Billy Horschel’s self-belief was shattered. Now, he’s on cusp of golfing immortality

Billy Horschel stared down, gnawed on his lower lip and shook his head as he tried to find words that eluded him. The uncomfortable quiet lasted a few seconds. Then a few seconds more.

It was June of last year, and Horschel, then a seven-time PGA Tour winner, had just carded a 12-over 84 in the opening round of his title defense at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. Six bogeys, three doubles, a slow-play warning on 13 and an unseemly double-hit on 14 — all in the wake of having missed the cut in half of his last 12 starts. Horschel, clearly scrambling for answers about his game, didn’t have to speak with reporters, but he chose to. When the words finally came, his voice cracked and his eyes glassed over.

“It’s tough right now,” he began.

Then, for the next couple of minutes, Horschel unzipped his golfing soul in a confessional that would be viewed and liked and commented on by millions on social media. So deep was Horschel’s anguish and honesty, you couldn’t help but pull for the guy, if not outright connect with him.

“It sucked today,” he said, adding, “I’m making a big number on every single hole it seems like. I’m struggling every hole.” And then came the dagger: “My confidence is the lowest it’s been in my entire career.”

This grade of candor and raw self-reflection is uncommon for Tour pros, but Horschel desperately needed a moment of catharsis more than he did even a card full of birdies. Psychologists have fancier terminology for what Horschel was doing but these three words cover it: talking it out.

Also — and surely this is a big also in explaining his willingness to open up — Horschel sensed salvation was near. “It’s funny,” he said, “as low as it feels, it feels like I’m not that far off at the same time. Which is insane to say when you see me shoot 84 today. It doesn’t, it wouldn’t make sense to a lot of people. But I don’t think I’m that far off. I just need, I need the swing to be a little bit better, I need to do a few more things a little bit better. I just need to see a few more quality golf shots.”

A remarkable thing happened after Horschel’s very public therapy session: texts, calls and social-media messages of support flooded in. Hundreds? More like thousands. Maybe more. We’re with you, Billy…Hang in there, man…Thank you for your honesty. We’ve all been there…and on and on.

“I was so thankful,” Horschel would later say of the outpouring. “I’ve always tried to be as human and as — no different than anyone else doing anything else in the world except that we do something on a public stage, and we do something we have to put ourselves out there on a limb and be very vulnerable on a daily basis.”

EVEN IF YOU DON’T KNOW Horschel’s story, you probably have detected where this is going. By freeing up his mind, Horschel freed up his game. Just two months later, at the Wyndham Championship, he shot 67-62-63-73 to finish solo 4th, in what was his penultimate official start of the year. Horschel didn’t come out guns blazing in 2024 — he missed four cuts in his first nine starts — but he was showing signs of his old self: T9 at PGA National, T7 at the Texas Open. And then, in late April, came a closing 63 in Punta Cana to win by two and claim his eighth PGA Tour title. “I knew I had the ability, I had the talent,” he said. “I had to continue to believe the good stuff was going to come to the forefront.”   

Horschel, who in 42 career major starts before this week just twice finished in the top 10, didn’t come guns blazing into the 152nd Open Championship, either. His last top-10 finish came in May, at the PGA Championship, and at the Scottish Open last week, on Scotland’s east coast, he missed another cut. Horschel’s Open record also would have done little to embolden punters: In 10 starts before this week, he’d played the weekend just four times and never finished better than T21.

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But in this tournament, Horschel will tell you, results can be deceiving. “I’ve been unfortunate enough to be on the bad side of some draws — Hoylake in ’14,” he said, referring to the Open when he opened 73-75 to miss the cut by two. “Here in ’16, I shot four under the first round, and then I proceeded to shoot 85. But if everyone remembers, the weather was pretty nasty. I got to No. 9, and the weather to that point was the nastiest weather I’ve ever played in — blowing 30, raining sideways. It was a brute that day.”

Troon has been no pushover this week, either. The wind has blown, the rain has pelted and the bunkers and gorse have gobbled. The cut line tells the story: six over. Horschel scooted comfortably under that number, opening with a one-over 71 and following with a shotmaking-clinic 68.

And on a wet and windy Saturday? Horschel refused to wilt, opening with a four-birdie 32 before playing maybe the grittiest nine holes of the year: seven pars and two bogeys in conditions better suited for Deadliest Catch. Twice Horschel looked stymied in bunkers, on 14 and 16, and twice he nearly holed out. As everyone around him was fading (Shane Lowry, six over on the day; Daniel Brown, two over; Justin Rose, two over), Horschel — his hat spun around on his head like Lincoln Hawk from “Over the Top” — leaned on grit and guile that he has acquired from playing in the Dunhill Links Championship on three other Scottish courses: the Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. But his play at Troon on Saturday, Horschel said, was at another level: “By far my best round in really tough conditions in an Open Championship.”

“I’ve just always embraced the toughness of anything,” he continued. “I’ve always enjoyed it. I think that’s the best way you can do to have a chance to play well. I enjoy hitting little bunt shots. I get tired of golf where you’re making full swings and you lean into a certain number and it stops. I like when you have to be creative and find a way to get around the golf course, and I think I’ve always done that well for the most part. I enjoy days like this.”

What’s not to enjoy? When the dust had settled (because the wind certainly didn’t), Horschel had his first-ever 54-hole lead at a major and was on the precipice of seeing his name engraved on the game’s most cherished jug — just as he has been not only dreaming about but also visualizing.

“Something I’ve done this year, and I’ve done a better job this week of it, or tried to do a better job, is sort of manifest seeing myself holding the trophy before I go to sleep every night, envisioning myself holding that trophy on 18, walking out to the crowd and being congratulated as Open champion,” he said after his third round. “That’s what I’m going to do again tonight, and hopefully that comes true tomorrow. If it doesn’t, then I’ll get back on the grind and work harder to get back in a position like this again.”

And if it never happens for Horschel — just as it didn’t for the likes of Colin Montgomerie or Lee Westwood or Steve Stricker — Horschel says he already is at peace with that reality: “I know that I can look myself in the mirror the next 10 to 15 years and say, ‘Hey, listen, I did everything I could to be the best player I could, and it just wasn’t in the cards for me.’”