Atlanta Drive GC 6, Los Angeles Golf Club 5 (OT)
Q. Billy, was that the plan all along to keep us excited for the match, and can you talk a little bit about the win?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Man, like they said earlier, it never looked like they were going to lose the match. I didn't play particularly well, and J.T. and Patrick were doing some good things, and we weren't on it today the way they were.
Somehow we kept in it. J.T. making that birdie on the 9th hole to halve the hole going into intermission was nice.
Listen, in the singles match when you're three points down with three holes to go, it doesn't look very good. We knew we had to throw the hammer before my hole to try and win that hole and hopefully get two points, and it worked out well.
I actually thought we were going to win PC's hole. I thought for sure, that putt is tough to make, and guys have been not getting it close to the hole, and Tommy Fleetwood did what Tommy Fleetwood did today; he holed it several times. It was a fun match. It was close. We grinded it out and came away victorious when it never looked like we did until the very end.
Q. Speaking of the hammer, what do you think about the new rules?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I'm a big fan of it. Actually Patrick, Justin and I when we were flying from Palm Springs about a month ago, we were talking about the hammer rules and thought maybe they should be changed a little bit because if one team has the hammer and they get up early, they're not going to throw it; they understand the value of the hammer.
Yeah, I think it lends to more excitement. It lends to a little bit -- still have the strategy, when to use it, when not to use it. I think the new hammer rules are very helpful because if we didn't have them we surely would not have won that match today.
Q. Any other changes you'd like to see with rules, and how do you think the season has gone so far?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Listen, I think for a new startup, we've been very successful. You look at the viewership for the entirety of the year, what are we, somewhere around 600,000, 700,000, 800,000 per match, which is unbelievable.
I think the more, the further we go on, the more that we can have fans from the cities sort of attached, fans in the golf world, sports fans understanding what this is about and the excitement and it's something different than golf and it's a new avenue to try and show that there's other ways to get involved in the game of golf and be a part of it. I think it's been very successful.
I think there are some things we can do possibly that we could explore. Obviously it's been talked about maybe have a celebrity be on the team to hit some shots, that maybe you have to use a celebrity for three shots over the 15-hole match, and it has to be outside 50 yards. Something I've thought of personally; doesn't mean they've thought of it or talked about it.
Maybe you have all four team members there and you can call in like a reliever in baseball. Lucas surely would have been called in for me today because I was stinking it up out there early on, so Lucas could have came in and hit some shots or played for me.
Q. I think there's some things we can talk about. Does it mean we need to change? No, but I think as you evolve and you see how can we add more excitement, how can we add a little bit more of an entertaining value, maybe even more of a strategic value to this competition, I think there's some things that we will discuss, but so far I think it's been very successful to start the year.
Q. You, Justin and Patrick have shown a ton of dog in your team golf career. Clearly it wasn't going your way the last few holes, but you battled back. How did that play into winning this event?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, I think the three of us, we're grinders. We don't give up. We don't bow down very easily. We play to the end and we always feel like there's a chance. It's the way we've always done our careers.
Obviously J.T. and Patrick have been more successful in the success of consistency throughout their careers. But it's one of those things that you just always have that inner belief that no matter what situation you find yourself into, you figure you're going to rise to the occasion at some point in time.
It just took a little bit longer today for us to do that.
Q. We were just talking about the popularity of TGL and the excitement around it, and I feel like the hammer has become more famous than ever with golfing fans. I'm curious, has it come into play in any of your casual rounds? Is it something that you're playing with when you're out and about?
BILLY HORSCHEL: The way we use the hammer here is completely different than the hammer that we would use in money games and everything. I think J.T. and probably Patrick can talk more to that occasion. Listen, I play money games but not nearly as much as them, and the game I usually play is not a hammer game.
But listen, a hammer, I think you play on the course, you can pretty much hammer anytime, sort of doubles the bet every time. Yeah, it's just a little bit different, but it's very similar, still has your strategic value to it, how do you want to use it, and it's sort of taken on its own life.
Listen, we're trying to create something new and create excitement and try and get more people involved in the game. If the hammer is what brings people in to check out TGL, then so be it. We'll take any way we can to get more exposure and get more people and eyeballs on this because I really do think this is a fun way to experience the game of golf, and if you want to get into the game of golf, going into a golf course can be very scary for a new person or new golfer, and so obviously there are stores and instruction that people open up in offices and in shopping centers and everything where they have simulators where you can go get caught and experience that way game that where it's probably more of a comfortable setting than going out to a golf course that you've never been before, it can be pretty scary at times.
Q. We saw kind of some bad chips at the end between J.T. and Rose. I'm curious about how much of that is the turf and how much do you feel nerves, like toward the end of a match like that? We've seen nerves affect shots in a TOUR event, but how much of that is coming into play here?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Listen, there is. We know the turf is different. You have the down the grain, which is very -- you know how the ball is going to come off, and when you're into the grain, if you're a little bit off, you can hit a chip like J.T. did. Rosey's chip was really hard in that second singles match. He had to deal with that tier that go down to the hole and he looked like he was trying to play a high shot, land it just on top and sort of let it stop and let it trickle down.
It is a challenge, and yes, there is nerves. When Rosey hit his shot, I was very happy because it made my shot easier because I'm like, hey, birdie is going to win this hole now. But I had a pretty basic shot, but still, I'm feeling nervous. I know if I don't hit this right, hit it a little too hard, it goes up too far, but I don't hit it hard enough, it may not get to the slope.
To be able to hit a good shot there, yeah, you're nervous. You don't want to let your team down. I was nervous on a two-footer as I would be at a golf tournament trying to win it. It's a two-footer that I should make every time, but you know what the meaning of that shot means to the outcome of the match.
Q. Billy, what goes into selecting your walk-on songs and the songs while you guys hit during the match?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't think we have any control over the songs that we play, but obviously we control the songs that we put into -- or we submit.
I think last time, as you guys may have found out, Patrick doesn't listen to anything post-1980. Everything is pre-1980. Somehow they put some rap songs in there for him, and I think that affected him on some of those shots. Jokingly; let me be sarcastic. I said something last time that people didn't understand I was using sarcasm.
Yeah, I think we can show our sort of musical genre. I listen to anything from classic rock to country to grunge music to hip-hop, R&B, alternative rock, so I've got everything in my sort of list of repertoire, dance, EDM, so I put a whole bunch of different things in there, and you can sort of get a sense of what someone's musical taste is a little bit.
Q. How are you going to support your team during this next round?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Well, I thought we were going to leave. I thought my kids may be a little tired after this match and may be bored, but they actually had an absolute blast. At intermission, my wife goes, the kids want to stay. So we're going to stay for a little bit, cheer on the team.
I'm happy I'm not playing, to tell you the truth. I'm happy Lucas is going to come in and hopefully do better than I did. But yeah, we're going to be out there supporting the team.
It's going to be different for me to see it from a fan's and spectator's perspective. Maybe I can see some things that I can give some feedback on just from that side. But I'll be out there as Lucas was for our first match against New York a couple weeks ago. So I'll be there in Arthur Blank's box cheering them on and maybe doing some dirty birds on the side.
Q. Can you coach from the box?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't think they would listen to me anyways. I mean, I may be one of those fans like, throw the hammer, throw the hammer. But listen, Patrick is a leader. J.T. and Patrick are the leader of this team and understanding things, so I just follow their lead, and I'm happy to sort of play second fiddle to that.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports