The Memorial: Max Homa implodes as US Open berth slipping away

A strong showing at the Memorial Tournament could propel Max Homa directly to the U.S. Open if he cracks the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). Homa is currently ranked 87th but is only 0.4344 average points behind the qualifying line.

However, even with plenty of golf left to play at Muirfield Village, it doesn’t look like that will happen. Not after his terrible second round.

The six-time PGA Tour winner carded a 4-under 68 on Thursday, sitting third on the leaderboard and giving his fans hope for a long-awaited resurgence. But the feeling is very different after Friday.

Homa started the second round parring the first three holes. He began to struggle when he bogeyed the fourth and sixth holes, but seemed to recover when he birdied the ninth to make the turn at 1-over for the round.

However, things only worsened on the back nine. Homa failed to card a single birdie but did card bogeys on the 12th and 16th holes. He also double-bogeyed the 13th and 18th holes, finishing at 7-over for the round and 3-over for 36 holes.

This performance dropped him more than 30 spots on the leaderboard. He is even in danger of not being able to play the weekend, as the projected cut line is 4-over par, but more than half the field still has to finish the round.

If he can’t overcome this rough patch, Homa has two more chances to secure a spot at Oakmont: One is through the Final Qualifying event, for which he has already registered. It will be played on Monday, June 2.

If he doesn’t succeed in the so-called “Longest Day of Golf,” his last chance will be the RBC Canadian Open next week. There, the 34-year-old would need an extraordinary result to lift him into the top 60 in the world rankings and secure the final spot at the US Open.

However, the Canadian Open field has not yet been released, so it’s unclear whether Homa will be in the field.

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