Wells Fargo Championship Recap: Homa Surprises With First Win

By now we all know that there are out-of-nowhere winners on the PGA Tour, and with some degree of regularity. Golf is just remarkably deep. It appears to be getting even deeper.

On Sunday at Quail Hollow Club, Max Homa, ranked 417th in the world, won the Wells Fargo Championship.

Homa was the first golfer to win when ranked that low since … four months ago. That's when Adam Long, also ranked 417th (we hope you are taking note, daily lottery players), won the Desert Classic.

Long was the first golfer to win when ranked that low since … six months earlier. That's when Michael Kim, ranked 473rd, won the John Deere Classic.

We don't feel like checking back any further, but we don't have to – you get the point. Three times in the past 10 months, golfers ranked outside the top-400 won on the PGA Tour. 

Since the start of last season, Andrew Landry, Andrew Putnam, Kevin Tway, Corey Conners and C.T. Pan had been ranked outside the top-100 in the world and won; Ted Potter Jr., Brice Garnett, Cameron Champ, Martin Trainer and Graeme McDowell had been in the 200s and won; and Austin Cook had been in the 300s and won. Plus Kim, Long and now Homa.

A lot of these fields were woefully weak; some were opposite-field events. Yes, the Wells Fargo field was tied for the weakest in the 17-year history of the event. But it still featured No. 2-ranked Justin Rose, No. 4 Rory McIlroy and No, 10 Rickie Fowler, plus three more players in the top-20. Perhaps you've heard of Paul Casey, Jason Day and Patrick Reed.

Imagine the No. 100 men's tennis player winning a tournament featuring three of the top-10 and six of the top-20? No, you can't. It's Djokovic, Nadal and Federer and pray for rain. Or something like that.

Anyhoo, we suppose this is the point in the story where we should give Homa his due. He went toe-to-toe with Joel Dahmen on Sunday and, even though Dahmen himself is outside the top-100, he is an accomplished golfer who has been coming on for more than a year now. He was outside the top-500 at this time a year ago. It wouldn't have been shocking in the least had Dahmen won. Homa beat him by three strokes.

And how cool and generous was it of Dahmen, having to be bitterly disappointed after coming so close and not winning, being so happy for Homa in the immediate aftermath of the tournament?
 

Anyhoo, we suppose we still haven't given Homa his due. The 28-year-old Californian had played in 68 career PGA Tour events before Quail Hollow and had missed 43 cuts. That is really, really bad. Oh, he also had lost his card twice in the past four years. He did have three top-10s, so we guess that shows there were some flashes of potential. And he had made close to $1 million dollars in those 68 events, which is pretty amazing in and of itself. He'll be in the PGA Championship in two weeks, plus some other big events, including the Masters next April, and he's now exempt through the 2020-21 season.

And if you're wondering where Homa is ranked now after his victory … he's still outside the top-100. That's how far back 417 is. Homa is now ranked 102nd.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Joel Dahmen
For the record, Dahmen is still ranked higher than Homa, now up to No. 80 in the world. He's a late bloomer, he's 31. But he has 18 – EIGHTEEN – top-25s in the past two seasons. He had 11 last season, seven more so far in 2018-19. Clearly, his day is coming.

Justin Rose
Rose put his improbable missed cut at the Masters in the rear-view mirror. Not only did he finish solo third but paired with Rory McIlroy on Sunday, Rose shot 68 to drub the two-time Quail Hollow champ by five strokes. 

Rory McIlroy
It's hard to slam McIlroy with the season he's having. But he's probably thinking that with his course history here, and with the weak field, this tournament was for the taking. It doesn't appear anyone was going to catch Homa on Sunday regardless. But if McIlroy had been shooting 65 instead of 73, who knows how Homa would've reacted?

Sergio Garcia
Garcia tied for fourth with Rickie Fowler thanks to an impressive 65-68 weekend. This was only the ninth PGA Tour event all season for Garcia, and he has five top-10s (including the two-man Zurich event). Bethpage Black is long and requires superior tee-to-green play. That's what Garcia will be taking to the PGA Championship in two weeks. He's back up to No. 26 in the world.

Pat Perez
Back in March, Perez withdrew from THE PLAYERS and posted on Instagram a picture of his leg wrapped in an ace bandage. "Blew out my Achilles. See y'all down the road somewhere," he wrote. Clearly, it wasn't as bad as Perez predicted, but he was idle until the Wells Fargo. After three rounds in the 60s left him in the penultimate pairing on Sunday, Perez ballooned to a 74 to tie for eighth. Despite that disappointment, Perez has to be pleased with such a fine result after two months off.

Kyle Stanley
The past few years, Stanley had been among the best players on Tour tee to green. This season, not so much. After starting off with five top-25s by January, Stanley fell apart and missed the cut six times in his next seven tournaments. All his tee-to-green numbers – strokes gained off the tee, approach, tee to green, greens in regulation – were horrible. He was outside the top-100 in all of them. And he still is. But after tying for 21st at the Masters, Stanley tied for eighth at Quail Hollow. His numbers at the Wells Fargo weren't on par with what we've seen from him, but they were far better than those season-long totals.

Joaquin Niemann
The Chilean teenager who burst upon the scene in the middle of last season has not been doing so well as a 20-year-old. He tied for 38th at Quail Hollow, which actually was a big improvement for him. Niemann has only one top-25 all season, and that was six months ago, when he tied for 10th at the Shriners. He even missed the cut at the opposite-field event in the Dominican Republic back in March. If you would've been asked to predict who would win a tournament first, Niemann or Max Homa …

Cameron Champ
Champ is one of those guys mentioned up top, an out-of-nowhere winner earlier this season. Well, things have gone full circle. Champ missed the cut at the Wells Fargo, his fifth in a row (not including a WD at THE PLAYERS). He last cashed in February at Pebble Beach. Until Champ shows us something – anything – he can't possibly be rostered.

Phil Mickelson
Oh, Phil. Mickelson is into his incredible swing speed at age 48 and blah, blah, blah. But he's gonna have to consider taking his foot off the gas. After winning at baby-short Pebble in February, he's got one top-20 in seven starts. He missed the cut at Quail Hollow. Mickelson is ranked 208th on Tour in driving accuracy. Out of 213. Ranking 208th in anything on the PGA Tour is big trouble. Mickelson will need to reconsider his plan and take 10 to 15 yards off his distance to get in the fairway more. If he doesn't do that at Bethpage Black, he'll have the weekend off.

Zach Johnson
Johnson missed the cut on Friday, and his world ranking now stands at 89th, his lowest standing in 15 years. He does have three top-25s and one other top-10 in 12 starts this season, but he's clearly on the back end of his career. He's coming up on four years since his last win, which was the 2015 Open Championship. That seems far longer than four years ago. Johnson is 43, and it's been a great run. Of course, it's not impossible for him to win again, after what we detailed at the top of this article. It would take a shorter course in a weaker field – like when he finished T7 at the RSM Classic in the fall, his only top-10 in more than a year.