Max Homa cards second-round 68, enters weekend in contention at 2025 John Deere Classic
Homa has struggled all season, failing to make the cut in seven of 16 starts and finishing inside the top 25 just once. His 63 on Thursday had him one shot off the lead entering Friday, and he's in the same position as the focus turns to the weekend. Doug Ghim leads at 12 under and Homa is part of a five-way tie for second at 11 under.
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"I thought everything was good," Homa said. "Rolled it well. Hit the irons awesome. Wedged it well. Drove it well... Similar to yesterday, just nothing sticks out. Just was really good golf kind of through the bag. Yeah, those are my favorite kind of days."
Homa made five birdies in the second round, offset by two bogeys, one of which came on the last hole when a wayward tee shot found the fairway bunker down the left side of No. 18.
"It was a lot harder today with the wind, especially the back nine. Couple of those tee shots played pretty tricky as opposed to yesterday when we played with no wind."
Other than that, though, Homa was dialed in off the tee all day, especially on the par-5 17th when he sailed a 354-yard drive over the trees to set up a second shot of just 189 yards.
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"I like to cut the ball and that hole, you know, sets up for a bit of a draw. But what's nice is the way I was swinging it it didn't have a ton of curve on it the last two days, so I'm able to hit a have you small cut, and if I just get some air under it. It's definitely an uncomfortable tee shot, but I like the way I wedge it, so it feels like a free ball. If I miss the fairway, I layup and get to hit a wedge in there 10 feet."
He didn't need to lay up. He hit his second shot to the left side of the green and got up-and-down for birdie.
Homa enters the weekend firmly in contention for the first time this season as he seeks his seventh PGA Tour victory and his first since January 2023. The job is far from over, though, especially considering the fact that 12 of the last 15 winners at the John Deere Classic have finished at 20 under or better.
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"I don't think really much changes [over the weekend]. I mean, just play the golf course. You're going to have to shoot really low. If you went out there and tried to do something specific, I'm not so sure that is going to work. Somebody can go out there and shoot 11-under out there and jump everybody.
So just go do what we did today and play another round of golf. Just keep waiting until the back nine on Sunday basically."
The solo leader, Doug Ghim, echoed that sentiment.
"Being in the lead this early in the tournament doesn't really mean that much. Obviously having a lead is awesome at any point in the tournament, but with 36 holes left to play and that many people at 11-under par, I mean, doesn't feel like much of a lead. If anything, I feel like I'm chasing to try to get to 20-, 22-under par, even deeper if possible. You know, as far as I know I'm nine, ten shots back of that right now."
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Due to thunderstorms in the forecast at TPC Deere Run on Saturday afternoon, players will be going off both No. 1 tee and No. 10 tee in threesomes for the third round, starting at 7:45 a.m. ET.
Homa will tee off in the second-to-last group with David Lipsky and Emiliano Grillo, just ahead of Ghim, Brian Campbell and defending John Deere Classic champion Davis Thompson.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: John Deere Classic 2025: Max Homa in contention after two rounds
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