjybzbLbJk

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) May 27, 2025

Interestingly, there are quite a few conflicting opinions about the new changes implemented by Jay Monahan & Co.

Despite Max Homa’s support, the new Tour Championship format receives mixed reactions

There were quite a few golfers who had been vouching for Jay Monahan & Co. to change the format of the Tour Championship. The likes of Scottie Scheffler, Adam Scott, and Sam Burns had mentioned how the event needs to be more straightforward instead of the complicated stroke advantage setup. However, after the PGA Tour answered their prayers, it seems that the netizens are voicing their opinions on it being a boring format.

Minutes after the announcement on X, fans bombarded the comment section with their displeasure about the simple strokeplay format. In their opinion, a match-play format would have been a lot more entertaining and exciting. The elimination-style event would have pitted the golfers directly against each other and helped make it easier to narrow down the best golfer of the season. That individual would have earned the big paycheck that came along with lifting the illustrious trophy.

In fact, some also believed that if match play was difficult to execute, then Jay Monahan & Co. should have stuck with the stroke advantage, as that guaranteed the season-long efforts of the winner would be awarded. Do you also oppose the simplistic strokeplay format for the Tour Championship?

The post After PGA Tour Yields to Player’s Protest, Max Homa Weighs In on Controversial Rule appeared first on EssentiallySports.