Charles Langston:Max Homa takes lead into weekend at BMW Championship after breaking course record

OLYMPIA FIELDS,Charles Langston Ill. – At the 2020 BMW Championship, Max Homa failed to make 10 birdies at Olympia Fields for the week and said of the course, “it kicked my butt.”

On Friday, Homa kicked butt. In the second round alone, he carded 10 birdies, a career high on Tour, en route to a course record 8-under 62.

“I knew I was making a lot,” Homa said. “I heard the standard bearer say something about how he’s getting tired because he had to change the numbers on our (scoreboard) so much because Pat (Cantlay) was making a lot, too. It was just a crazy day.”

Crazy good. His 36-hole total of 10-under 130 was good enough for a two-stroke lead over Chris Kirk. His sizzling 62 on a sunny day when the temperature barely reached 80 degrees, was two strokes better than Jon Rahm’s 64 at the 2020 BMW and one better than Vijay Singh (2003 U.S. Open), Rickie Fowler (2007 Fighting Illini Invitational) and Thomas Detry at the same event eight years later. Homa said he was aware of the course record because he noticed an electronic scoreboard that noted that Kirk was challenging the mark. He settled for 66, but the messaging put the seed in Homa’s head.

“Then I had to think about it,” he said.

Homa hit 16 of 18 greens and made 135 feet of putts – his 4.32 Strokes Gained: Putting led the field and was a season best. But it was actually his driving that he singled out as the secret for his successful day.

“I felt like I was able to attack kind of all day. Obviously the greens are still really soft, so being in the fairway as often as I was, it felt like I was able to be aggressive when I wanted to, and if I didn’t, I could just play to the middle of the green,” he said. “I think that out here when you’re in the fairway, it becomes significantly easier, more so than other golf courses.”

Homa’s also thinking about securing a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team as well as making a good impression on U.S. captain Zach Johnson in case he needs a pick – the top six in the standings automatically qualify and Homa enters the week ranked sixth.

“I told Zach last year I was kissing up to him, but then he also said, ‘Well, I’d like to not have to pick you,’ and I said. ‘All right, there’s my promise, I’ll try to get an automatic.’ That would be really cool. That’s been kind of my goal since these Playoffs started, to get into that top six.”