One year after Billy Horschel won the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village, the 36-year-old gave an emotional press conference at the exact same event detailing his recent struggles.
Horschel shot a 12-over 84 in the opening round of the tournament Thursday, good for second-to-last place ahead of only Chad Ramey (South African Dylan Frittelli also withdrew).
After the tough round, Horschel got emotional while opening up about his struggles throughout the season.
“Yeah, the season’s been pretty bad, pretty abysmal, to tell you the truth,” Horschel said. “I haven’t driven the ball very well. It’s always been my strength. The iron play hasn’t been great. It’s been, it hasn’t been great the last couple years…I’ve been playing from spots I’m not used to. Iron play hasn’t been good and it’s been putting a lot of stress on the short game and putting to make up for all the issues with the ball striking.”
As Horschel continued, he detailed his two lowest points of the season – the first at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, and the second at the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island.
“Bay Hill, after missing that cut, we had a discussion with Mark Horton, my stats guy, and Mark Fulcher, who was caddying for me,” Horschel said. “And it was a lively discussion for about 45 minutes in the parking lot.
“I went back to the room — I think even before I got back to the room, just in my car, just thinking about the discussion and thinking about where the game was and where I want to be and where I’m not at the moment. I sort of just broke down a little bit. I broke down and I cried a little bit. I had tears.
“I had another one at Hilton Head after missing that cut. I played a decent first round and was in a good position after the second, going into round 2, and didn’t play a good round. And I mean it was just an emotional, it was just a mental sort of grind and stress and fatigue. Just on the range there for about 30 seconds, just bending down, I had my hands in my head — or had my head in my hands, just sort of, just trying to hold back the tears for a little bit.”
Horschel, a seven-time winner on the PGA Tour, has only one Top 10 finish this season – the first event of the year he played at the CJ Cup in South Carolina.
His best finish at an “elevated event,” which has all of the top tour pros in the field, is a tie for 32nd at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix.
Along with the Arnold Palmer Invitational and RBC Heritage, he also missed the cut at last month’s PGA Championship and the Genesis Invitational in February.
He has fallen to number 35 in the Official World Golf Rankings and is currently 109th in FedEx Cup points.
Golf is a fickle game, and players’ form can seemingly come and go; Former World No. 1 Jason Day, who is around Horschel’s age, is currently enjoying a renaissance season after years of poor form, winning the AT&T Byron Nelson in May.
It remains to be seen if Horschel will eventually be able to regain his form, though he will likely have to wait until next week’s RBC Canadian Open for another chance to contend.