Max Homa's had a front row seat to Rory McIlroy's career for the best part of a decade and a half, and he's just dropped an opinion that cuts against the grain of how most people talk about the Northern Irishman's game. Homa knows a thing or two about life on the PGA Tour himself. Six wins to his name, though nothing since January 2023, which tells you he's not just some outsider throwing shade from the cheap seats. He's competed against McIlroy, watched him operate at close range, and clearly rates him. McIlroy sits in a different stratosphere entirely, 30 PGA Tour wins and six major championships deep, the kind of résumé that puts him firmly in the conversation as the best and most consistent player the Tour has produced over the last 10 to 15 years. That's exactly why Homa's comment carries weight.
The swing take nobody saw coming
McIlroy is one of just six men in the entire history of the sport to complete the career Grand Slam. He's a legend already, still capable of beating anyone in the field on his day. So when Homa got asked to rank fellow pros' golf swings on the PGA Tour's official X account, you'd expect nothing but praise for McIlroy's motion.
Instead, Homa offered something more interesting. His read is that McIlroy's swing was actually better when he first arrived on Tour than it is right now, all these majors and all those wins later.
That's not a knock on the 37-year-old. It's a genuinely fascinating piece of insight from someone who's had years to watch the swing evolve up close, and it raises an obvious question that Homa's comment doesn't fully answer: what exactly changed, and did it need to?
Whatever the answer, McIlroy's trophy case suggests the current version is working out just fine, even if it's lost a step from the one that first turned heads on Tour.