Opposite field PGA Tour events have been a rarity for Billy Horschel since establishing himself as one of the leading players in the game a decade ago, but a slip down the World and FedEx Cup rankings left him on the outside looking in as the PGA Tour’s big guns took on Harbour Town Links at Hilton Head, and Horschel instead found himself heading to the Dominican Republic for the Corales Puntacana Championship.
And what better way to prove that you’re good enough for the big time than by exerting your dominance over the weaker field? Horschel ran off four straight birdies on the front nine to thrust himself into the mix, eagled the par-5 12th to take control and closed with a nine-under 63 for an eventual two-shot victory.
“This game of golf is so fickle,” Horschel said. “You can put a lot into it and not get everything you want out of it. I knew … I had the ability, I had the talent. I had to continue to believe the good stuff was going to come to the forefront.”
Horschel, who started the final round three shots behind popular YouTuber and PGA Tour winner Wesley Bryan, all but sealed it with an 18-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole.
Bryan, whose sole PGA Tour win incidentally came at the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Links back in 2017, was bogey-free with four birdies and still only one shot behind late in the round. But just as Horschel was making his final birdie, Bryan missed a short par putt on 15 to fall three back.
Bryan, who was playing on a sponsor’s exemption, birdied the 18th for a 68 and takes solo second, a result which gets him into THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson in two weeks, with Kevin Tway who closed out with a 69 taking third.
Horschel earned $720,000 for his week’s work, captured his eighth PGA Tour title – his first since winning Jack Nicklaus’ The Memorial in June of ’22, secures an invite to the PGA Championship at Valhalla next month, and puts him in pole position for a return to the Signature Event lineup when the Tour rolls onto Quail Hollow and the Wells Fargo Championship in a fortnight’s time.
Those are the tournaments Horschel, a former FedExCup champion, was used to playing. This Additional Event was crucial for Horschel to get some confidence back.
He delivered one of his best closing rounds when he needed it — the four straight birdies starting on the par-3 second hole, a 31 on the front nine, the eagle on No. 12 to seize control and no bogeys over the last 30 holes of the tournament.
It was nearly a year ago at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday that Horschel, the defending champion at Muirfield Village, shot 84 and was near tears talking about how low his confidence had fallen. He missed the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time since 2012.
He had shown signs this year with a pair of top 10s, and now has a victory for validation. Along with getting into the PGA Championship at Valhalla, he is assured of starting next year at Kapalua in The Sentry.
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