Apple Podcasts: NLU Podcast, Episode 792: Billy Horschel
Spotify: NLU Podcast, Episode 792: Billy Horschel
After an eventful weekend in Scottsdale, Billy Horschel returns to the pod to talk through his experience with the crowd at the WM and how the event has changed throughout his career. We also get into the PGA Tour/SSG deal, PIF investment, differing opinions on the road back for LIV players, his interview after shooting 84 at the Memorial last year and a ton more.
Here's a preview of Soly's conversation with Billy...
Soly: June, 2022, you win the Memorial tournament by four strokes, June, 2023, you opened the first round within 84 and you are in tears talking about it to the media after the round. Take us there, take us to that, to that journey and how, how you ended up there and, and, and what unfolded there.
Billy Horschel: Yeah.
Soly: Nothing captures golf better than that. You win by four one year and you're in tears shooting 84 the next year.
Billy Horschel: It's a game of golf. I mean it's so crazy. You know, it was weird. I come off '22 having a really good year. Win Memorial, make a Presidents Cup team. I just missed cracking the top 10. A gold mine, crack the top 10, top five. And if one day lo and behold I get the number one, like that's a goal. I'm a perfectionist and I want to get better and I'm always trying to get better. Todd Anderson and myself, we were just looking at some things that we didn't swing it very good at the end of '22. And so we were just trying to make some improvements and we sort of went back to something that we tried to do a few years ago and we felt like we were just in a better position to do it now physically and where the body is.
And I had a better understanding of it. And so for six weeks at home it was really good and I went out to Hawaii the first two weeks and it wasn't so great. And I came back home and worked with TA for a couple weeks and went out to Phoenix and LA and it wasn't really, it just, it just didn't transfer over. And we decided to sort of drop in, go back to what we were doing before, stuff that we've always done. But some of the stuff that we tried to make improvements on. The new stuff actually transferred over to the old stuff, which was actually a really good thing.
And so I felt like I was doing some right things. But the game, the shots just still weren't turning out the way I wanted them to. You know, make a cut, feel like I get some momentum and then I'll miss a cut next week, which is so weird 'cause my stats guy will tell you I'm around like 85% made cuts in my career. Close to 85 to 90%. So make a cut. Miss a cut. Make a cut. Miss a cut. It was so weird. And then I go to Memorial and what was the before Memorial? Colonial. Yeah. I felt like Colonial wasn't too bad, but like, I played halfway decent at PGA. Just a couple bad shots, just didn't make anything
Go to Colonial, play okay at Colonial. Felt like I was going in the right direction. Have a decent practice week at Memorial, and then 84. Slap in the face, I mean gut punch, defending champ. Looking forward to trying to play well and having another chance to win. It was just, it was tough. And as I had said in that interview afterward I told my team, like confidence-wise, it wasn't really high. The game didn't feel good, nothing felt great. I was just at one of the lowest confidence points of my career, the lowest confidence point in my career. And it showed playing a course like Memorial, wanting to have a good showing after winning the tournament the year before, just sort of all came to a head. I didn't have anything in my head about sharing this. It just happened. A question got asked to me, and I just sort of just emotionally couldn't handle what I was wanting to say because I knew I was gonna start just crying just because of where I was emotionally. I just didn't have it. And it sucks being on a public stage and not having it. And so from there, actually it was one of those things that turned in to be a really good thing. Obviously, people who reached out to me were impressive, but I felt like after sharing that, and it's funny 'cause I shared it with my wife and my family. I shared it with my team. I thought that would sort of get it off my chest, but it wasn't until sharing it with the public that I got it off my chest.
I was like 'Wow, I feel so much more at ease now.' And then from there, the game has started to slowly trend into a better form. Still just a little bit off, but I'm in a lot better place than I was at Memorial, a lot better place I was a year ago and I feel like I'm really close to playing some really good golf. I mean it's funny what this game of golf does to you.