FAMILY AFFAIR

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS PGA TOUR CAREER, BILLY HORSCHEL WON WITH HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN IN ATTENDANCE WHEN HE CAPTURED THE 2022 MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY WORKDAY

BY SCOTT TOLLEY

FIVE MONTHS AND OVER 2,900 MILES removed from the scene of his victory in the 2022 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, Billy Horschel let his mind take a much shorter trip to recall his golf career’s scrapbook moment.

“We probably talk about it once a week,” Horschel said as he strolled the hallway of a resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico, “and I certainly think about it all the time.”

This was in early November just before Horschel was to tee it up in the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. The flashback returned him to June 5 and the final round of the Memorial Tournament that made his 2022 season among his best since joining the PGA TOUR in 2011—and certainly his best since 2014, when he won the TOUR Championship and a FedExCup title. The bridge in between was a scene that produced a cherished family photo.

When his final putt dropped on the 18th green at Muirfield Village Golf Club, giving him a four-shot victory, Horschel was mobbed by his three young children— ages ranging from 3 to 7 at the time. We are talking about the running of the bulls, family style. The little feet of Skylar and Colbie leaped and danced on the green, while 3-year-old Axel—borrowing from countless televised celebrations in sports—pointed to the sky in quiet appreciation. (OK, he was pointing to the Goodyear Blimp, but play along.) And, of course, there was his wife Brittany, a love-at-first-sight sweetheart from Horschel’s junior golf days, to coordinate the hugs and kisses.

The traditional and highly coveted handshake with Memorial Tournament Founder and Host Jack Nicklaus off the 18th green had to wait—albeit briefly.

“To me, it was all perfectly right,” Nicklaus said. “My favorite picture in golf resulted from when my son Gary ran out on the 18th green at Canterbury when I won the 1973 PGA Championship. When you see a player’s family so excited about a husband and father winning a golf tournament and they run out there and give him a big hug, I think that’s fantastic. I love it!”

The Memorial win was Horschel’s seventh on the PGA TOUR but his first with his family in the gallery. “I really wanted to get the monkey off my back,” Horschel said. “It’s sort of a running joke in our family that my wife and my kids have never been at a victory. 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.”

“This is the Memorial Tournament,” Jack interjected. We own that footage. You’ll have to buy it.”

Jack’s kidding aside, it was priceless.

It would be natural to think that a 4-shot win was the exclamation point on a walk in the park. But nothing comes easy on the PGA TOUR, and Muirfield Village is not your average walk in the park. Just a year after Jon Rahm built a 6-stroke Saturday-night

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lead—only to get a gut punch off the 18th when he was told he had to withdraw because of a positive COVID-19 test— Horschel built a lead of five strokes through 54 holes.

It was a cushion by way of a third-round 7-under 65. He carded seven birdies and finished the day on a streak of 44 consecutive holes without a bogey to post 13-under 203. Aaron Wise of Canada and Cameron Smith of Australia were the closest pursuers after 69 and 72, respectively.

Smith had been among six players who held a share of the first-round lead with a 5-under 67, while Horschel opened with a 70. The talented 28-year-old Aussie added a second-round 69 to forge ahead by a stroke in his quest to join Tiger Woods as winners of THE PLAYERS Championship and the Memorial in the same year. Horschel, meanwhile, whose best previous Memorial finish in eight starts was a tie for ninth in 2019, edged closer with a 68.

“I just have to go to the [first] tee understanding I’m leading the Tournament,” Horschel said after his Saturday 65. “I’m not going to be protective; I’m not going to be overly aggressive. I’m going to play the way I have the last three days.”

Horschel’s gaudy streak of consecutive holes without a bogey stretched to 49 on Sunday before ending on the sixth hole. Meanwhile, he didn’t make his first birdie until the 10th hole. By the time he finished the par-3 12th, where he had to scramble for bogey, Horschel’s lead had dwindled to two over Wise.

Some players might panic. Not Horschel, who admits that he’s a grinder, 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.”

He had further grinding to do when he holed parsaving putts of 12 feet on the 13th hole and 8 feet on 14. Then came the par-5 15th, which the Golden Bear redesigned after the 2020 Memorial to facilitate more drama. He got his wish. Sitting 241 yards from the front of the green, Horschel carved a “perfect” 5-wood that rode the slight wind off the left and carried onto the putting surface.

“You played two beautiful shots,” Nicklaus said to

Horschel after the round. “Probably only about 10 guys that can hit that green today.”

“Just like you, big man,” Horschel, smiling wide, replied to the Tournament host.

His third shot also was beautiful, a right-to-left bending putt from 55 feet that dropped for eagle. Horschel reacted by stretching out both arms in celebration. “If I had to do something special, I was ready for it,” he said.

Especially after Wise, who along with Joaquin Niemann was the only player to apply significant pressure on Horschel, stuffed a wedge to 2 feet on the 15th hole for a sure birdie.

“That was icing on the cake to make eagle,” said Horschel, who then had a relatively stress-free final three holes to card an even-par 72 and 13-under 275 aggregate total.

Wise bogeyed the final hole for a 71 on a Sunday so difficult that no one shot better than 69 and finished second at 279.

Niemann and two-time Memorial winner Patrick Cantlay also closed with 71 to share third at 281.

For Horschel, a man of modest superstitions such as carrying four tees and a 1936 quarter in his right-front pocket, if there were any thoughts—real or imagined—that he couldn’t finish atop a PGA TOUR event with his wife and kids just outside the ropes, they were exorcised under a stampede of little feet on the 18th green here at Muirfield Village.

“I love when a family can be part of a celebration,” Nicklaus said. “Wives and children are always there, supporting these players. PGA TOUR golfers are away from home a lot, and their families miss them. So if the wife and children are fortunate to be there when they win, well … it’s picture perfect.” MT