Max Homa confirms the reason why he has decided not to play at the Scottish Open this week

The Open Championship is just a week away, and those who make their trade on the PGA Tour are in the midst of adjusting their game to links golf.

These players face their most unique test of the year, trading the perfectly manicured grass and lightning-quick greens of American golf for the undulating dunes of Royal Birkdale.

In an attempt to tailor their game to links golf, many of the world’s best players are playing the Scottish Open the week before. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Jon Rahm are among the players teeing off at The Renaissance Club.

But one American who isn’t playing in Scotland this week is Max Homa, who instead elected to play the ISCO Championship on the PGA Tour. This will do little to prepare Homa for Birkdale, so he had to explain this decision prior to the tournament.

Max Homa explains decision to skip the Scottish Open before The Open Championship

It’s safe to say Homa didn’t expect to be in the field for The Open Championship, the last major of the year. His performances so far this season had left him outside the top 100 in the Official World Golf Rankings, and until last week, he wasn’t playing at Birkdale.

But a runner-up finish at the John Deere Classic brought him into the top 75 in the rankings and made him a last-minute addition to the field. That’s why he’s playing the ISCO and not preparing for The Open in Scotland.

Despite that, Homa said he’s excited to be playing in Minnesota at the ISCO: “We were kind of trying to figure out that back-end of the season. At the time wasn’t in The Open. We were wrestling going back — I love Scotland, so it was a difficult decision not to go there, but figured this would be — we saw the scores last year, and JT’s from out here and loves it so it gets high praise.

“So we were excited to come out this way instead and stay stateside and kind of use this to hopefully propel a good playoff push for the end of the year. Yeah, we played — unfortunately I haven’t gotten to play the front nine yet, but played the back nine yesterday. I see why it gets so much praise.

“The golf course is awesome. It would be nice if the lightning stayed away for a couple days, but yeah, it’s a good spot. Close to where we just were so it was an easy trip down, all the things. So I’m glad that we put this on the schedule and I’m looking forward to competing once Thursday comes.”

Max Homa says what Justin Thomas told him about the ISCO

The ISCO may not be one of the biggest stops on the PGA Tour, but it’s well-loved among the players. Homa said he’s playing the event partly because of what Justin Thomas told him about it.

He explained, “I guess it just kind of comes up organically when you say, ‘What are you playing coming up?’ When I said I was playing ISCO, a few of the guys mentioned, oh, yeah, it was super hard last year, good golf course, cool spot. You get a good general vibe off it.

“Plus, for us, we go anywhere and everywhere, and when you see 8 under score win or whatever it was last year, that usually gives you a bit — gives an event a bit of juice.

“Won’t be that this year, unfortunately, but like I said, once we got on the golf course, we saw it’s a really good course, it’s a cool layout. Again, I haven’t played the front, but I hear that’s harder than the back, so I’m excited to see how it plays, even though it’s a bit softer.”

This just goes to show how much players value a challenging golf course. If the PGA Tour venues ramped up the difficulty week to week, then players would likely be far happier with the golf courses they visited throughout the year.