Q. How much did you enjoy your experience here in 2019?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I absolutely loved it. As I said two years ago, I grew up watching this event on TV. It was the first week we were out of school and European Tour comes on early and so I was up early watching it and absolutely loved what I saw on TV from the course to the crowds and are just the history of the event.
I've always wanted to get over here and I was planning on getting over earlier than 2019, but it just didn't happen and when I came here in 2019, it was everything it lived up to be and more. It was just a blast. I'm looking forward to another great week.
Q. You played nicely, as well.
BILLY HORSCHEL: I did. I finished fourth. It was a great week. The crowds are great for me. I love the course. Fell in love with the golf course like I thought I would and so hopefully this week I can do a little better than T-4.
Q. Coming in fourth not Race to Dubai rankings, is that on your radar?
BILLY HORSCHEL: It is, knowing no American was won Race to Dubai, it would be cool to do that. Also being a FedExCup Champion, to say I was a Race to Dubai and FedExCup Champion, I think only one guy has done that and he's a big Swedish guy named Henrik Stenson and he won in the same year. I would love to be able to do that.
I have to play well here this week and play well in two weeks, three weeks when I play Dunhill and at the end of the year at the DP World.
Q. Are you expecting a call from Mr. Stricker?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, whether it's a phone call saying I got picked or a phone call saying it just wasn't my year to be picked, I'll be happy with it either way.
At the end of the day I didn't play well enough to get in on points. That was my goal. And then I wish I would have just had a little bit better results to show at the end of the year to make maybe my case a little bit more. It's the game of golf. You put a lot of hard work and feel like you're playing well and sometimes the results and course don't show how you feel about your game.
It was nice last week to play well on a tough golf course. I wish I had one more week to impress the captains and the other six players, but they know the type of player I am. They know who I am personally and what I can bring to a team. As I said if it happens that I get a call saying I got picked, I'll be over the moon and if it doesn't, I'll be a little disappointed. But it just gives me more motivation to make the team in two years.
Q. Do you feel being Match Play Champion is in your favour?
BILLY HORSCHEL: It surely doesn't hurt. I think I've always done well in match play. I may not have had the full success that I felt like I should have. There's many times where I felt like I should have moved out of that pool play at the WGC event only to lose some matches. It's tough. No matter how many years you've been playing match play, you learn after every match what you did wrong, what you did well.
I just had to learn a little bit more how to close out a few matches and what to do a little bit differently. I finally learned that this year and I did a really good job of closing out some key matches.
Q. Tell me about the association with West Ham.
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, I was in college, sophomore year, and moved into a new apartment. Cable wasn't set up and I bought a couple DVDs and one was Green Street Hooligans, and I watched that with Charlie Hunnam and Elijah Wood, and it was about West Ham, Milwall and the firms, and I just absolutely fell in love with West Ham.
Stayed in touch a little bit with the team throughout my college years, but it wasn't until probably about a decade ago that I really paid even more attention to it. It's being shown on TV in the States a lot more than it is here, but now on NBC that Sports has been great benefit. It's been a blast.
Mark Noble reached out to me after the WGC event, first time I've talked to him, and we've become good buddies and stay in touch regularly. Not having a bag sponsor right now, my stats guy, Mark, is a West Ham fan as well. We thought at the PGA it would be cool to make up a West Ham bag for the British Open and BMW here this week and even Dunhill next week, or three weeks from now.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports