SAN DIEGO (AP) — On the list of U.S. Open final qualifying sites announced this week is Valencia Country Club in the Southern California city where Max Homa was raised.
That might be an option for him, which would have seemed absurd a year ago.
Homa had a brush with a Masters green jacket last April until fading with a double bogey on the par-3 12th hole. He tied for third, moving him to No. 9 in the world. He was coming off his first Ryder Cup, leading the U.S. team with a 3-1-1 record in a loss to Europe.
For Homa, that can seem like long ago.
“Golf does not like me at the moment,” Homa said. “I've noticed that.”
He comes into the Genesis Invitational having not registered a top-10 finish in nine months. His world ranking has plunged to No. 60 — the top 60 are exempt for the U.S. Open, and Homa isn't exactly trending.
He has a new coach. He has changed equipment. What hasn't changed is an honest outlook about his form and this maddening game. And he hasn't lost faith in his ability to bring it back.
“I think I, for one, know what I'm capable of,” he said Tuesday at Torrey Pines. "Secondly, I know that I am quite tough when it comes to this stuff. I've gone through this much worse before when the results weren't coming. I definitely have my low days. I've been incredibly frustrated since April.
“But I also find pride in waking up after a hard day and having the energy to go get better.”
The frustration dates to that Sunday at Augusta National when Homa had a close call at the Masters. Yes, he had another top 10 a month later at Quail Hollow (13 shots behind Rory McIlroy), but he said he was hitting the ball poorly. That might date back further than Augusta.
There have been spells of good play. They just don't last very long.
Homa, of course, knows better than most how maddening the game can be. His low point was in 2017, when he made two cuts in 17 tournaments and only once played on a Sunday. He climbed out of a dark place to win six times on the PGA Tour, on courses like Riviera and Torrey Pines and Quail Hollow. He has played in the Ryder Cup, and twice in the Presidents Cup.
He is rebuilding his swing and believes it is getting close. There was a moment last Tuesday at the WM Phoenix Open when he said he gave everyone on his team a hug because he finally felt he was making progress after months of going backward.
Three days later, he missed the cut by five shots.
He burned the edges of cups with his putts. He was posing over shots into the green only to see them come up a fraction short and into a bunker. It was like that for two days. It's been like that for months.
“My coach astutely said afterwards, ‘I think you were 6 combined feet away from being like 2 or 3 under,'” Homa said. “It's a hard game, man. And when it doesn't like you back, it gets very difficult.”
The Genesis Invitational is likely to be every bit of hard now that it has relocated this year to Torrey Pines because of the LA wildfires that destroyed so much of Pacific Palisades. Harris English won the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey three weeks ago at 8-under par. Every other PGA Tour event this year has been won at 16 under or lower.
The rough is so juicy that Scottie Scheffler nearly lost a ball during a nine-hole practice round. It will be longer than ever in soft conditions, especially with rain in the forecast.
There is no faking it around this San Diego public course along the Pacific bluffs. Homa opened with a 77 three weeks ago and withdrew.
“If you don’t drive it well on the South course, you could manage, but it’s very uncommon someone can go win swinging it like I did a couple weeks ago,” he said. “But I'm not swinging it like that anymore, so I look forward to play this.
"I hate playing golf courses that I love poorly, so it’s actually quite nice for me to be here only a few weeks later and kind of wipe the stink off a little bit.”
Homa is great at social media without trying. He has been great at golf by trying extremely hard. He considers his willingness to work to be his strongest trait. He spent a long Saturday of practice after missing the cut in Phoenix — he lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, now — and had such a productive day that it led to a moment of reflection.
“I was really tired and really frustrated just with everything going on with my own golf game,” he said. "On the drive back I just had a nice moment where I just thought to myself how much better the next win’s going to feel than any win has felt.
“So I’m just trying to hold onto that as my motivating factor at the moment.”
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Scottie Scheffler, left, and Max Homa, right, walks through the desert to get to the fourth green during the second round of Phoenix Open golf tournament at the TPC Scottsdale, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Simon pounded Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category 3 storm on Sunday, its eye remaining just offshore as its most powerful winds and rain slammed people living between the Sierra Madre and the ocean.
The hurricane's center swirled parallel to the coast, closing in on the Puerto Vallarta area, where its most damaging winds and rain were expected to hit around midnight and continue through Monday morning. Its maximum sustained winds weakened late Sunday to 115 mph (185 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, but it was still expected to remain a dangerous hurricane.
That’s not good news for people in and around Puerto Vallarta, a popular tourist destination in the state of Jalisco. Just inland and uphill from the resort areas, many Mexicans live in communities where housing might not stand up to the storm.
By late Sunday, Simon's eye was moving northwest about 45 miles (75 kilometers) south of Cabo Corrientes at about 5 mph (7 kph). A senior hurricane center specialist, Philippe Papin, said this westernmost tip of mainland Mexico is the area most likely to get a direct hit from the system. Cabo Corrientes is at the southern tip of Bahia de Banderas, the wide bay where Puerto Vallarta looks out to the Pacific.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 15 miles (30 kilometers), and tropical-storm-force winds reach up to 60 miles (95 kilometers) from Simon’s center, meaning the entire area between Mexico's western coast and the Sierra Madre mountains could be affected.
“We’re expecting catastrophic wind and life-threatening storm surge impacts along that west-central coast of Mexico where the hurricane warning is currently in effect,” Papin said. “They’re also getting very heavy rainfall associated with the storm that’s likely going to produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides in areas of higher terrain along the Mexican coastline, and there will be significant swells.”
The hurricane center said Simon was expected to dump an additional 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) of rain, with some areas getting up to 8 inches (20 centimeters), in the states of Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa through early Thursday.
Isolated totals of 30 inches (76 centimeters) were possible parts in Michoacan, Colima, and Jalisco states, producing life-threatening flooding and mudslides, the center said.
As the storm approached Puerto Vallarta, National Guard vehicles patrolled the streets while police used a megaphone to call out the few people who were jogging, walking their dogs or biking by the waterfront. Officers reminded people that the area was closed and urged them to take shelter. Not everyone followed the orders.
Jalisco state suspended classes on Friday and Monday in 22 coastal municipalities and began evacuating people from at-risk areas while asking the tourism sector to make sure workers and visitors are fully accommodated in shelters or safe zones.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum took to the social platform X on Sunday to urge people in Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Michoacan to stay sheltered until the government issues a notification that the danger has passed. She also asked people to follow recommendations from civil protection officials and to avoid traveling on public roads.
“Precautionary evacuation efforts to safe zones are ongoing; the priority is our safety,” she wrote.
Hotel worker Víctor Martínez went shopping for nonperishable food Sunday afternoon. He said he could not go to work because public transportation service was suspended and most of the hotel had been evacuated.
Martínez found people’s concerns about the hurricane comforting.
“It happened to us before. It hit us years ago,” Martínez said, referring to a Category 5 hurricane that hit the area in 2002. “People didn’t expect it. We were very skeptical that it would ever hit us. Now, though, we’re different. Precautions are being taken. It happened to us once, and we won’t let it happen again.”
Despite the risks posed by Simon, tourists were still arriving in Puerto Vallarta.
Visitors Ricardo Ramírez and Brenda Villarreal, who have never lived through a hurricane, went looking for food by the city’s boardwalk and came across police urging people to take shelter. Ramírez said they were completely unprepared for the situation.
“The boardwalk is closed. Be responsible. Understand!” police told passersby using a megaphone.
Ramírez said he and Villarreal had planned their four-day vacation since last year and traveled from Guadalajara, Jalisco’s capital.
“We don’t know the extent of the danger yet,” Villarreal said. “We’re just starting to see what’s going on.”
This article has been edited to correct the spelling of Philippe Papin's name.
A National Guard on patrol faces the spray at the seawall as Hurricane Simon approaches Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A National Guard stands in the spray as a wave hits the seawall brought by the approaching Hurricane Simon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A National Guard patrols along the seawall as Hurricane Simon approaches Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Tourists walk along the coast as Hurricane Simon approaches Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Tourists take photos of a water splashing against the wall as Hurricane Simon approaches Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Workers place sandbags outside a restaurant as Hurricane Simon approaches Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
This satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA shows Hurricane Simon in the Pacific on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)
A man boards up a shop as Hurricane Simon approaches Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
The Flying Men of Papantla perform the "Danza de los Voladores" on the beach as Hurricane Simon approaches Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A man places a window covering on his boat as Hurricane Simon approaches Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
