Max Homa shuts down Twitter trolls, sparks donations for St. Jude's Children's Hospital

Max Homa helped raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital this week at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, all while shutting down Twitter trolls in the process.
Max Homa helped raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital this week at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, all while shutting down Twitter trolls in the process. (Getty Images)

Max Homa doesn’t care about your fantasy golf team.

Not one bit.

Following a rough 4-over 74 in the opening round of the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational on Thursday — which marked the first ever WGC event to take place in Memphis, Tennessee — Homa heard plenty of criticism from fans on social media. Many were upset at the 28-year-old for hurting their fantasy golf teams.

Yet the Wells Fargo Championship winner didn’t take it to heart.

Now, it’s not fantasy sports Homa doesn’t like. He plays fantasy football himself, and is a fan of the PGA Tour’s new partnership with DraftKings that was announced earlier this week.

“I usually don’t like to respond but when it is misunderstood what I was saying — when I’m being told that I’m pooping on the Tour’s new partnership — I was not doing that,” Homa said Friday, via the PGA Tour. “I was just pooping on people that say I need to play better for their fantasy lineup. They need to draft better. Don’t pick me, it ain’t that hard.

“I hope people make money off me but if you don’t make money off me and you lose, it’s not my fault, it’s yours. Pick a better person. Pick Rory [McIlroy].”

The conversation, however, quickly turned to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, the beneficiary of the annual Tour stop.

Several players have already pledged donations for the hospital while playing at nearby TPC Southwind this week. Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas both pledged to donate $1,000 for each birdie and $5,000 for each eagle they make during the tournament this week, and Patrick Reed followed suit with a similar donation.

Homa pledged to donate, too, offering up $200 for every birdie he made.

While Thursday didn’t pan out too well — he made just one birdie — fans took notice of his pledge on Twitter. Many even offered pledges of their own.

Friday wasn’t much better overall — Homa had three bogeys and two double bogeys throughout his round en route to the 3-over finish. He did card four birdies, however, worth $800 for the hospital.

Homa is in a tie for 59th in the 63-man field through two rounds and sits 16 strokes behind Matthew Fitzpatrick, who surged ahead on Friday with a career-best 6-under 64. It would take a miracle, and then some, for Homa to rally back and claim his first WGC title this weekend.

Yet regardless of his positioning, Homa still left the course in a pleasant mood on Friday. After all, he helped raise money for a tremendous cause.

“It was nice to see through the discussion people show good colors and start raising money for a good cause,” Homa said, via the PGA Tour. “Obviously it kind of spun into a good thing so I am really happy that that happened and I’m proud of all the people that wanted to do it.

“I didn’t ask anybody, they just volunteered, so that was pretty awesome.”

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