LA QUINTA, Calif. – Some players spend golf’s abbreviated offseason working on their swing speed while others focus on putting. Max Homa spent his time off working on his “mental growth.”

That work was tested midway through his second round at The American Express when he found a fairway bunker with his drive at the 10^th hole, a fairway bunker with his second shot and a water hazard with his third on his way to a triple bogey-7. Homa bounced back with birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 and finished the day tied for 10^th place after a 2-under 70.

“I don't really get too aggravated. It was a bad swing compounded by another one. So it's just, it is what it is,” Homa said. “There's no reason why you can't approach the next hole with the same vigor you would, how I tried to approach 10.”

And how exactly does one work on their mental growth?

“Reading, positive affirmations,” he said. “I've been very focused on being in the present. It's very hard to get mad at something if it's already happened, if you're being in the present. So that's what I've been working on.”