Memory Lane
Max Homa shares 'embarrassing' AIM username that paid tribute to Tiger Woods
Harry How
If you're of a certain age, you have a certain secret that you don't wish to reveal to the world. Well, that you don't wish to remind the world of, that is. We're talking about your AIM username, of course.
Before texting became all the rage, and long before things like Facebook and G-Chat and Slack and WhatsApp, AIM was how people communicated. You know, instead of actually talking to people like our weird parents did.
I went to college just when AIM was taking off and my friends and I were on our computers all the time. You chatted with people down the hall. You chatted with friends from home. And when there was no one around to chat with, you just checked out what away messages people left up (hopefully, something more interesting than "BRB"). Or you downloaded more songs using Napster. To listen to while you were chatting with people on AIM.
Anyway, looking back, a lot of those usernames were pretty cringeworthy—hey, they were created by mostly teenagers. And Max Homa is no different.
The now five-time PGA Tour winner was (randomly) asked what his AIM username was on Tuesday ahead of this week's Presidents Cup and he didn't disappoint. Homa shared his "embarrassing" handle—and if you know how much he idolized Tiger Woods, it won't be too hard to guess what it was.
"NextTigerWoods59." Wow, that was a pretty brave thing to share, Max. Although, honestly, it could have been a lot worse. For instance, mine was Trigga3Myers, a nod to a nickname bestowed upon me for my 3-point shooting as well as former No. 3 on the Knicks, John Starks. So no hating from me, Max.
You also have to love how Homa delivered the name, knowing he was about to get ridiculed. And how he slipped in that line at the end: "Yeah, so sick, dude. Met so many girls off that." LOL as we used to say on AIM. Well, I guess we still text that, but you get the point.
Anyway, Max Homa continues to be the content gift that keeps giving. And somewhere, there's probably a kid on some newfangled messaging system I've never heard of with the username "NextMaxHoma59." And he's probably not meeting many girls either.