The Memorial Tournament Presented By Workday

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Dublin, Ohio, USA

Muirfield Village

Billy Horschel

Quick Quotes


Q. Start out with the good stuff. Gators, they got it, right?

BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, it's pretty cool. It was surreal to watch. I'm happy for the boys and everything. They worked really hard and J.C. and Dudley's done an unbelievable job the last couple years getting the program back on the right path.

So, yeah, I mean, it was pretty special to watch that last night.

Q. For today, is this a day you just hug your kids and move on, when stuff -- the kind of day you had or how do you -- I know you came in and talked at length. You were pretty honest with us yesterday, just you're trying to find it still. I mean, from the jump it didn't look like it was there. Just where do you go, Billy?

BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, I mean, it's tough right now. As I said, I mean, I'm working really hard, trying to do the right things, and the team's doing everything really well. It sucked today. Yesterday, sort of thought I didn't hit it very good in the pro-am and even after the round it wasn't bad. I mean, on video it looks good. Technically it's not that far off.

But I'm not able to hit the cut the way I want. I can't get the ball to start left the way I want. So then when it comes down to having to be more precise on a course like this, it's just, it's tough. Yeah, I mean, I'll keep working. As much as I would love to throw in the towel and not come out tomorrow, that's just not in me. I'm just not one of those players. There's plenty of those guys out here on TOUR that would make an excuse about being injured and everything.

But I'll show up and I'll go out there and give it my all like I always do and try and find something, try and play well, and move on. I mean, it's a day and I've had plenty of these days this year. Not this bad, but it's just a day. We'll get by it.

Q. You're a pro. That said, how hard is it when it starts to snowball to keep your composure? I mean, not necessarily, you know, demonstrative, but just mentally, between the ears, all of it, how hard is that to, especially, I know -- I think you were on the clock and that adds to it.

BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm making a big number on every single hole it seems like. I'm struggling every hole. Listen, the group in front of us played quick and we got, I was taking a lot of extra shots than what we normally would do. I mean, we got warned at number 13, but we I think we were back in position by number 15 tee. They were still on the hole when we got there. So, yeah, listen, my confidence is the lowest it's been in my entire career. I think ever in my entire golf career. So it's funny, as low as it feels, it feels like I'm not that far off at the same time. Which is insane to see when you see me shoot 84 today. It doesn't, it wouldn't make sense to a lot of people. But I don't think I'm that far off. I just need, I need the swing to be a little bit better, I need to do a few more things a little bit better. I just need to see a few more quality golf shots and that's just what I haven't had. And it's tough when you come to a course like this and you need to be precise tee to green and I'm not really precise right now from tee to green. Around the greens I put myself in awful positions trying to get up-and-down. And my putting's tried to bail me out as much as it can. But, yeah, it's a challenge out there, there's no doubt about it. But like I said, I'll keep plugging away and I'll keep pushing forward and I'll keep grinding hard I'll keep working hard and hopefully it (expletive) comes around soon. Sorry.

Q. That's fair. Can I ask you about 14? You chunked it there. I don't know if -- you looked over. I don't know --

BILLY HORSCHEL: I double hit it. And so I couldn't remember, I knew the rule had changed and I didn't know if you got penalized, which I knew you didn't, I was making sure you didn't get penalized anymore. Sort of a tough little lie, 12 feet from the hole. And if it comes out fast then I'm 12 feet by the hole. So I tried to sort of just stab at it to get it to pop out real fast and I didn't do a good enough job of it.

Q. It was tough conditions. It seemed like I was hearing that the front nine the greens sort of held and the back nine they were bouncing.

BILLY HORSCHEL: I would agree with that. I think the greens on the front nine were a little bit more receptive than the back nine. I think the wind blew a little bit more than we all thought it would today. And at the same time it sort of swirled a little bit. Which was, I'm not sure -- it's not uncommon for here. But listen, Patrick and Hideki played a beautiful round of golf. Patrick could have easily been three or four better. He had a couple putts that just missed going in. Hideki, he played really great. He had one or two hiccups or he had a hiccup on No. 12. Which was so weird because it was 61 front and 9-iron and it should be helping. And he hit a good 9-iron and it only flew about 57. Which was shocking. That's why I was sort of in between my clubs as well after seeing what Hideki did.

So, listen, those two guys played great on a very challenging tough day. The course is not playing easy by any means, it never does, but today was one of those days that those guys, when you look at the score it doesn't shoot off the board like, hey, these guys played great, but they actually played an unbelievable round of golf.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
133417-1-1044 2023-06-01 21:42:00 GMT

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