Horschel navigates Muirfield for victory
DUBLIN, Ohio – Billy Horschel does not idle well. He walks fast, talks fast, plays fast and is one to get, well, angry fast. His middle name could be Impatient. Or Fidgety.
Always been that way for the veteran. From time to time, he’s overcome his lack of easing off the pedal and won six PGA Tour titles. But for some time now, his team has urged him on many occasions to slow his roll.
Well, the stubborn one finally is taking their advice.
After a heart-to-heart with his caddie, Mark “Fooch” Fulcher, following last week’s missed cut in the Charles Schwab Challenge, Horschel deliberately eased his pace and took 10-15 more seconds to figure out what the two wanted to do on every shot in the Memorial, Jack Nicklaus’ annual gathering of the game’s best players at Muirfield Village Golf Club, the course the Golden Bear built.
Through three rounds, it worked and Horschel led by five with 18 holes to play.
But come Sunday, Horschel had to rely on a heavy dose of his new approach – and a ton of patience – to overcome a pedestrian start and shake Nicklaus’ hand in victory. Horschel called Nicklaus Big Man as the two shook hands and thanked him profusely.
“It’s special,” Horschel said. “It truly is. Jack is a legend in the game and a lot of legends have won this tournament. With a five-shot lead, this was my tournament to win or lose and I got the win.”
In winning for the seventh time on the PGA Tour, Horschel didn’t buckle when his consecutive bogey-free streak ended at 50 holes on the sixth. Didn’t buckle despite his overnight lead falling to two with six holes to play. Didn’t buckle even after driving his ball on the 13th into the trees.
Staring collapse directly in its face, Horschel laid up to 102 yards on 13 and then canned an 11-footer for par to increase his lead to four.
After making a gutsy par from 8 feet on the 14th, Horschel had the big moment he was waiting for by making a 53foot eagle putt on the 15th that put him up by four with three to play.
Horschel signed for an even-par 72 to finish at 13 under and four shots clear.
Aaron Wise was playing alongside Horschel and pushed him best he could. He made big par saves and then big birdie putts on the 10th and 11th holes and another strong par save on the 12th to pull within two. But Horschel held him off.
Wise finished second with a 71. “It was a great back and forth,” he said. “I felt like I had a chance all the way up until about (Horschel’s eagle). You could kind of tell he could play the last three holes pretty safe. And he was safe unless I birdied, kind of, all three of them.”
Defending champion Patrick Cantlay and Joaquin Niemann each shot 71 to finish in a tie for third at 7 under.
Max Homa (69), Will Zalatoris (70), Denny McCarthy (72), Sahith Theegala (71) and Daniel Berger (73) finished in a tie for fifth at 6 under.
And Horschel will revel in how he got the job done in the final round. Especially knowing people would think he choked if he didn’t win leading by five with 18 play. And he and Fulcher never got flustered on the back nine.
“I’ve watched Tiger enough and I wasn’t around when Jack played but I know how important course management is,” Horschel said. “When you have the lead, you don’t have to do anything special. You don’t want to give any shots back. I gave shots back but Fooch and I did a really good job of staying in the process, hitting fairways and greens, and just execute golf shots and not do anything stupid.”
Next up for Horschel is the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Massachusettes in two weeks. Horschel has just one top-10 in 33 starts in majors.
“Obviously I haven’t played well in majors, which has been sort of a pet peeve of mine now for a while,” said Horschel, who will move to No. 11 in the world golf rankings. “I need to do a better job at regular events of really doing what I need to do in majors so it transitions easier over into majors because obviously I get a little more wound up. I want to win a major tremendously. I’m a little bit more on edge.
“By doing what I need to do here this week, just hopefully it will carry over and sort of just be like riding a bike to me.”