PAIGE SPIRANAC defended Max Homa after he came under fire for not wearing red and black to honour Tiger Woods. Homa, 30, is a massive Tiger fan but wore a white shirt for Sunday’s final round of the WGC Championships event in Florida. Rory McIlroy was just one of the golfers to wear Tiger’s famous […]
PAIGE SPIRANAC defended Max Homa after he came under fire for not wearing red and black to honour Tiger Woods.
Homa, 30, is a massive Tiger fan but wore a white shirt for Sunday’s final round of the WGC Championships event in Florida.
Rory McIlroy was just one of the golfers to wear Tiger’s famous red and black colours – which he always wore for the final round of tournaments.
Homa was criticised for not doing the same but explained he had already set off for Bradenton, Florida before news of Woods’ car crash broke.
The 15-time major champion was hospitalised after crashing near Los Angeles last Tuesday and severely injured his legs.
And social media star Spiranac leaped to Homa’s defence after he was criticised for his outfit on Sunday.
She tweeted: “We constantly complain about athletes being robots and wanting them to show personality but then you go and attack someone like Max Homa over something that shouldn’t be an issue.
“If you want athletes to be more real on social media then don’t be on them about every little thing.”
Homa was also forced to explain his attire after criticism.
He wrote on Twitter: “I unfortunately didn’t pack any red and black for this road trip (obviously didn’t know the news til arriving), so I will try and pay my respects to TW tomorrow with some really great final round golf.
“Hope to see a lot of red and black out there!”
Homa won the Genesis Invitational last month at Riviera Country Club and was presented with the trophy by his childhood hero Woods.
After beating Tony Finau in a playoff, the California native said: “I saw Tiger the other day. I was too scared to talk to him.
“But he’s forced into talking to me today, so it’s going to be a pretty awesome moment.”
The golf world was stunned just days before the WGC event this week when news of Tiger’s crash broke, and Homa was no different.
He compared the incident to basketball legend Kobe Bryant’s fatal helicopter crash last year.
Homa said: “My mind, like a lot of people, immediately went to the worst. It felt eerily similar to the Kobe Bryant crash, and it was awful.
“The photos, the real-time reports, the helicopter shots of officers picking through hillside debris — it was all so familiar. And it felt personal.
“If there were two people in the world, outside of my family, that I’d say, ‘Thank you’ to, the first two would be Kobe and Tiger.
“To say, ‘Thank you for building the lives you have, and for letting people like me look up to you, getting better at sports, at everything, because of you.’ It was very weird the parallels, the way it was Kobe and then it was Tiger.
“I feel very thankful that it sounds like Tiger will be okay. Forget golf — I think that’s the furthest thing from what should be on anyone’s mind.
“I just want him to be able to live a normal life with his family. I know, it’s weird to feel like this about somebody you don’t really know, but that’s the effect that someone like Tiger Woods — or Kobe Bryant — can have.”
