Max Homa And Caddie Bill Harke Reportedly Split After Just Two Months

Less than two months after hiring a new caddie, it appears as though Max Homa is looking for his third looper of the year.

The Associated Press' Doug Ferguson first reported on Monday that Homa and Bill Harke are no longer working together, just two months after the bagman replaced Joe Greiner, who had been at the 34-year-old's side for six years prior.

Ferguson said that he was informed of the split by an anonymous party who noted only that Harke had "lost his job" and did not wish to confirm the news before Homa had his chance to make a statement.

However, following the six-time PGA Tour winner's heart-breaking failure to reach the US Open at Oakmont via Final Qualifying, Homa was in no mood to clarify anything.

Asked if he had split with Harke, Homa replied: “I’d much rather talk about the golf than all the questions about the caddie.”

Homa's attitude was perhaps understandable given he was destined to play a sixth consecutive US Open with one hole of his 36 to go at Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club, Ohio.

Yet, a closing three-putt par forced him into a five-for-one playoff - which Cameron Young won - before Homa missed out on an alternate spot at Oakmont a hole later.

The fact that the Californian even put himself in that position while being the only player to carry his own bag all day was remarkable - a fact that was not lost on Homa.

Prior to the playoff, he said: "I haven’t carried my bag 36 holes in a while so I’m a little tired. I would assume college [was the last time]. Good thing is I played decent.

"I was on the line [for qualifying], so kind of the day flew by, but then when I missed that putt on 18 on the last hole, it all kind of hit and my legs are a little bit tired."

While caddies obviously carry the physical burden of a large tour bag, they can also be on-course sounding boards for players to let out excess emotion. With no one next to him, Homa was forced to rely on himself for all of the crucial jobs loopers help with.

Although, interestingly, the World No.90 felt his outlook was a little sunnier in the absence of a caddie.

Asked how his mood fared on such a taxing day at Kinsale, Homa said: “Pretty good. Seems to be better than when someone's standing next to me, for some reason, so I might need to just walk by myself more.

“Maybe I just looked at it as a nice peaceful day by myself. Probably got to battle some demons and just kind of have nobody to lean on. So sometimes maybe that helps a little bit.

"There's no one to… it's just everything's me. So just kind of like the battle of that maybe helped a little bit.”

Reporters at the Ohio golf club tried to find out why Homa took on 'Golf's Longest Day' one last time, but Homa simply said: “I wanted to carry for 36 holes. Everyone is going to ask me that” before walking away.

The University of California, Berkeley alumnus has one more chance to reach the US Open, but he must likely win this week's RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour to jump up into the world's top-60.

Per Golfweek's Adam Schupak, Homa will have one of Tiger Woods' former caddies, Lance Bennett on the bag in Canada.

Bennett had recently been working for Michael Thorbjornsen before being replaced by JJ Jakovac - the former caddie of Collin Morikawa. Coincidentally, Morikawa hired Homa's old caddie, Joe Greiner after Jakovac.