Billy Horschel has no quit at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday

DUBLIN, Ohio – Billy Horschel would not have drawn it up this way.

He will not make the cut in his title defense at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, despite his six-birdie 72 Friday. He’d done too much damage with an opening 84 in which he hit two greens in regulation; ranked -10.807 in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green; suffered a double hit; and gave an unsparingly critical self-assessment.

And yet he likely will remember this week because his struggles, his honesty, and his refusal to quit brought an outpouring of support that was just as affirming, in its own way, as his victory a year ago.

“I went home, and I was like, it was just one of those days – I’ve had a lot of them,” Horschel said of his opening round, given a day to reflect. “And it was about nine o’clock when the phone started blowing up, and I sort of knew what happened. The interview got posted, so I got a couple text messages from people, and then I woke up this morning, I had 45 text messages and numerous social media messages and posts, so that was nice to wake up to.

“You try to do the right things in this world,” he continued, “and hopefully when you are down, there’s people there to sort of help you out, and it was nice to see all that.”

He got messages from family, old friends, new friends, golf friends (Max Homa, Colt Knost, Richard Bland), soccer players he knows in the U.K., and others. They said to keep his head held high, that he’d taken it like a champ, that they admired his refusal to quit, and that he is too good of a player not to bounce back.

A year ago here, Horschel was on top of the golf world, winning for the first time in the presence of his wife and kids and accepting the coveted handshake from tournament host Jack Nicklaus. Back then, everyone was on the Billy train, but fast-forward to today and the train, while still moving forward, is “zigzagging” a bit. (Horschel’s words.)

Earlier this week, on Wednesday, he said that his ongoing slump has been the result of off-season swing changes that didn’t work. He tried to go back to his old action and got caught in between – an old story. Sure enough, he was exposed in the first round at an unforgiving Muirfield Village (scoring average: 74).

His first round featured six bogeys, three double-bogeys, and no birdies, and when he didn’t flinch with the media afterward, the world took notice. Here was a man exposed by a sometimes-brutal game, an object lesson in human frailty, who stood there and answered every question at perhaps his most vulnerable moment.

“My confidence is the lowest it’s been in my entire career,” Horschel said.

And yet here’s the thing: All those messages of support he got afterward were correct. Horschel is bouncing back, as evidenced by his even-par 72 Friday. He hit 10 greens in regulation (eight more than the day before), eight of 14 fairways, and was in positive numbers in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green. And six birdies – that’s not nothing.

“It still didn’t feel great,” he said with a smile. “I mean, listen, I hit better shots, I made it work, but still some bad swings in there. You know, still not able to constantly hit the fade or cut the way I want. But it was a good day.” He laughed. “It was a lot better than yesterday.”

Horschel, 36, is a seven-time PGA TOUR winner. He’s seen enough high-level competitive golf, and enough life, to maintain perspective. He knows he has it good – his wife and kids ran into his arms after he won here last year – and as a Florida alumnus he was delighted by the Gators’ NCAA championship run earlier this week.

It’s just that, as he put it, “The pieces aren’t coming together as easily right now.”

He and his coach, Todd Anderson, have talked extensively by phone this week. The feels that work one day don’t seem to be carrying over to the next, but Horschel is convinced they will. He’s just one feel away on the backswing, he said, and maybe a half a feel away on the downswing. Once it clicks, he added, he’ll get it back.

From Columbus, he’ll head back home to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for more practice, then on to the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. In the meantime, Horschel remains grateful for the messages of support.

“Listen, I was in a good frame of mind already when I went to bed last night,” he said, “and when I woke up, I knew I was ready to go out and battle and work hard and try to make something positive out of this week. But you know, when you get that, all those messages, like I said, just people taking time, that’s what meant a lot to me."