Horschel: You Can’t Fault My Compatriots For The Decisions They Make.

10 months ago by Comments Off on Horschel: You Can’t Fault My Compatriots For The Decisions They Make.

Billy Horschel has become one of the more popular Americans in recent years to compete on the DP World Tour (DPWT)

Indeed the soon-to-be 38-year-old’s first ‘regular’ DPWT event was a fourth place finish at the 2019 BMW PGA Championship.

Horschel returned two years later to capture the Tour’s flagship event and also adding two earlier events, both in Scotland – the Scottish Open and the Dunhill Links to his schedule.

While a year later in 2022 he added a fourth and teeing-up at the BMW International Open in Munich.  A year ago, Horschel played in five ‘regular’ DPWT events adding for a first time the Irish Open and the Open de France tournaments held either side of the BMW Championship.

This season he was runner-up at The Open, won a second BMW trophy at Tour HQ and then returned a month later to partner PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan at the Dunhill Links Championship and then again crossing The Channel for a second Open de France showing.

Now the Florida-based golfer is teeing-up in Dubai for a first occasion in his career but found himself facing a somewhat ‘curly’ question from the gathered media when asked if he was surprised more of his PGA Tour colleagues have not followed Horschel to compete more on the DPWT.

“Yes and no”, he said.

“I’ve talked about this quite a bit. Listen, I have a different view of the game of golf and the world of golf. I grew up watching The European Tour. I grew up envisioning coming over here and playing these events, and even as I turned pro early in my career I still watched a ton of it and envisioned coming over and playing.

“So you know, like I said, my college coach said if you want to be a world-class player, global player, you’ve got to travel around the world ask play well and you’ve got to win events to consider yourself a world-class player. I don’t fault the guys in America. That’s the decision they made but listen, when the Tour started doing financially a lot better than the DP World, or European Tour at the time, 20 years ago, it changed the ways that guys don’t have to travel and guys are very much American centric.

“Like I said, I don’t fault them for it but I think they would have have — I think when you think about the game of golf, giving back and traveling around the world where people can watch and you see you take pictures with you, sign autographs, that’s one way to sort of give back to the game of golf.

“And I think they would grow as people, too, by traveling more around the world and experiencing more culture and experiencing different languages and everything.

“Listen, I always encourage guys to travel and always encourage guys to come over and play even if it’s a couple events out of the year. At the end of the day, it’s their decision and they do what’s best for them and that’s their choice. You can’t fault them for the decision they make”.

The World No. 15th ranked Horschel was asked if competing on both Tours has made him a better golfer.

“Oh, by far a better golfer”, he said.

“I mean, I think I’ve improved my game in conditions like playing in Open Championship and going and playing Dunhill and doing that more often. I’ve become a lot better of a person, I guarantee you that, by having to understand different cultures. Try to communicate with people that may not speak English as well or I may not speak their language as well, so you try to communicate that way.

“Listen, it’s made me a better person all around, as well as in my golf game. That’s why I said I think it’s better for people to travel because you go grow as a person and it does help your golf game but I think the biggest thing is you do grow as a person”.

As we mentioned above 2024 had been a standout season for the now 11-time pro winning America what with a best finish in his 42 major championship appearance while it only a second year and in a decade since Horschel has won twice in a year.

And both a second BMW PGA championship victory and his great showing at Royal Troon both on British soil.

“I am still waiting for my U.K. residency to come along. I guess I’ve got to win one more or two more events over there, no, I’m joking”, he said smiling

“I love playing in the U.K. I’ve talked about it quite a bit. I love the lifestyle over there and I love the people. To play well at the The Open championship and to come up just short to Xander who played a beautiful final round and to win the BMW PGA at Wentworth for the second time, against Rory, and everyone knows what I think of Rory and where he stands in the game of golf.

“This year, those are the two real highlights of my year that I have had, and it doesn’t hurt that it happened in the U.K. either”.

And there was this quip from one of the London-based newspapers in reference to Horschel’s great support for West Ham Football Club and currently struggling in 14th place, having played 11 games but one only three.

The journo smiling when asking Billy:  There’s a little flat waiting for you around the corner of the London stadium?

“I don’t know if I’m going to go east London”, said Horschel again smiling. “I’ll probably go more Surrey. Listen, I love east London a lot but the golf courses are in Surrey, we all know that. Travel-wise, makes it a little bit easier.

“Listen, I lost West Ham and I love the fans and they show back to me as well. And so yeah, I love being anywhere in London; it’s never a bad place to be.”

Well done, Billy in showing your support for the DPWT.



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