2021 Wells Fargo Championship: Top 10 power rankings at Quail Hollow

It’s been two whole years. Now, Max Homa finally gets to defend his Wells Fargo Championship title. He settled for T-76th the first time he took on Quail Hollow in 2015.

Four years later, Homa found the formula. Rounds of 69-63-70-67 were good to win by three over his friend, Joel Dahmen. Homa rode a hot putter that led the field in strokes gained putting. He gained 4.1 of his nearly 10 strokes on the greens on Sunday.

Homa made just five bogeys and no doubles or worse in his first PGA Tour victory. Like I said in the intro, hitting a ton of fairways isn’t essential. Homa was T-76th in fairway percentage (55.36%) but was still 14th in SG approach (4.581 total).

It was a momentous win at Quail Hollow for a once revered junior and collegiate golfer who was down on his luck in the early years as a pro. That freed Homa up to keep playing well since then.

The former Cal Bear is well inside the top 50 in the world thanks largely to his second career win in February at the Genesis Invitational. Homa’s made eight of nine cuts in 2021, contended at The American Express (T-21st) and added top-10s at the Arnold Palmer Invitational (T-10th) and last week at the Valspar Championship (T-6th).

The 30-year-old has a pretty well rounded stats profile in the 2020-21 season. He’s 38th in overall strokes gained (.911) and between 43rd and 88th in the specific categories. Homa does have the length (45th driving distance, 302.7) to survive at Quail Hollow and is 34th in birdie average (4.17).