DUBLIN, OHIO – Five seconds. Ten seconds. Silence awkward. Fifteen seconds. Billy Horschel had been beaten to his lowest point in his golfing career.
It takes a PGA Tour member a lot of time to concentrate on holding back tears while standing in front of a mic with their head bowed. Horschel shot a stomach-sicking 84 on Thursday, but it was harder for him to keep it together when asked by a reporter, “Is today a day where you hug your children and move on?”
The question was: to what do you move? What do you do when your job, which you’ve excelled in for 15 years, suddenly feels like learning a foreign tongue? An accountant who cannot add. Like a firefighter afraid of smoke.
Where do you go when it’s dark?
Someone reminded this 36-year old Floridian of his earlier comments about how he still struggled with his golf swing but that things are trending upwards.
The hoped-for improvement in swing did not appear until the very beginning of Thursday. Horschel’s 18 miserable holes had landed him in the Memorial record books as the defending champion with the highest opening round. Horschel’s 12-over-par afternoon ranked him 118th among 119 golfers.
He said “Yeah. I mean, it’s hard right now,” and remained composed enough to continue speaking without breaking down. “I’m trying really hard to do the right thing.
You can’t…
“My confidence has never been lower in my career, or even my golfing life.”
Only the most heartless of people would have felt no sympathy for Horschel at that moment.
Golf, however, was heartless and felt nothing. It’s a brutal sport. Untamable. Unbeatable. Horschel, who is undefeated in inflicting misery to even the world’s best players. Not on this particular day when his game was like a California mudslide. Horschel pulled his hat down at several points to hide his pain. It covered more of his face than his head.
What high-handicapper cannot relate? The vast majority of amateurs golfers know where their ball is going to go about 40% of the time. Around 80 percent of the times, they are wrong and rarely to their benefit. What about the pros? Guys who finish their shots with their belt buckle facing the target, and sink 5-foot putts as if they were gimmes, believe that the ball will obey their commands. This belief is the key to their success.
What happens when the wind blows? You can ask David Duval, Ian-Baker Finch or David Duval about this. You can ask them about it. Lost it. It was never found.
Horschel should be on a new path. It takes a lot of character to shoot an 84, then go to the media and relive that grenade explosion in front of thousands. Many of the spectators thought they could have scored a higher score. Note: You couldn’t. Horschel’s misery was made worse by the brutal conditions: swirling wind, thick rough and dry fairways which forced balls to roll into waterways, and greens on the front nine that were deceptive and receptive. The field’s scoring average was 74, the highest for a first-round since 2000.
Billy Horschel hits his shot on the ninth fairway during the first round at the Muirfield Village Golf Club. (Photo: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports)
Horschel listened to the funeral music as a pitcher struggling with his pitching who is yanked out after only two innings, but instead of getting up and leaving the house, stays behind to answer questions from the media after the loss. Attaboy, Billy.
“I can’t hit the cut in the way that I want to.” “I can’t get it to start left like I want,” he said, sounding again like a pitcher that has lost his fastball. It’s hard to be precise when you have to run a course such as this.
He will only need to be accurate for one day. If he doesn’t shoot in the 60s on Friday, he won’t play into the weekend.
It’s not impossible.
Horschel insists that his game is on the verge of a rebound despite his despair. Horschel will still give it his all, even if he nearly dies.
“I’m not one of these players, as much as I wish I could throw in the towel (and not play on Friday),” he said. There are plenty of players on the Tour who will use an injury as an excuse to withdraw. I will show up, go out and give it all I do every time, and I’ll try to find something and play well and then move on.
Then, you can move on to better things.
