Max Homa has split with his longtime caddie Joe Greiner ahead of next week’s Masters.
Homa and Greiner are childhood friends, both growing up at Vista Valencia Golf Course outside of Los Angeles. Greiner began working for Homa in 2013 after Homa turned professional, splitting before reuniting six years later. The two have been together for all six of Homa’s PGA Tour wins, as well as Homa’s Team USA appearances at the 2022 and 2024 Presidents Cups and 2023 Ryder Cup. Homa has consistently praised Greiner’s friendship and presence as one of the reasons for his success.
Earlier in the year, Homa had Michael Greller temporarily on the bag for the season-opening Sentry event. The PGA Tour’s website was the first to announce the break-up between Homa and Greiner.
“Joe and I made memories for a lifetime and can’t be more thankful for all the hard work. We have parted ways and it will be sad to see him go,” Homa told the tour in a statement. “I’ll always be grateful to have walked the fairways with one of my best friends.”
The development is the latest in a turbulent season for Homa, as he switched equipment companies in the offseason and has been working with a new instructor. Unfortunately, after contending in the 2024 Masters, Homa has struggled with his game. He has missed the cut in his last four starts and withdrew after an opening-round 77 at the Farmers Insurance Open. He entered this week No. 157 in the FedEx Cup standings and is No. 78 in the Official World Golf Ranking, his lowest spot in five years. His T-3 at last year’s Masters earned an invite next week to Augusta National, yet at the moment Homa is not qualified for the U.S. Open or Open Championship.
“I heard that great Jalen Hurts quote where he said, ‘I’ve had purpose long before anybody had an opinion about it.’ It stuck with me,” Homa said earlier this year during the Genesis Invitational. “I don’t know how I never heard that, but like two days ago I did, and it just made me realize however the score is looking to those like outward—like last week would never make sense to anybody unless you’re part of like my tiny little thing—you would never think that we made progress. It would look like another kind of red X on the year. I think that that’s going to be like a major steppingstone and something we’ll all look back on.
“Again, it is difficult, but I do know deep down, like at Nedbank two years ago when I won, it was like, ‘yeah, this is where he’s going, it’s working right,’ and my swing felt awful. I played great at the Ryder Cup, I made Tour Championship. I could see how people would think like the ascent, everything’s easy, but I knew it wasn’t. So it’s kind of in the inverse. As bad as this has been, I do know that I’m actually going the proper direction now.”
