Billy Horschel arrived at this week’s Honda Classic fighting a bit of a sinus infection. While that may have held back other golfers from playing the tournament, Horschel overcame the bug to shoot five under, tying him for first place after the first round. It might not go down in the lore of sickly performances with Michael Jordan’s infamous “Flu Game”, but it’s impressive nevertheless.
Horschel was asked about his mental preparation, with many golfers often over-preparing or overthinking. Instead, the reporter mentioned how they overheard Horschel say he takes the opposite approach, with the golfer describing how he still sees positive results staying more relaxed.
“Yeah, listen, there’s no secret. It’s not a secret. I grind. I work hard. It’s no secret out here that I work really, really hard out here. But this week, with just the way I’m feeling and everything, energy’s still not completely 100 percent every day. So I got to do maintenance, have some maintenance and be smart about it.”
Despite Horschel’s low energy levels, he went on to say working with coach Todd Anderson helped him relax and just trust his regular routines.
“Thankfully, what Todd Anderson and I did on Monday going back to some of the old stuff felt really natural right away. So it wasn’t like I had to grind away on the range and try and find the feels and try and find the swing. It’s there, I just got to sort of just slowly build into making the better swings on a little bit more routine basis.”
“But, yeah, just taking it a little bit easier this week just because I’m still not anywhere close to a hundred percent.”
As for playing sick, Horschel was also asked about how it impacts a golfer’s game. Despite lacking the energy he might normally have, Horschel said his current sinus infection has actually helped him stay a bit more relaxed.
“Yeah, there’s a saying: ‘Beware of the injured or sick golfer.’ I’m not like super, super sick, but I’m just not like a hundred percent.
“I think you just sort of, you’re a little bit easier on yourself. You’re sort of not worrying about everything. I guess you can just say you always got to be aware of the injured or sick golfer.”
