BLAINE, Minn. – All year long as he’s competed on the PGA Tour, Billy Horschel has envisioned himself holding a trophy from that week’s tournament before he goes to sleep every night. After taking the 54-hole lead at the 152nd British Open in Scotland on Saturday, he said he would picture himself walking out to the crowd and being congratulated as the Champion Golfer of the Year.
“That’s what I’m going to do again tonight, and hopefully that comes true tomorrow,” he said before the final round at Royal Troon. “If it doesn’t, then I’ll get back on the grind and work harder to get back in a position like this again.”
Horschel didn’t end up hoisting the Claret Jug – he didn’t have enough firepower on Sunday to match Xander Schauffele’s bogey-free 6-under 65 – but Horschel didn’t go down without a fight, making birdie on the final three holes to shoot 3-under 68 and finish tied for second with Justin Rose.
“It’s what’s in my DNA. I’m going to always fight, always going to battle until the end,” Horschel said.
The 37-year-old eight-time Tour winner acquitted himself well, recording his best finish in 43 starts in the majors. Horschel left Troon with a mixture of disappointment – he’s never had a better chance to become a major winner – and pride – that he didn’t lose the tournament, he got beat by a remarkable performance. He said it hit him on the flight to Minneapolis how close he was to making his dream of winning a major come true.
“I just made a few too many mistakes today when I didn’t need to,” he said. “I did a lot of great things that I can take on to the next few years of majors, and hopefully one of these will be my time to step through the door and hold one of them.”
As his post-round press conference concluded on Sunday, Horschel was asked if he still planned to play at this week’s 3M Open. He nodded and said he would be the first person on the range at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday and good to his word, there he was grinding away – he did note that Henrik Norlander may have beaten him to the first bag of range balls – and prepping to chase another trophy.
“I think for someone like Billy, he works so hard at his game that results will always follow and so now we’re looking at him maybe playing the best golf of his career and we could be seeing the best of Billy kind of in these next couple months,” predicted 2022 3M Open winner Tony Finau.
Horschel, the 2014 FedEx Cup champion, has had a bounce-back year after missing out on the FedEx Cup Playoffs and failing to win last season. The veteran Horschel won the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic in April and enters this week at No. 26 in the FedEx Cup.
His confidence has recovered from last year’s low when he shot 12-over 84 in the opening round of the Memorial and delivered an emotional, teary-eyed post-round press conference. Horschel said that he’s come to terms with the fact it’s possible he could end his career like Steve Stricker, Lee Westwood and Kenny Perry before him without a major.
“I’m sure there’s a couple other guys in there that haven’t won majors, that have had really quality careers, and they don’t have a major on their record,” he said. “It’s OK if a major is not in the cards, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to work my butt off and do everything I can to sort of change that.”
For Horschel, the work continues this week in the Land of 10,000 Lakes with the firm belief that his best golf is still to come.
“We get back on the horse. We’ll play well this week, we’ll work hard to get better so the next time I have an opportunity to win a major, hopefully we can capitalize on it and be the one holding the trophy at the end,” he said.