Horschel wins sloppy final round over Scheffler
AUSTIN, Texas — Billy Horschel didn’t find much to admire about his golf Sunday except that he was the last man standing in the Dell Technologies Match Play.
And that was a thing of beauty. Horschel won six out of his seven matches over 122 holes in the longest week in golf, and he had just enough left in the tank in strong wind to hold off Scottie Scheffler, 2 and 1, in a sloppy championship match at Austin Country Club.
His only birdie was a chip-in from 40 feet below the fifth green, yet Horschel didn’t lose another hole.
Scheffler lost his putting touch that carried him to so many big moments in the past week, yet he managed to stay in the match.
He twice had to take penalty drops — with Horschel in the fairway — and he still didn’t lose the hole.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Horschel said. “I feel sorry for the fans watching the coverage because they didn’t see any great golf shots, or very few of them at that. They saw a lot of sloppiness. They saw a lot of pars win holes.
“It was just one of those days where you knew you just had to keep grinding it out, trying to give yourself the best opportunity to make easy pars and hopefully that was going to get the job done,” he said. “I didn’t have my great stuff.”
Neither did Scheffler, 24, who reached the final by taking down three former Match Play champions and two players from the top 10. His only birdie in the final match was a 35-footer that Horschel conceded after driving into a ravine on the second hole. “I just wasn’t able to make any birdies this afternoon,” Scheffler said. “I couldn’t really get that spark that I needed, and I gave myself some opportunities. Just wasn’t able to make the putts.”