THE MODERATOR: Welcome our 2022 winner of the Memorial championship, presented by Workday. Billy, congratulations, seventh victory on the PGA TOUR.
Get some things out of the way. You moved to No. 10 in the FedExCup rankings. You're No. 8 in the Presidents Cup standings. I know that's important to you. And you moved to 11th in the Official World Golf Ranking. A lot of great stuff coming out this week. What a day.
Got close there for a little while, I'm sure, but talk about particularly that bomb you made for the eagle but the putt earlier may be more important, the par save at 13, I think it was.
BILLY HORSCHEL: Today, I knew starting off with a five-shot lead, I know if I lose it -- I wasn't going to say I'm going to choke. I'm very aware of what people say, whether it's on social media or whether it's in media, they're going to question what I did.
But I'm not one of those guys that tries to sort of block it out. It is what it is. You just try to address it and move on from it.
I think today, knowing the golf course, knowing how it was going to be fast and firm again, it was knowing the pin locations. I didn't have to do anything to do anything special out there. I've got a five-shot lead. I played great the last two days. I've just got to go out there and continue to execute golf shots and try not to do anything special, try not to do anything stupid that would allow guys to sort of come back into the fold.
I felt I played a really great round of golf today. Nothing special. Aaron played solid. Aaron made some great putts out there for par. Made some great birdie putts. But I think obviously that turning point there was right around 13. He makes bogey. I make par. That three-shot lead is back and established.
And I decided to hit a putt too hard for the first time all week on No. 14, left myself with a 10-footer. And to make that putt to continue with that three-shot lead going with the par-5 was just another added boost.
To make eagle, icing on the cake. Aaron just hit a great shot in there. That lead is down to two. If I don't two-putt that it's down to two instead of a three-shot lead. And like I said, icing on the cake to make eagle, have a four-shot lead with three tough holes out here, knowing I didn't have to do anything special, and Aaron had to do something special to track me down.
Great round of golf. I'm very happy with the way Fooch and I played today. We just were within ourselves and never got too flustered, never worried too much, just went out there tried to play a solid round of golf. And we did a really good job of that today.
Q. You talked about taking more, 10, 15 seconds over shots, just trying to be a little more patient. Is that all shots, including the putts? Does your mindset change when you look at the 8-, 11-foot for par?
BILLY HORSCHEL: No, it's more or less into the greens. Hitting shots into greens. There's times when Fooch, for the last few weeks -- and I've always had this issue in my career -- when Fooch gives me a number to pin, I sort of already know what kind of club I'm going to hit, roughly. I process things very quickly.
And sometimes with that I'm not thorough enough with it at times. Just this week, we tried to get back to what we've done the majority of the year which has allowed us to play very well. And just making sure we have a very clear understanding of where we're trying to land the golf shot, where the wind is, the type of shot we're looking at, making sure if -- I think it was a perfect example, trying to think of a hole today, but we thought it was maybe a three-quarter 7-iron; that's what we had at first, then we went to the 8-iron, allowed us to have a little more room for error.
Q. How special was that celebration on the green with your family?
BILLY HORSCHEL: It's sort of a running joke in our family that my wife and my kids have never been at victory. My wife has never wanted to fly in on a Saturday night when I've had a chance to win. So she feels like she may be bringing bad luck or something, so she's never wanted to do that.
I had a chance to win Bay Hill this year. My family was there. They were right there on the 18 green. As I was walking up, had a chance to make a putt to go into a playoff with Scottie Scheffler.
But I've just always wanted that one moment where my family runs out, the kids run out, that I can always look back for many years to come and they can look back at for their entire life of being on the green and congratulating their father for a victory. So it's special to have that video and those photos for the rest of our lives.
JACK NICKLAUS: This is the Memorial Tournament. We own that footage. You'll have to buy it. (Laughter).
THE MODERATOR: Welcome to tournament host and founder, Mr. Jack Nicklaus.
JACK NICKLAUS: Please pay no attention to me. (Laughter).
THE MODERATOR: Jack, you said at the putting green at the ceremony that Billy made the putts when he had to. He started with a five-shot lead, it got down to one. And you said that's a sign of a champion. Can you elaborate on that?
JACK NICKLAUS: Through the years, I've seen how I won tournaments. And I didn't always have my "A" game tee to green trying to finish up. But if I was going to win, I had to make the putts I had to make when I got myself a little behind.
Billy holed some nice birdie putt at 10, a nice little par putt at 11.
BILLY HORSCHEL: Bogey on 12.
JACK NICKLAUS: Nice bogey putt on 12. And when you were bunker at 12, they were saying on television -- I said don't even think about three, he'll be happy to get out of there with four. What he doesn't want to make is five.
And 13, you made a -- you hit your tee shot off to the right. You pitched it out, played a nice wedge shot or whatever you played. Was that a wedge?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yep.
JACK NICKLAUS: And you holed a great putt for that putt.
And 14, you hit the first putt and knocked it by the hole. Made it coming back.
Then 15, you holed the ball, played two beautiful shots. Probably only about ten guys that can hit that green today.
Right in the bottom of the cup. I don't know any other eagles. Maybe one, I'm not sure.
THE MODERATOR: There was an albatross today. No. 7, Cameron Smith eagled 15. Albatross on 7.
JACK NICKLAUS: Anyway, he does that.
And 16, I'm sitting there saying, they asked me on television, what kind of shot should he play. I said he needs to be in the first one-third of the green. He's just got to put it somewhere on the front part of the green. Let him 2-putt, which he did. Hit it exactly what I thought he should have hit.
Hit a nice tee shot at 17. Got it, I guess you were down left front of the green?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, I hit a 6-iron through the green, in the back left bunker.
JACK NICKLAUS: Oh, you hit it in the bunker, that's right. Then you knocked it out what?
BILLY HORSCHEL: To eight feet and missed the putt.
JACK NICKLAUS: That's when I walked -- I figured you were going to win it from there. You made that putt too?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I figured I was going to win it, too. I just missed it.
JACK NICKLAUS: You missed that one.
BILLY HORSCHEL: I missed a putt today.
JACK NICKLAUS: You did miss one. Oh, my gosh.
And then he played 18 perfectly. He did what he had to do. He played nice golf shots. I think he was No. 1 in greens hit in regulation for the week -- at least that's what we had it upstairs. He may have been No. 1 in putting, too.
And I look at putting as you make putts when you have to make putts, not putts that you just, you're in the middle of the pack and you hole some nice putts. That's not what counts. What counts is you make them when you made them. That to me that's the mark of a champion. And those are the guys who win tournaments, and you did that and you won.
Q. Billy, how hard is it to win on the PGA TOUR? And have you earned kind of a greater appreciation for the grit, the grind that it takes, given you've been a while between wins? Has that given you a greater understanding that this is a pretty special win for me today?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Oh, yeah, any win is special out here. Yes, it's tough to win on the PGA TOUR. I love watching golf. As I've said for many years, I probably watched more golf than any PGA TOUR player. Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it's a bad thing.
But things I've watched, I've watched Tiger and how he closes out events. And I wasn't born yet in Jack's heyday when he was winning, but I watched old footage, you watched how he plotted his way around the golf course. You took a lead and you made sure he was never giving up shots back to the guys.
I have a very good understanding of how to win golf tournaments. Have I put myself there, a lot? No, but I think my record's pretty good when I do have a chance to win and closing out events.
So you realize the value of par means a lot on a Sunday, especially when you're around the lead or leading a tournament.
And so I'm a guy who loves grinding it out. I am a guy who doesn't mind if it's not pretty. As long as it gets the ball in the hole with the least amount of shots that's all that matters.
And today I started off feeling very good about my swing, then sort of probably tee shot, the iron shot on 12 felt a little off. From there it was, okay, we'll grind this out and figure out a way to get the ball in the hole as quickly as we can. And I do that very well, I feel like.
Q. What does this do for you heading to the country club, and what is your schedule and route to Boston?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I've always felt like U.S. Open venues and the way they set them up favors me very well. I know my only top 10 in a major is in a U.S. Open.
Obviously my major record is pretty abysmal. But I feel very confident with what we've done over the last two years. And, like I said, results don't always show. But going into a U.S. Open, understanding you have to drive the ball really well, that's one thing I do very well. And you have to make putts. And I'm a really good putter inside of 10 feet. Tow things that are crucial at a U.S. Open, I think I check the boxes off with that.
So this course is very U.S. Open-like with how firm and fast the greens are. The fairways are a little bit more generous than maybe we're going to see at a U.S. Open, but it's a very second-shot-oriented golf course and you have to control your iron play.
Obviously in U.S. Opens you've got to have very good control of your iron play into greens when they get very firm and very fast and laying them exactly where you're trying to on the green to stay on the green, but also have a legitimate chance of making a birdie.
So I'm very comfortable with where my game's at this point. As always, I'm a perfectionist and I'm not happy with not swinging it very well today the way I would love to. But I'm just going to take next week off and I'll fly up Sunday morning and check out Brookline for the first time. I haven't been there. I've never been there. Watched it in '99. And my wife played in a member-guest last year, so she has more insight on the golf course than I do.
Q. You mentioned at the start, this moves you into the FedExCup and in the World Ranking. Have you thought about where it might move you on the U.S. points list for the Presidents Cup team and what that might mean for you to make the team?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't really focus on the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup points list. I've always felt if I can take care of my own business then I'll have a chance of making a team whether it's on points or being a captain's pick. For the last decade-plus, I've been close to making a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team. I just haven't played very well the last few months leading up to the selection of the team.
I know there's a long ways to go. There's still three and a half months left in the season, four months until the selections take place. I'm just going to go out there, still try and play really good golf. Hopefully if I play good golf everything falls in line. That's always been my mentality and my focus.
Q. This is back-to-back weeks for guys who work with Hortsy. What does he bring to the table for you guys?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Hortsy is unbelievable. Mark's been on my team since 2014. First year he comes on the team we win the FedExCup. As you know, he's very English and he's very blunt and we had a conversation before he joined my team about my record on the PGA TOUR and things I didn't do well.
He was very blunt on how well -- my short game wasn't very good and I had stone hands. And this week I showed him finally that I have a short game that can sort of live up to the golf course and save me at times.
But he's just a guy who, which I love -- and what he does, he just tells me where I need to be on holes, what holes, where guys are making bogeys, where the birdies are coming from, perfect way for me to plot my way around the golf course.
That's what I love to do. I love to put my ball here, put the ball there. And he backs me up with that data that he's given me for the last eight years. And more or less, I mean, he knows and I've told him this for the last year and a half and we joke about it -- he's a great friend of mine now. And he doesn't need to be on my team anymore. We have the data. I've been coming to all these events for so many years. I know how to plot my way around the golf course.
But he's another safety blanket for me. When things aren't going very well, he looks at some stuff and he tells me, hey, we need to do this better, we need do that.
So now the data is just sort of the same every year. Sure, when the wind blows a little bit different it can change. But he's a safety blanket that is there that if I'm doing things well, he can back it up. When I'm not doing things well, he's English and he tells me very bluntly that I'm not doing things very well right now.
Q. Your best U.S. Open finish was Merion. Do you still have those octopus pants?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yes, I still have those octopus pants somewhere in my house.
Q. Clubs, the shot you hit on 10, what club was that, and also 15?
BILLY HORSCHEL: That was a 9-iron. We had 168 that carried the bunker out of the first cut, downwind. The shot on No. 9, I was in the first cut and jumped out there we thought it was going to come out spinning went back to the green.
Similar on 10. And we played for a little bit of a jumper, and I told Fooch, I'm just going to play middle of the green, seven, eight, nine yards left of the flag and I got over the ball and I just couldn't get myself far enough left.
I just kept wanting to go towards the flag. I said I'm just going to aim it maybe a yard left of the flag and try and hit a little cut in there.
I pushed it a little bit. And Fooch, he sort of gave me a hard time, said, I knew you were going to go for the flag, knew you couldn't get yourself far enough left.
And on 15, I was 5-wood in there, perfect 5-wood, 241 front, 244 or five hole. And we had the wind slight in off the left which was perfect for me, just started in the middle of the bunker and hit a little bit of a cut, let the wind take it back to the pin. It was just a beautiful shot that I hit.
Q. If you look back over the last 15 months, we've seen you have hot stretches before, like into 14, et cetera. But you've knocked off three pretty strong fields now in 15 months. What does that do for your confidence? Where did that come from?
BILLY HORSCHEL: What it does for my confidence, it shows what we're doing at home and what we're doing on a weekly basis, we're doing the right things.
I've said this for many years now: You work hard at the game. You try and do the right things and sometimes the results don't always come to fruition right away. It takes a little bit of time and some guys, they're not seeing the results right away. They change, they change teachers, what they're doing. They give up on the process.
I'm not. I believe in the process that my team that we have put in place. And I believe that we prep better than anyone on a weekly basis.
But that doesn't mean we're going to always play well on a weekly basis, it just gives us a better opportunity to succeed, though. And so this is just -- I feel like it's been a long time coming. And it's nice to finally see the results for myself, but it's nice to finally see the results for my teacher, Todd Anderson, who has been with me since 2008. He works his butt off. And he's always trying to get better.
And Mark Horton, he's been on my team since 2014. Fooch joined the team pretty much a year ago last year. And everyone from my trainer, my physio, we're always working hard. And I do probably work my team pretty hard. I'm a hard worker myself. And sometimes they get a little tired because I want to just keep pushing and keep going forward.
But they all understand it's all for the betterment of the team and hopefully gives us the best chance to be victorious. And it's great to have three wins in roughly the last 15 months.
Q. Those three wins, obviously elevated event over there, WGC, you've got a FedExCup. But you mentioned your major record. Do you find yourself fairly rated? Underrated? How do you sort of gauge where you sit in the world of golf?
BILLY HORSCHEL: You asked me to talk about myself and that's not something I like to do, but --
JACK NICKLAUS: I'll answer that one for him. I don't think Billy cares where he's rated, as long as he keeps playing well and gets the results, that the ratings will take care of themselves just like money and FedExCup points and everything else will take care of themselves.
BILLY HORSCHEL: Correct.
Q. You mentioned Fooch obviously coming on. All caddies have their plus, minus, different things, quirks, whatever. Specifically what has he brought to your game over those 12 months?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Fooch is one of the best caddies, if not the best caddie in the business, in my opinion. He's been doing it for 30 years. Maybe 20 years on the LPGA -- for the last 15, 18 years on the PGA TOUR and European Tour. He's had some unbelievable players. He brings a level of experience.
He's seen what the best players, whether it be LPGA or the PGA TOUR have done to be successful. He brings that extra little bit of added knowledge. He brings that comfort to me on the golf course that we're always going to make sure we're trying to do the right things.
He's always got my back and I've got his back. And I can be hard. I'm not going to lie. I can be a little bit of a whatever word you want to use out on the golf course at times when things aren't going well.
But he's great because it doesn't faze him. And I think I've always said I need a caddie who is really thick skinned and has a great sense of humor because I like to bust chops he does the same thing, gives it back to me.
I have two guys on my team that are very English and I love the English culture and I love the English people. So I gravitate towards them because they work hard. They take themselves serious, but away from work or competition, they like to have a good time.
So Fooch has been a tremendous asset. When he came on the team last year, we had spells where he was working for me in that COVID year and I was trying to pull him off Francesco Molinari's bag. And it took me a little longer than I wanted, but finally wore him down. He was that missing puzzle piece for the team, I felt, that we all felt that we needed. And it just goes to show you how important he's been to this team to have the victories we've had the last 15 months.
Q. You mentioned something earlier about you didn't really have your swing today. I wanted to ask you a question from that side. Winning when it's a little harder, when you don't have your, quote/unquote, A game or not quite, it's not quite all there.
BILLY HORSCHEL: I've won events without my A game. I won match play against Scottie Scheffler without playing great.
I feel like the only round I played really great at, two rounds, would have been the last round at TOUR Championship and then the Zurich Classic victory where I shot 54 the last round and played really great.
I'm not fazed when things aren't going great. I'm not fazed when I'm not hitting it well. I know I have other shots I can go to to get the job done. I know I have a really reliable putter that can always back me up and will always save me if I'm a little bit off.
It adds confidence when you're not playing well, when you feel like you're not swinging great. They get the job done. But like I said, I've done it before, and it's not shocking to me.
Q. You talked about kind of sticking it out in those years after '14 and sticking with the same teacher, et cetera, trusting what you were doing. Can you describe was it difficult to do that as more and more new players came on the scene and this kind of wave of young talent and here you are getting older and suddenly getting into your mid-30s, how hard was that to say where do I kind of fit in this pecking order?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, I think as I've said before, sometimes people aren't aware of what's going on off the golf course. '14 was a great year. I played great. And '15. I started off '15 very well. And didn't play great at the end of the year.
Unfortunately, as we have talked about now, I was dealing with stuff at home. My wife was unfortunately at the time addicted to alcohol. We had to address that. We addressed it in '16. And it took I would say six months to a year to just -- where she was in a place that she was happy with. And I felt comfortable with her. We had a newborn baby at home the same time.
It was a lot of stuff at home that people don't realize that sort of sometimes takes focus away. Didn't take any of the hard work and process away. But it's something you've got to deal with, just like anyone else in everyday life.
But you win the FedExCup in '14; you think everything is just going to take off and it doesn't. And some of that's my own fault, too, because I'm a perfectionist, and I felt like I can do this to better my golf swing, you start to chase distance. You get away from what you do well as a player.
That's why I have a team around me, make sure we're always getting back to where we need to be. And like I said, I worked hard and it just wasn't happening. And I didn't change teachers. A lot of guys would have changed teachers.
Todd and I are great friends. I knew we were doing the right things. It just wasn't materializing. Like any player, when things aren't going well, you look at what other guys are doing.
Some guys get down. Me, I kick myself in the butt, that should be me. Pushes me to work harder and strive to be better. And sometimes it's a detriment because sometimes I push myself too hard. And I have to be aware where I am at the time.
I think now, at the age of 35, I'm very aware of where I am in the game of golf and what I need to do and focus on and not worry about some other stuff that I can't control.
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